International office co-ordinator

Closing date for applications: 8 October 2025

Salary: £28,119 per annum

Location: London, St Pancras

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time (36 hours)

Grade: C

Proposed interview date: 4 and 6 November 2025

Help to build global connections at one of the world's greatest libraries! From diplomatic visits to tours and events, use your organisational skills to coordinate the activities of the British Library's international office.

We are the national library of the UK and we are here for everyone. Our shelves hold over 170 million items – a living collection that gets bigger every day. Although our roots extend back centuries, we aim to collect everything published in the UK today, tomorrow and far into the future. Our trusted experts care for this collection and open it up for everyone to spark new discoveries, ideas and to help people do incredible things. Over the past 8 years, the British Library’s international office has worked with partners around the world to advance knowledge and mutual understanding in a spirit of mutually beneficial reciprocity. This work includes multiple collaborations, projects and relationships with international partners. You can find more information about our work via our website.

The British Library's international team is seeking an international office co-ordinator to work with our partners across the world and coordinate the day-to-day activities in our international office. This role will act as a focal point of co-ordination for all international office run activities, such as professional and diplomatic visits, tours, private views and events. Crucial to this role will be your great administrative skills, ability to connect with people, to think on your feet and to work with a variety of people both internally at the British Library and with international partners. Organisation will come naturally to you, and you will be adept at juggling multiple projects and deadlines. We are particularly keen to hear from people with a good experience of communicating across different cultures and good understanding of diversity. You will report to the head of the international office and will be part of a small team of people who are passionate about international relationships and cultural heritage, and who can develop and implement impactful international projects. So, if you want to contribute to connecting libraries and librarians across the world, we want to hear from you!


Responsibilities

• Act as the first port of call for international engagement requests by internal colleagues and external stakeholders
• Proactively manage the coordination of a busy calendar of professional and diplomatic visits to the British Library, ensuring that the highest level of customer service and protocol is maintained at all times. Liaise with teams across May 2020 the British Library to ensure that visitors receive the information and experience they are expecting.
• Compile and draft the full set of documentation required for international visits and engagement, including the production of visit checklists, logging international engagement activities and producing agreed sets of management information on international engagement.
• Coordinate and maintain communications for the International Office, including the International Office corporate webpages, Intranet news items, Wiki spaces, blog posts and social media accounts.
• Continuously improve and manage a comprehensive filing system for all international engagement files on the corporate shared drive.
• Audit and maintain the international contacts database and database of visits and gifts, including following corporate procedures for gift declaration.
• Organise all travel and accommodation bookings for International Office team and, on occasion, for other teams and colleagues
• Provide other proactive administrative and office management support to the head of international, manager - international office and international engagement managers in planning and organising international engagement activities.
• Provide support and co-ordination for other international engagement functions run out of the international office.

Knowledge, skills & experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a co-ordination position as part of a client / customer facing role, dealing with external stakeholders and contacts
• Proven excellent organisational skills, with a track record of successfully meeting tight deadlines to a high standard
• Experience of drafting informative and well-structured documentation, such as reports and briefing papers
• Experience of successfully managing a full diary
• Experience of working well under pressure, prioritising own workload and deadlines accordingly
• Ability to employ discretion, diplomacy and firmness appropriately. Ability to communicate at all levels, and well developed interpersonal skills
• Ability to recognise sensitive or political issues and act accordingly
• Excellent skill in using MS Word, Outlook and Calendar, Excel and PowerPoint
• Excellent spoken and written communication skills and a clear and helpful manner
• Experience of making arrangements for travel, hospitality and accommodation
• Experience of developing and maintaining efficient paper and electronic filing systems
• Clear and precise numerical and financial skills.
• Flexible and adaptable outlook; receptiveness to new working practices
• A team player with an enthusiastic "can do" approach
• A self-starter willing to act on own initiative
• The majority of engagement work is based in St Pancras but liaising with teams in Boston Spa is required

Desirable

• Previous experience of working within a team and providing coordination support is desirable
• Experience of employing good office practice in providing support at senior level
• Experience in customer service and/or a project environment
• A genuine interest in international working

Additional information

What we can offer you:

• A competitive salary
• A fantastic pension scheme with minimum employer contributions of 28.97% (this may be higher dependent on grade)
• Flexible working hours, with the ability to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3-month period
• 25 days holiday
• Full details of employee benefits can be found on our Careers: Benefits page

We are unable to provide sponsorship under the UK Skilled Worker visa for this role.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse candidates and disabled candidates. We would like to increase the representation of these groups within The British Library to ensure our workforce is as diverse as the public that we serve. Creating an inclusive workplace is the core of our business and a way to engage the diversity of thought that is essential to achieve our aims.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.