Business Manager to Senior Reporting Officer (SRO)

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), delivering over £2 billion in payments to farmers, traders, and landowners each year.

We are the Defra Livestock Information Transformation Programme (LITP). We are committed towards improving the government’s ability to trace livestock so we can minimise widespread disease outbreaks and provide effective assurance to trade partners and citizens concerning our livestock food chain.

LITP is an ambitious and dynamic programme aiming to provide a single service for England to trace livestock. We are utilising exciting new technologies, such as automation, to improve tracking and streamline numerous outdated digital reporting systems into a new multi-species technology system. This is an incredibly exciting time to be joining the agency with plenty of opportunities for personal development and career progression.

The purpose of the role is to support the Senior Reporting Officer SRO to ensure the smooth running of Livestock Information Transformation Programme (LITP).

It involves working in a fast paced and dynamic environment with a varied workload. It requires the post holder to have the ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.

It is a high profile and challenging role that is the perfect opportunity for an ambitious and motivated individual who wishes to develop their career.

Key tasks:

• Working with the SRO to identify their key priorities, including commissioning briefing, drafting emails, and collating information
• Attendance at the SRO’s meetings as required, ensuring that actions are accurately recorded, and output notes produced where appropriate
• Provide a daily briefing for the SRO, ensuring that all necessary papers are available, and highlighting any topics to be aware of
• Drafting high-quality responses to the SRO’s emails and letters and using the phone to move issues forward as appropriate
• Responsible for understanding and co-ordinating assurance, escalating as needed, and the Directorate reports on staffing and budgets on Reward, Recognition, Travel and Subsistence
• Liaison point for commercial activity and invoice management to support the SRO
• Line management of Executive Officers (EO) Personal Assistants (PA’s) to the SRO and Directors within the programme. This would include the management and responsibility for:
  • Oversight of the planning and organisation of travel and accommodation on behalf of the SRO and Directors
  • Inbox management as the SRO and Directors receive high volumes of emails each day. The post holder will be responsible for managing their team to appropriately flag and file emails, bringing appropriate issues to their attention, and identifying if other members of the team can action them
  • Providing oversight of the SRO’s diary ensuring attendance at key meetings while others are suitably delegated or alternate communication routes are used

Some travel will be required to RPA/Defra sites other than the successful candidate’s contractual location in order to meet the business needs of the SRO.