Virtual assistant job description: UK template
Write a virtual assistant job description for one clear role: duties, skills, tools, hours and how it is measured, plus its UK employment status and data access.
Tools our VAs use for this
A virtual assistant job description sets out the role in one paragraph, lists the duties (inbox, diary, data entry, research, documents), the skills and tools you expect, the hours and reporting line, and how the role will be measured. Write it for one clear role, and state the employment type and the data access. If you would rather not hire, our virtual assistant job description is the brief we work to for a managed, dedicated admin VA.
On this page
Virtual assistant duties and responsibilities
A virtual assistant provides administrative support remotely, inside your email, calendar, documents and business systems. Our guide to what a virtual assistant does has the full task list with examples, so this page stays on the job description.
Types of virtual assistant role
General admin and executive support
A general admin VA covers the day-to-day for a business owner or small team. An executive VA supports one senior person closely, with more diary, travel and correspondence work and more discretion. For that role, our executive assistant job description is the better template, and executive assistant vs administrative assistant sets out the difference.
Specialist roles
Bookkeeping, e-commerce and customer support VAs need their own job description. If the role is mostly personal errands, read virtual assistant vs personal assistant first. If the role is mostly correspondence and diary work, virtual secretary vs virtual assistant shows how it differs.
Choosing the role to hire for
Write for the work you have now. List your recurring tasks for two weeks and group them: the group with the most hours is the role.
Virtual assistant job description template
Copy the template and replace everything in square brackets. Delete any line that does not apply.
Editable Word template of a UK virtual assistant job description, with square-bracket placeholders (.docx, Word, 37 KB)
Job title: Virtual Assistant ([Admin / Executive support])
Location: Remote, with working hours that overlap [UK business hours / your hours].
Hours: [Full time / Part time], [number] hours a week, [days].
Reports to: [Name, job title]
Employment type: [Employee / Self-employed contractor], [permanent / contract length].
Pay: [£ per hour or per year], [pay frequency]. [Holiday and pension terms for an employee.]
About us
[Two or three sentences: what the business does, who your customers are, and why this role matters now.]
Job summary
We are looking for an organised, reliable virtual assistant to own our day-to-day administration: the inbox and diary, accurate records, documents and routine customer and supplier admin, so that [name or team] can focus on [the work only they can do].
Responsibilities
- Manage the [shared / director's] inbox: sort, reply to routine messages and flag anything that needs a decision
- Book, move and confirm meetings within agreed diary rules
- Keep records accurate in [CRM, spreadsheet, accounts or order system]
- Research [suppliers, prospects, venues, travel] and summarise the findings
- Prepare documents, letters and reports from notes or templates
- Chase quotes, invoices and replies, and keep a list of what is outstanding
- Handle routine customer and supplier queries by email [and phone]
- Send a short end-of-day update: done, waiting, needs a decision
Requirements and skills
- Experience in an administrative or assistant role [or: willing to learn]
- Excellent written English and a clear, polite tone
- Strong organisation, and the habit of finishing what you start
- Confident with [Google Workspace / Microsoft 365], [CRM name] and [other tools]
- Discretion with confidential information
- Right to work in the UK [for an employee]
Tools you will use: [email], [calendar], [file storage], [CRM or accounts system], [password manager], [chat or video tool].
How we will measure the role
- [Inbox triaged within [time] during working hours]
- [No double bookings; meetings confirmed [time] ahead]
- [Records updated the same day]
- [End-of-day note sent every working day]
Confidentiality and data access: You will have access to [customer data, financial records, business email] through a password manager, limited to what the role needs and removed when the role ends. You will sign a confidentiality agreement.
How to apply: Send your CV and a short note on [one question, for example: how you would organise an inbox you have never seen] to [email] by [date].
Adapting the template to your VA role
Keep the summary concrete: "manage the director's inbox and diary" beats "provide high-quality administrative support". Start each responsibility with a verb and order them by time spent. State the hours, the overlap with your day and the reporting line plainly.
Skills and software
Core skills
Ask for what the work depends on: clear written English, organisation, reliability, discretion and judgement. These matter more than a long software list, and the one-question note in the template tests them.
Software and tools
Most admin VAs work in an email and calendar suite, a file-sharing tool, a chat or video tool and a password manager. Name your CRM or accounts system, and say if you will train on it.
KPIs and onboarding
Performance measures
Pick three or four measures tied to the duties, such as inbox response time and diary accuracy, and put them in the job description so the candidate knows what good looks like.
First 30 days task list
- Day one: access to each system through a password manager, at the lowest level that does the job
- First week: walk through each recurring task once, with written notes
- Next weeks: the VA runs the tasks while you review the work
- End of the first month: review against the measures and agree what comes next
Employee, contractor or agency in the UK
Your wording signals the relationship you intend, so decide it before you post. This is general information, not legal advice.
Employment status
GOV.UK's employment status guidance lists the main types, including worker, employee and self-employed, and notes that a person can have a different status for employment law and for tax. Fixed hours and close supervision point towards employment. Our virtual assistant contract guide covers status, IR35 and the clauses.
Written statement of terms and right to work
For an employee, GOV.UK's guidance on the written statement of employment particulars says the principal statement is due on the first day and the wider statement within 2 months of the start. GOV.UK's right to work guidance says you must check an applicant is allowed to work for you in the UK before you employ them.
Minimum wage and agency rates
According to GOV.UK's National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour from April 2026. An employee also costs employer National Insurance, pension and paid holiday; an agency charges an hourly rate with those costs inside it. Our guide to virtual assistant cost in the UK and the calculator compare the options.
Data access and confidentiality
If the VA is not your employee and handles personal data for you, UK GDPR Article 28(3) says the processing must be governed by a contract that binds the processor and sets out its subject-matter, duration, nature and purpose. Say in the job description that a confidentiality agreement, and for a contractor a data-processing agreement, come with the role, and that access is given through a password manager and removed when the role ends.
Hiring through a virtual assistant agency
If you would rather not recruit, a managed VA is the alternative. At Ant Assist, each admin VA is recruited, managed and supervised from our own managed office in Cairo, works full time from there, and is a person, not a freelancer and not AI.
- Dedicated, never shared, from 20 hours a week up to a full 40-hour VA, on UK business hours, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
- No recruitment for you.
- Replacement without restart cost if the fit is wrong.
- NDAs and data-processing agreements, password managers and revocable access.
Questions about hiring a virtual assistant
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