Are you an experienced management assistant with strong organizational skills who enjoys taking work off your colleagues' hands? Do you want to work in a dynamic, collegial and pleasant working environment? If that is the case, we are looking for you!

For the Space, Place and Society (SPS) section, we are looking for an enthusiastic, experienced and expert senior Management assistant (0.5 Fte) with effect from July 1, 2024.
Your duties and responsibilities include:

• support of the SDC chair group (including mailbox management);
• activities for the education administration (including grade registration, contact with students);
• organizing student seminars for the Bachelor- and Master presentations;
• placing orders for materials and services;
• checking and approving invoices;
• booking hotel stays and travel;
• managing various mailboxes and responding to messages independently;
• archiving;
• registering publications and drawing up publication lists;
• occasional organization of meetings and conferences;
• organizing and taking minutes of meetings, both in English and Dutch.

Together with your colleagues you are responsible for smooth administration. You are the point of contact for staff and students.

Besides being able to handle the tasks mentioned above, we also ask that you:

• have extensive experience as a Management/Office Assistant;
• have a secondary vocational education (MBO-secretarial) or higher secondary education (HAVO) with supplementary training in Management/Office Assistance;
• have good oral and written communication skills in Dutch and English;
• have a customer-oriented attitude, are precise and have an eye for detail;
• are proactive, have good organizational skills and know how to prioritize;
• are comfortable working in a hectic environment with a sometimes heavy workload;
• have an affinity for an academic work environment.

In our international working environment there is an increasing amount of communication in English. For this position the required language level is B1.

Because ICT evolves rapidly and given the amount of internal systems at WUR, it is important that you master new software quickly and do not shy away from training.

You can see that there are plenty of challenges ahead of you. These challenges can also be seen as development opportunities. So if you do not yet have the track-record required in the vacancy, but do have solid work experience, we would also like to invite you to apply.

You will work here
The section Space, Place and Society (SPS) consists of the chair groups Health and Society (HSO), Rural Sociology (RSO) and Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) and focuses on issues of socio-spatial and environmental justice. With a special focus on social inequality, exclusion, and plurality, we translate critical-constructive knowledge into practical and political action in the pursuit of a more just, sustainable and healthy world.

The section consists of permanent and temporary staff members and a growing number of Dutch and foreign PhD candidates and students.

The SPS section is supported by an administrative team of 7 people (including yourself). In this team you will work closely with the management assistants and deputy managers. We support various groups where education and science are the connecting factors.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, per week;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between € 2618 and € 3298 for a full-time working week of 38 hours, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 6). This is a position for 0.5 fte.

Initially, we offer you a one-year contract, which will then be extended to an open-ended contract if there is mutual enthusiasm. Of course, we would be happy to discuss this with you if you have any questions.
Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University” in the Netherlands for the 19th consecutive time.

Wageningen University & Research

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 students and over 150,000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch the video below to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.