JOB DESCRIPTION

View Vacancy – Executive Personal Assistant & Residence Manager AO (05/25 PL)

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer. We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow. The FCDO operates an agile workforce and to facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time, as we may reasonably require.

Job Category

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)

Job Subcategory

Chancery

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

Executive Personal Assistant & Residence Manager

Overview: To ensure coordination of High Commissioner”s diary; lead on planning events; and ensure smooth running of Residence. Manage entertainment budget, liaise and negotiate with suppliers to ensure best value for money. Direct line management of 2 Residence staff.

• Act as diary secretary to HC and during cover periods for Deputy High Commissioner”s Assistant, booking appointments, updating calendar and monitoring invitations, ensuring a prompt response and correct information passed to HC/DHC.
• Maintain updated High Commission-wide contact database and telephone contact lists.
• Draw up guest lists for Residence events, issue invitations and monitor responses, following up where necessary. Ensure Residence Security Guards are provided with list of all names and car registration details for events.
• On joint events, collaborate and partner with private sponsors, ensuring lines of responsibility are clearly drawn and adhered to.
• Work with Residence Chef to plan menus, ensuring relevant diary requirements are taken into consideration. Liaising closely with the High Commissioner, draw up the placement for each official dinner/breakfast.
• Assist Residence staff with purchasing. Lead on monitoring and profiling Direct Entertainment and Hospitality, Representational and cleaning budgets, raising requisitions as needed.
• Carry out monthly checks on Residence imprest, replenishing as necessary.
• Lead on organisation of Post events, including KBP and Christmas carols, including helping design the concept, advising on costs and managing the budget.
• Liaise with suppliers, negotiate and renegotiate prices to ensure continuous value for money across all events.
• Lead on completion of gift and hospitality register and taxi register for High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner.
• Direct line management and development of 2 full time staff. In addition, lead and coordinate teams of up to 15 contractors at events and oversee employees who are in turn overseeing other contractors (eg waiting staff, extra kitchen staff).
• Demonstrate flexibility in working anti-social hours, sometimes at short notice, to fit around events at the Residence.
• Mentoring of colleagues across the Indian Ocean Network (Seychelles and Madagascar), including leading on coordination of cross-network VTCs and job shadowing schemes.

The above list is not exhaustive, and the jobholder will be required to be flexible as specific responsibilities could change in the future and this would be at the discretion of the line manager or head of section. The job description may be reviewed to meet changes in business needs. The jobholder may also take on other ad hoc tasks as required, including participating in the BHC’s emergency planning and any other response to a crisis.

Resources Managed:

The holder will have delegated responsibility for managing the DEE budget and Residence Imprest when the Chef is on leave. The holder will also line manager the Residence staff.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• Experience in finance processing and administrative work in a similar environment with a strong customer focus.
• Good knowledge of MS Excel and other MS Office programmes.
• Strong organisational, analytical, time management and line management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work cooperatively as part of a team.
• High levels of initiative and ability to work without close supervision.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proven ability to take responsibility for own work, with the ability to work at pace on multiple priorities at the same time, taking the initiative and able to deliver high quality work.
• Ability to effectively communicate with internal and external stakeholders, verbally and in writing.

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

Related academic or work experience in management, personal assistant, events management, HR Administration and finance.

Required behaviours

Delivering at Pace, Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Working Together

Application deadline

14 November 2025

Grade

Administrative Officer (AO)

Type of Position

Fixed Term, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal

Duration of Post

12 months

Region

Africa

Country/Territory

Mauritius

Location (City)

Port Louis

Type of Post

British High Commission

Number of vacancies

1

Salary

MUR 46,539.95 plus Transport Allowance MUR 6,394.50

Type of Salary

monthly

Start Date

1 December 2025

Other benefits and conditions of employment

We will support you with opportunities to get the right learning and development, career development to build your skills capability. You will need to be collaborative and flexible to fit in with the network’s ethos; and, importantly, focussed on delivering results and contributing to the wider corporate efforts especially around our busy visit and events activities.

Additional information

Please ensure that your application is authentically written based on your own experiences. If AI tools are used, their usage must only be limited to specific tasks such as ensuring formatting consistency and keyword relevance. The core content, personal narratives, and responses to behaviour and skill-based questions must genuinely reflect your professional journey, experiences, and achievements. We place great importance on originality and individual effort throughout the application process. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification.

The British High Commission will never request any payment or fees to apply for a position
Employees recruited locally by the British High Commission in Port Louis are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in Mauritius
All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit
The responsibility lies on the successful candidate to;
1.Obtain the relevant permit
2.Pay the fees for the permit
3.Make arrangements to relocate
4.Meet the costs to relocation
Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.
Information about the Civil Service Success Profiles can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles
Please note: Job grade AA=A1, AO=A2, EO=B3, HEO=C4, SEO=C5
Reference checking and security clearances will be conducted on successful candidates
Please log into your profile on the application system on a regular basis to review the status of your application
Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 6 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements