Business Support Specialist

Location: Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge

Type: Full time, permanent 

Start: Immediate

Salary: Competitive / Hours: 40 p/w

Office based position

 

Your role in our team:

Reporting to the Head of Operations & Compliance, the Business Support Specialist ensures the smooth running of the bit.bio administrative and office functions, providing strong, reliable, and hands-on support for daily operations. This role is essential in helping us achieve organisational efficiency and creating a positive, welcoming working environment for colleagues, visitors, and contractors.

Your key responsibilities will include:

Daily Office Operations & Administration

• Provide daily front-of-house support, including answering the door and delivering a first-class visitor experience.
• Maintain high standards of office and kitchen housekeeping, including emptying and loading dishwashers’ morning and evening, restocking sanitary products and air fresheners, and coordinating weekly office plant maintenance.
• Ensure meeting rooms are fully prepped (layout, functioning IT equipment/iPads, pens, and whiteboard cleaners).
• Manage printers, checking paper and toner levels, ordering supplies and recycling cartridges.
• Process daily post, distributing invoices/cheques to Accounts, national statistics to Finance, shredding bank statements, and managing outgoing mail.
• Manage shared company mailboxes daily, triage and distribute inquiries to the relevant departments.
• Update and manage TV slides and screens in communal cafe areas.
• Developing and implementing office administration processes, systems, and policies.
• Promoting and championing good office working practices and culture.
• Scheduling meetings and updating the contacts database and employee lists.
• Recording office-related data and creating KPI reports.
• Supporting, as required, the wider Operations function.
• Participate with emergency on call rota for out of hours response.
• Liaise with Babraham Campus / Facilities, visitor security bookings, and other ad-hoc requests/tasks (e.g., lost passes, ANPR, other facilities issues).

Visitor Management & Security

• Maintain the visitor sign-in kiosk (Zoom Workspaces).
• Assign, log, and securely store visitor badges.
• Arrange visitor travel as required.
• Chaperone visitors or contractors as required.

Procurement, Travel & Expenses

• Order and manage office supplies, stationery, and refreshments.
• Manage Navan (the company travel portal), handling commercial and business travel bookings, travel requests, and assisting Finance with Navan expense tracking.

Health & Safety

• Under the guidance of Building Operations and H&S, act as a Lead Fire Warden and First Aid, ensuring procedures meet minimum compliance requirements.
• Support with the weekly fire alarm tests.

Systems, Culture & Employee Support

• • Manage desk bookings and workspace reporting, logging daily office attendance via Zoom Workspace.
  • Work closely with IT and HR teams to manage onboarding and offboarding, ensuring all new employees and contractors receive comprehensive office inductions.
  • Draft and send company-wide announcements via HubSpot.
  • Administer the Dot Compliance training portal.
  • Organise work events, and international activities (e.g. annual Christmas events) and staff gifts.

You…

• Have a welcoming attitude and helpful demeanour.
• Have strong IT skills and technical ability.
• Are an excellent administrator competent with MS Office, Google workspace, Macbooks and calendar management.
• Have strong organisational, time management and prioritisation skills to manage conflicting priorities in order to manage workflow, to ensure the completion of essential projects, and meet critical deadlines.
• Are an outstanding communicator at all levels within an organisation.
• Can be flexible in accommodating ad hoc business support requests that may fall outside of normal working hours i.e. weekends.

With essential experience in…

• Proven experience in office and/or facilitates administration, finance administration, HR coordination, or a similar business support role.
• Experience handling confidential and sensitive information with discretion.
• Experience managing office procurement, purchase orders, and daily supply levels.
• Experience coordinating employee onboarding, offboarding, and office inductions.
• Experience organising meetings, social events, and company-wide activities.
• Good understanding of office health & safety requirements (Fire Warden/First Aid) and workplace best practices.
• Strong administrative skills with excellent attention to detail, accuracy, and the ability to manage competing daily priorities.
• Confident managing visitor management systems (e.g., Zoom Workspaces), shared mailboxes, and communications platforms (e.g., HubSpot).
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office/Google Workspace and confidence in learning new systems quickly.
• Ability to manage business travel arrangements, bookings, and expenses (e.g., using Navan).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work with 3^rd party vendors ensuring optimum service and cost efficiency.

…and possibly…

• Experience working in a life science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, technology, or other regulated environment.
• Previous experience working on a science/technology campus (such as Babraham Campus).
• Experience using NetSuite or another ERP/procurement system.
• Experience administering a compliance or employee training platform, such as Dot Compliance.
• Knowledge of relevant UK workplace health & safety, fire safety, and employment-related requirements.
• Experience working with gas cylinders and LN2 dewars.