Purpose of the Role
We are looking for a proactive and highly organised Administrative Assistant to support the Strategy and Commercial Team and play an important enabling role across a wide range of work. This is a varied and hands-on position, working closely with the Director of Strategy and Commercial, the Howard Assembly Room team and our Commercial Sales Manager.
You will be the organisational backbone of the team — managing information flows, keeping projects on track, supporting events and ensuring that the right people have the right information at the right time. If you thrive on variety, enjoy working across multiple workstreams, and take pride in helping others to do their best work, this could be the role for you.
A typical day could include:
- Gathering essential requirements for a Howard Assembly Room concert or conference by working with promoters and clients and liaising with the internal team
- Providing project coordination for our strategic plans, such as the development of our plans for a new creative campus in Kirkstall
- Chasing payments from clients and working with our finance team to keep accurate records
Key responsibilities:
Events administration:
- Own and maintain run sheets for all events at the Howard Assembly Room — spanning both the HAR artistic programme (concerts, performances, and live music across genres) and commercial activity (private hire, corporate events, receptions, and other venue hire) — ensuring these are accurate, up to date, and distributed in good time to everyone who needs them.
- Coordinate logistics information across internal teams, external suppliers, artists, and clients to ensure all events are planned and run smoothly.
- Act as the central point of contact for event-related administration, flagging issues and escalating where necessary.
Project coordination:
- Track progress across key team projects, maintaining an overview of timelines, milestones, and outstanding actions.
- Proactively chase team members and stakeholders to keep work on schedule, flagging risks to the Director where deadlines are at risk.
- Help prepare materials, briefings, and information that the team needs to deliver their work effectively.
Commercial finance administration:
- Chase outstanding payments for commercial sales, maintaining records and following up with clients in a professional and timely manner.
- Liaise with the Finance team on billing queries, ensuring accurate and prompt resolution of any issues.
- Support the team in maintaining up-to-date commercial records and reporting.
Executive support to the Director of Strategy and Commercial:
- Support with management of the Director’s inbox, flagging priority correspondence and actioning tasks where appropriate.
- Coordinate the Director’s diary and scheduling, managing competing demands and arranging meetings efficiently.
- Supporting with preparation of documents, presentations, and briefing materials as required.
- Handle a range of general administrative tasks to allow the Director to focus on strategic and senior stakeholder work.
Howard Assembly Room programming administration:
- Provide broad administrative support to the Howard Assembly Room General Manager, helping to manage the day-to-day administrative demands of a busy venue operation.
- Gather information and prepare contracts for HAR programming, coordinating with artists, agents, and promoters as required.
- Maintain accurate records of programming commitments, contracts, and correspondence.
- Support the coordination of information between the HAR team and other teams such as Audiences and Box Office.
Technical administration:
- Support the technical management of the Howard Assembly Room with administrative tasks, including booking casual technical staff and managing the coordination of rotas.
- Maintain accurate records of staffing and schedules, ensuring information is shared with the relevant teams in a timely way.
Reporting and data gathering:
- Gather data, information, and supporting materials to help the team prepare reports for the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Opera North Trading Board.
- Maintain and organise data sources used for commercial and strategic reporting.
Person specification:
Essential:
- Demonstrable experience in an administrative, coordination, or operations support role.
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously and meet deadlines.
- Strong written communication skills, with the ability to draft clear, professional correspondence.
- High level of proficiency with standard office software (Microsoft 365, including Outlook, Word, and Excel).
- A proactive approach: you anticipate what is needed and act without always being asked.
- Discretion and professionalism when handling sensitive or confidential information.
- A collaborative working style and the ability to build effective relationships across teams.
- Confidence in chasing colleagues and external contacts in a polite but persistent way.
Desirable:
- Experience working in the arts, cultural, or events sector.
- Familiarity with contract administration or commercial finance processes.
- Experience in using Microsoft PowerBI and AI tools.
Terms and Conditions:
Contract type: Full-time, permanent
Salary: £24,479 per annum
Hours of work: 35 hours per week
Holiday entitlement: 33 days inclusive of 8 statutory holidays, per annum
Pension: Opera North will automatically enroll you into the company pension scheme upon appointment and after 3 months’ service will contribute equivalent to 5.5% of your basic pay, should you meet the current legislative criteria. You will be required to make a personal contribution of 2.5% of your basic pay. We reserve the right to make future changes to our pension arrangements.
Equity, diversity and inclusion: We promote equity, diversity and inclusion in our workplace and make recruitment decisions by matching our needs with the skills and experience of the candidate. As we work to address underrepresentation in our workforce, we are particularly keen to hear from applicants from the global majority or those with other protected characteristics.
The successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK or be ready to obtain it.
General responsibilities of everyone who works for us:
- Represent the company values and purpose to create extraordinary experiences everyday
- Work collaboratively and co-operatively with all team members and take an active part in team meetings and discussions
- Be an ambassador for Opera North and follow our policies and procedures
- Play your part in ensuring that everyone who comes through our door is welcomed and treated with respect
If you need any help completing your application including any adjustments to the application process please contact appointments@operanorth.co.uk to make us aware.
Good luck with your application and we look forward to hearing from you.
