Assistant Company Secretary

Why join us

This is a great opportunity to play an important role in supporting strong governance across the Argos business.

Working closely with the Director of Legal and Company Secretary, you’ll help make sure our governance processes run smoothly and that we continue to meet our legal and regulatory responsibilities. It’s a varied role where you’ll get involved in everything from statutory compliance and subsidiary governance to board documentation and wider governance projects.

You’ll work with colleagues across the business as well as external advisers, making this a great opportunity for someone who enjoys building relationships, managing detail and using their company secretarial knowledge in a large and complex organisation.

What you’ll do

You’ll support the delivery of effective corporate governance across the Group, helping to maintain statutory registers, prepare Companies House filings and make sure our subsidiary entities meet the relevant requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

You’ll prepare and review a range of governance documentation, including agendas, minutes, written resolutions, procedural notes and powers of attorney, making sure everything is accurate, approved and shared with the right people at the right time.

You’ll also support corporate actions, entity changes and subsidiary governance, as well as helping with governance requirements as part of the accounts process. This will include preparing strategic reports, minutes, resolutions and relevant Companies House filings.

Keeping up to date with developments in company law, regulation and corporate governance will be an important part of the role. You’ll help us understand what changes mean for the business, flagging anything that needs our attention and supporting any changes we need to make.

Alongside this, you’ll maintain accurate statutory records and internal databases, support directors’ duties training and guidance, and help manage relationships with external advisers and key third-party suppliers.

What you’ll need

We’re looking for someone with a strong grounding in company secretarial work who can combine technical governance knowledge with excellent organisation, attention to detail and the confidence to work with a range of stakeholders.

Essential criteria:

• Qualified, recently qualified or working towards Graduate status with the Chartered Governance Institute, alongside relevant company secretarial experience within a large or complex organisation.

• Good working knowledge of the Companies Act 2006, the Wates Principles and wider corporate governance best practice.

• Practical experience of statutory compliance and entity administration, including Companies House filings, confirmation statements, statutory registers and corporate actions.

• Experience preparing high-quality governance documentation, including agendas, minutes, written resolutions, powers of attorney and procedural notes.

• A good understanding of board, committee and subsidiary governance processes, including directors’ duties and appropriate approval requirements.

• The ability to understand changes in company law, regulation and governance practice and identify what these mean in practice.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical information clearly and provide practical guidance.

• Excellent attention to detail, with a methodical approach to maintaining accurate records and producing high-quality work.

• Strong organisation and planning skills, with the ability to balance multiple priorities, governance deadlines and project activity.

• Sound judgement and problem-solving skills, including knowing when an issue needs to be escalated or specialist advice is required.

• Confidence building positive working relationships with senior stakeholders, colleagues across Argos, external advisers and third-party suppliers.

• The ability to handle confidential and commercially sensitive information with discretion and professionalism.

• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, with confidence using company secretarial systems, document-management tools and internal databases.

• A proactive approach to keeping your professional knowledge up to date and identifying opportunities to improve processes and ways of working.

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you here at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not leading projects, we’re supporting teams across the wider group to achieve their goals. And here, you can see the impact of your work as soon as you walk into a store, giving you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The scale and complexity of our business mean there’s always something new to learn, and we’ll support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new — whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

 

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.

 

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance and you can buy up to an additional week's holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.

 

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

 

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).