Close of applications: Friday 10 April 2026
1st stage interviews: From Monday 13 April 2026
Start date: April 2026
Contract: Part-time, Permanent 

The role holder will be an enthusiastic, proactive self-starter with exceptional organisational and administrative skills. They will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels. They will enjoy working in a busy, fast-paced environment, managing multiple tasks and complex diary planning to support Directors within ABTA’s senior leadership team.

This role is a 0.8 Full-Time Equivalent position.

Purpose of Role:

To assist the Directors with the smooth running and productivity of their departments. This involves complex, coordinated diary planning and varied administrative support, to assist the Directors with managing multiple, competing priorities.

Responsible for the effective and efficient diary management of the Directors, making travel and accommodation arrangements where required, attending and taking minutes of meetings and ensuring actions are completed within desired timescales.

There may also be occasions when ad hoc support may be required for other Directors – for example, if another Executive Assistant is unexpectedly away from the business.

Duties:

1. Manage and proactively forward plan the Directors’ diaries, ensuring they are fully prepared for all upcoming meetings — including Board, Committee, Finance, and Senior Leadership Team sessions.
2. Co-ordinate the Directors’ schedules, understanding their hybrid working arrangements and taking these into consideration to effectively prioritise and manage meetings and travel. Anticipate and promptly resolve any problems or challenges that may arise.
3. Coordinate the Directors’ schedules for events such as the ABTA Travel Convention and World Travel Market.
4. Help the Directors to manage their time effectively to complete key tasks and meet internal and external deadlines according to their preferred working styles.
5. Schedule meetings, coordinate attendees, prepare and distribute relevant documents or other materials, take minutes where required and ensure that agenda items and actions are completed.
6. Liaise with other teams such as HR and Facilities to ensure adequate meeting room set-up, catering, IT equipment and other resources, and support the onboarding of new joiners where required.
7. Make travel and accommodation arrangements for the Directors, ensuring they have all required information in advance (e.g. tickets, boarding passes, booking confirmations) and complete online check-in on their behalf ahead of flights.  
8. Act as a point of contact between the Directors and internal / external stakeholders where necessary.
9. Ensure the Directors are notified of matters requiring their attention.
10. Draft and/or edit reports, presentations and other communications on behalf of the Directors.
11. Support the Director of Communications’ team with the upload of materials to ABTA’s website and intranet.
12. Handle confidential documents and correspondence with tact and discretion.
13. Plan departmental and team meetings and events (virtual and in person) on behalf of the Directors, ensuring any spend on department or team socials is within budget.
14. Schedule regular 121s and Every Touch meetings for the Directors and their direct reports.
15. Assist the Directors with managing their financial responsibilities by understanding ABTA processes and liaising with the Finance team to resolve queries.
16. Prepare and submit the Directors’ expense forms, keep a record of all corporate credit card transactions, and ensure relevant information including credit card statements are provided to the Accounts team in a timely manner.
17. Maintain the gifts and hospitality register for the Directors’ departments.
18. Provide project management support to the Directors where necessary, helping to ensure efficient delivery.
19. Provide event support as needed, including gathering and organising participant feedback, assisting with event logistics and materials, coordinating deliveries and couriers, and updating relevant content across digital platforms and internal systems.
20. Provide assistance and support to other members of the departments, or other departments, when needed and as agreed with the Directors.
21. When required, assist with switchboard enquiries.
22. Support the Directors as part of the Emergency Response team of the Business Continuity Plan and the Data Incident Response Plan.
23. Undertake any other reasonable task that may be requested by the Directors.

Skills and experience:

Essential

• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to plan, prioritise and multi-task effectively
• Excellent interpersonal skills and confident liaising with stakeholders at all levels
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with attention to detail
• Strong administrative skills, with experience of diary planning and minute-taking
• Problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate, mitigate and resolve issues using own initiative where appropriate
• High level of professionalism and discretion
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel  

Desirable

• CRM / database experience
• Data analysis experience
• Experience of providing project management support
• Interest in current world affairs and ABTA’s areas of operation

Our values

The successful candidate will demonstrate behaviours which fit with ABTA’s values:

Be There
We are always ready and prepared to help our members, customers and colleagues with a positive attitude. We are encouraged and empowered to make clear, timely and informed decisions, even when faced with the unknown.

Be Trusted
We are proud to be part of an award-winning brand in the travel industry, passionately providing quality support and advice in a fair, equitable and consistent way. We aim to be approachable and reliable, in order to do a consistently good job for the industry and each other.

Be Ambitious
Although we need to be risk-aware, we have the confidence to be bold and visionary, and the insight to make calculated risks to transform the way we work. We encourage each other to push the boundaries and share ‘outside the box’ thinking.

Salary: competitive dependent on experience, plus company benefits
Location: We’re a hybrid-working organisation, so all colleagues are able to balance working in a collaborative environment from our open-plan office in the heart of London Bridge, along with time working from home. 
 

ABTA offers a supportive work environment alongside other additional benefits such as private health insurance, pension, life insurance, income protection, season ticket loan, Rent Start deposit loan scheme, online GP service, buy/sell leave, an in-depth learning and development framework, as well as retail discounts. ABTA has adopted a hybrid working model which combines the benefits of home working, and office work.

To apply for the post please submit your CV with a covering letter outlining why you are the right person for the role, your salary expectations and notice period, to hr@abta.co.uk. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At ABTA, we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workforce, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We are an equal opportunities employer that encourages eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. To ensure that this policy is fully and fairly implemented and monitored, and for no other reason, please fill out our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.
 

Reporting to: Director – ABTA LifeLine
Contract: Full-time, 12-month Fixed Term Contract (maternity cover)
Close of applications: Friday 17 April 2026
1st stage interviews: 23 and 24 April 2026
Start date: ASAP

About the role
This is an exciting developmental opportunity for someone to learn not only about the charitable sector but also the travel industry. There are endless opportunities in travel and this could be the beginning of an exciting career path. 
We need someone passionate, motivated and determined, to provide support in a non-judgmental way to our beneficiaries. And someone creative to assist with key events, marketing and social communications to reach people that need help and raise vital funds. 
You would primarily be responsible for overseeing applications for help and providing information to people on the phone about the many issues that they face. You will be ready to put our diverse clients at the heart of what we do whilst maintaining outstanding levels of customer service.
You will have to deal with difficult conversations, therefore the ability to actively listen is essential. Due to the nature of our work, we welcome resilient applicants with integrity and self-awareness.  
We are looking for someone ideally who has experience of supporting people who are going through tough times and give them the confidence to break down their challenges into manageable bite size pieces. That experience can be work or personally related. 

ABTA LifeLine offers practical, financial and emotional support in key ways:

• Money – we provide emergency food vouchers for those needing immediate help and short term crisis grants to help with priority bills
• Advice – through our partner Citizen Advice Manchester CAM, we provide debt, benefit, budgeting and housing support
• Mental Wellbeing – through our partner The Centre for Crisis Psychology we provide counselling support, intervention when it really matters. We also facilitate a voluntary mental health champion network across the industry.

We also help with, among other things:

• Essential costs of a funeral
• School uniform, IT equipment
• Essential household appliances (cookers, washing machines, fridge freezers)
• Travel costs to hospital, interviews etc.

Our LifeLine stretches far and wide and we try to tailor our support to the individual or family to best suit their circumstances.
You will be responsible for managing the application process, making recommendations on what support would be appropriate, and for getting cases ready to submit grant applications to our Trustees. You will also be responsible for administrating the awards.

Key responsibilities and tasks:

• Provide information about the charity and services we offer to:
  • New enquirers
  • Corporate contacts
  • Partnership organizations
• Deliver excellent standards of customer service via telephone, email or other communication channels
• To act as a named caseworker and guide our applicants through the application process to help them receive support
• Develop friendly and supportive relationship with applicants to get to know their story so that we can offer best support possible
• Make decisions on grant applications in conjunction with the Director and Board of Trustees.
• Develop creative marketing and communication narratives to help reach people that need help and increase the number of people supported
• Work in partnership with ABTA members to reach people in their organisations to support and increase the number of people supported
• With the Director create and execute high value events to increase charity income levels
• Represent LifeLine at events and conferences to raise awareness of the charity and its work. This may include UK and overseas travel, some evening and/or overnight stays
• Ensure our CRM system is up to date with all the latest information provided by our applicants
• Inform applicants of their awards and coordinate payments  
• Have regular catch ups and meetings to make sure we work well as a team supporting our applicants and each other
• Help provide other administrative support such as:
  • setting up meetings – including Trustee meetings
  • event management – managing delegate lists, dinner guests for the annual dinner
  • updating the website as required
  • chasing funding leads etc.

Key skills and experience:

• Capability of dealing with people who have experienced one or more of the following: financial hardship, illness, mental health, debt, housing issues, relationship breakdown, bereavement, homelessness, addictions and isolation.
• Social communication, marketing, event experience
• Able to problem solve; ability to look at and recommend other services that may benefit our applicants.
• Excellent communication skills. The role involves communicating with people on all levels including those who have experienced some tough times.
• Ability to work both independently, but also as part of a team.
• Non-judgmental and human centred approach to supporting people.
• Competent in the use of Microsoft Office – Outlook, Word, Excel and Power Point, MS Teams, websites.
• Ability to manage your own wellbeing and resilience while supporting vulnerable people.
• Passion for supporting people in the travel industry.
• Ability to observe current trends in issues our applicants are experiencing.

Our values

The successful candidate will demonstrate behaviours which fit with ABTA’s values:

Be There
We are always ready and prepared to help our members, customers and colleagues with a positive attitude. We are encouraged and empowered to make clear, timely and informed decisions, even when faced with the unknown.

Be Trusted
We are proud to be part of an award-winning brand in the travel industry, passionately providing quality support and advice in a fair, equitable and consistent way. We aim to be approachable and reliable, in order to do a consistently good job for the industry and each other.

Be Ambitious
Although we need to be risk-aware, we have the confidence to be bold and visionary, and the insight to make calculated risks to transform the way we work. We encourage each other to push the boundaries and share ‘outside the box’ thinking.

Salary: competitive dependent on experience, plus company benefits
Location: We’re a hybrid-working organisation, so all colleagues are able to balance working in a collaborative environment from our open-plan office in the heart of London Bridge, along with time working from home. 
 

ABTA offers a supportive work environment alongside other additional benefits such as private health insurance, pension, life insurance, income protection, season ticket loan, Rent Start deposit loan scheme, online GP service, buy/sell leave, an in-depth learning and development framework, as well as retail discounts. ABTA has adopted a hybrid working model which combines the benefits of home working, and office work.

To apply for the post please submit your CV with a covering letter outlining why you are the right person for the role, your salary expectations and notice period, to hr@abta.co.uk. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At ABTA, we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workforce, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We are an equal opportunities employer that encourages eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. To ensure that this policy is fully and fairly implemented and monitored, and for no other reason, please fill out our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.