Main purpose of the role

The Executive Assistant (EA) will provide comprehensive, proactive executive and administrative support to Directors (3-4) in the Organisational and Ecosystem Development (OED) team and the Climate Team. The position requires broad administrative and personal assistant skills and a high level of efficiency and proactivity.

The EA will act as the key point of contact for the Directors, making decisions and recommendations where appropriate, to ensure the best use of time for internal and external meetings. The role holder will ensure a constant overview of both what is happening now and what is coming up and will anticipate and plan to make things as smooth as possible for the Directors and the team. The position is privy to confidential information that requires the highest level of confidentiality and judgment. This is an excellent opportunity for an organised professional with excellent communications skills, who wants to be part of an exciting, growing and mission driven organisation.

Role’s responsibilities

• Act as the central point of contact for the Directors in their relationships with external and internal partners, grantees, peer community and other key relationships.
• Complex diary management including ensuring that meetings planned are respectful of time differences across geographies.
• Event planning; including internal team meetings and offsites and planning and co- ordination of high-level meetings, both internal and external.
• Arrange travel for Directors and other members of the team as needed (this may be on a frequent basis). Manage visa requirements, and work with CIFF travel agents to organise flights, hotels, cars etc. Occasional organisation of group travel for the team.
• Undertake projects that support the Foundation’s agenda
• Support other members of the team, in the form of meeting set up; drafting, collating and distributing papers; meeting minutes; travel and trip preparation.
• Implement efficient systems and processes in order to track delivery of tasks and optimise allocation of resources.
• General administrative duties, including invoice processing, and management and support for central administrative tools for the team, such as Fluxx (our grant management system), budget, pipeline, portfolio and HR tools.
• Work as a team with other EAs and local office management to support smooth running of the office infrastructure, including assisting with high workloads and when there are absences.

Membership of the team

• This role is part of the Climate Admin team, it does not hold line management responsibility, but we expect all employees to demonstrate good leadership behaviours; this includes adopting a coaching approach with colleagues to help build skills, confidence and capability in particular areas, processes or procedures.
• As required, support on the planning and coordination of inductions for new joiners to the team.
• We operate a matrix structure so reporting lines can vary between specific aspects of the role.

Requirements

Skills & Experience

• Strong administrative experience, working for senior executives in a busy and complex environment; good experience as a scheduler or manager of executive time
• Strong interpersonal skills – engages with others to get the best out of them and works well as part of a team
• Demonstrates professional, sound judgement and the highest ethical standards, confidentiality and personal integrity
• Exceptional organisational skills; able to be flexible as priorities and needs change, and works well under pressure
• Excellent attention to detail
• English is CIFF’s business language – we expect all of our people to display outstanding verbal and written communication skills across all aspects of their role
• Capacity to work in a range of cultural and socio-economic contexts, adapting style and approach appropriately and in a culturally sensitive manner to maximise effectiveness
• IT proficiency – must possess strong Microsoft skills, particularly in Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel and Word, and have the ability to learn new packages, when required
• Ability to work well independently; a motivated self-starter with good problem-solving skills
• Numerate, with a good understanding of basic budget processes

Key working relationships

• The Executive Team, their EAs and local office management within CIFF
• CEO Office
• Established points of contact across all CIFF programme teams and functional teams (e.g. finance, HR, legal)

Management dimensions

• No direct budget or people management accountability but contributes the efficient operation of their team.

Benefits

The starting salary for this role is GBP 32,338 per annum.

CIFF operates a hybrid work policy across all locations, which means employees works some of the time from home. We are happy to provide more information on this as part of the recruitment process.

Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a generous benefits package here at CIFF that includes, but is not limited to the following. All these will be prorated to the fixed term.

• Annual leave – 25 days per annum. Increasing by 1 day after each year of service, to a maximum of 30 days.
• Bonus – CIFF currently operates a discretionary bonus scheme.
• Pension
• Private medical insurance
• Training allowance
• Wellbeing allowance
• Life insurance

Please submit your application on or before 20th August 2024. CIFF reserves the right to close the job advert early if we receive a high number of suitable applications.