Operations and admin
Administrative Assistant job description template
The role most often written as a list of chores. Written properly, it is the person the office runs on, and the advert should say so.
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Administrative Assistant job description
About the role
We are looking for an Administrative Assistant to keep the day-to-day running of the office working. You will be the first point of contact for visitors and suppliers, keep calendars and meetings moving, and make sure the small things that stall a team do not stall it. You will work alongside [team or manager] and report to [role].
What you will do
- Manage calendars, book meetings and make sure the right people and rooms are actually free
- Handle incoming calls, post and email, and route what needs a decision to whoever makes it
- Prepare documents, agendas and minutes, and keep the shared files somewhere findable
- Arrange travel and accommodation, and reconcile the expenses afterwards
- Order supplies, manage suppliers and keep the office stocked without being asked
- Support onboarding for new starters, from desk and equipment to first-week logistics
- Keep records and databases current, including anything with a compliance deadline attached
What we need
- Experience in an administrative, office or coordination role
- Confident with a calendar, email and documents, whichever suite you use
- Clear written communication, because most of this job is writing to people
- Organised under interruption, since the plan changes most days
- Discretion with confidential information
Nice to have
- Experience with [your systems: bookkeeping, CRM, HR software]
- A second language relevant to your customers or suppliers
- Event or travel coordination experience
Before you publish the pay
Administrative Assistant pay varies widely by city and by how much of the job is coordination rather than reception, so take a local range rather than a national average. Publish a range: several US states and EU rules now require it, and it filters out the applications that were never going to accept your offer.
To appear in Google job results
Fill in title, location or remote, employment type, date posted and a valid-through date, and add the salary range. Those are the fields Google reads to decide whether the role is eligible for job results. A plain page carries none of them unless somebody hand-writes the JSON-LD.
Adapt it rather than pasting it. The parts worth rewriting are the opening paragraph and the must-haves, because those are what decide whether the right person applies. Our guide to writing a job description covers why.
When it is ready, publishing it on your own site keeps the listing, the applications and the candidate data with you, and generates the structured data that makes the role eligible for Google job results.
Common questions
What is the difference between an Administrative Assistant and an Executive Assistant?
An Administrative Assistant supports a team, a function or an office. An Executive Assistant supports one or two named people and usually carries more autonomy over their diary, travel and priorities. If the job is really the second, title it as the second, because candidates search for them separately and the pay expectations differ.
Should I ask for a specific qualification?
Usually not. Requiring a degree or a specific certificate for this role narrows the pool sharply and rarely predicts who is good at it. Ask for the capability instead: managing a complex calendar, writing clearly, keeping confidential information confidential.
How long should this advert be?
Around 400 to 600 words. Long enough to show what the week actually looks like, short enough that somebody reads it on a phone. Cut the must-have list before you cut the description of the work.
Publish it on your own site.
WP Career Board turns the fields you fill in into the markup Google reads, and applications land in a dashboard instead of an inbox. Free.