Executive Assistant - Office of the Director

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. We reach almost every country in the world and have: more than 2 million members and supporters who drive forward our fight for rights, more than 5 million activists who strengthen our calls for justice.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Executive Assistant - Office of the Director
Job ID: 2242
Location: Abuja
Directorate:Amnesty International National Office
Type:Fixed Term Contract
Duration: 2 years
Working Hours: 35 
Reporting to: Director
Other key relationships: Programmes Director, Finance and Office Manager, Other Amnesty International Nigeria staff, West and Central Africa Regional Team and relevant IS teams.
Job Summary

• To provide high-level administrative support and coordination support to the Director - including management of the Director’s diary – as well as to the Management Team.
• To assist with administrative, logistical and coordination which enables the efficient operation of the office and delivery of the human rights work.

Useful Information

• This role acts as the first point of contact for the Director requiring the ability to exercise high standards of servicing to a range of stakeholders (internal to the National Office and the Amnesty movement, media, governments, NGOs and beneficiaries of Amnesty International’s work, amongst others). The post holder must have an understanding of the work of the Director to enable her/him to offer executive support to the staff and to stakeholders. The post holder must exercise highest level of discretion through managing the exchange of confidential, sensitive or contentious information both internally and externally with managers/staff/ external persons in a professional manner.
• This is a full-time position, which requires the ability and willingness to occasionally work out of office hours to meet deadlines. A high degree of diplomacy, political judgment and trouble-shooting skills are essential.
• The post holder will be an active team member of the team and will need to fully participate and help support the team’s activities.

Main Responsibilities
Support to Director:

• Coordinate and manage all aspects of the Director’s diary, to ensure he/she has a regularly updated, well-organized and accessible schedule, as well as an effectively prioritized workload.
• Coordinate and flag up tasks in relation to the Director’s commitments and collate briefings, meeting minutes, presentations and responses where needed.
• Manage and coordinate all correspondence and requests received by the Director, identify issues of importance drawing them to the attention of the appropriate person. Prepare and draft responses to correspondence, responding directly whenever possible. Initiate and implements a range of efficient and secure channels of communication to ensure the rapid and effective flow of information.
• Monitor and follow up on requested work delegated and/or commissioned by the Director, and chase progress as required to ensure that deadlines are met. Ensure appropriate sign-off is obtained for activities prior to the Director’s approval.
• Assist the Director with the research and preparation of materials as delegated or originated by the Director, including researching, drafting, formatting, proof reading, coordinating, printing and distributing texts and PowerPoints.
• Assist the Director to manage all office and movement-wide contributions to special projects led by him/her, ensuring the timely and effective delivery of work plans and objectives.
• Research, organize local and international travel arrangements for the Director, as well as other staff from the National Office as appropriate. Prepare travel itineraries, collate travel documents, meeting papers and other information needed by the Director for such business trips.

Events Management:

• Organise and coordinate meetings/events, including international meetings/events with a range of stakeholders; prepare and circulate agendas; arrange logistics and, assist in the preparation of reports or take minutes for meetings which the Director is responsible.
• At times, the post holder will need to source venues, accommodation, manage communications, reimburse expenses to visitors/participants and run the event on the day(s), coordinate output and follow-up activities etc), as well as resolve any problems that are encountered with minimal support, in order to deliver professional, well run meetings/events that enable participants to achieve their objectives.

Office Management and Administration:

• Together with the Finance and Office Manager, provide staff with sufficient logistical support, and maintain clear administrative and communication systems including technical support such as uploading content to the website, intranet and as appropriate, social media channels.
• Support the Finance and Office Manager in providing appropriate human resources services as necessary.
• Assist the Finance and Office Manager in ensuring compliance with all laws and regulations.
• Cover for the absences of members of the Finance and Administrative team to ensure coverage of the National Office administrative matters.
• Propose, organize and maintain filing and administrative systems for the Office; collaborate with other teams and colleagues to develop common systems where appropriate and to input to and ensure consistency with the office-wide systems.

Other Coordination Support:

• Act as liaison for ECOWAS to support Amnesty International’s engagement with regional bodies.
• Provides ad hoc support to team members as appropriate.
• Centralizes all mission official documents, MoUs, maintains information on key stakeholders including government agencies, ECOWAS, UN, INGOs, Diplomatic community and keeps networking with these offices.
• Updates contact list: official authorities, journalists, academics, influential people, CSO leaders etc.
• Support the Finance and Office Manager in preparations for the AGM, Trustees and Board meetings.
• Coordinate the information flow from the National Office and contribute to good communication systems between the office and other International Secretariat (IS) programmes, Amnesty International (AI) Sections and Structures.
• Act as a point of contact for internal and external interlocutors, process incoming inquiries and, as appropriate, respond to inquiries from other teams and programmes, the membership and the public
• Exercise highest level of discretion through managing the exchange of confidential, sensitive or contentious information both internally and externally with managers/staff/ external persons in a professional manner.

Skills, Attributes and Experience

• A diploma (OND) or HND or bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or relevant professional qualifications;
• At least 3 year's experience working in a similar role or providing high level executive support to senior executives and/or board members.
• Experience with NGO or in development sector would be an advantage;
• Strong time management skills to work effectively on a full-time basis. Proven ability to work under pressure, manage conflicting demands, multi task, work to deadlines to achieve results and work with changes at short notice, shifting priorities where necessary;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and other relevant local languages or additional foreign languages desirable.
• Excellent written skills to draft correspondence and other documents on behalf of the Director;
• Experience and ability to communicate with a range of audiences and internal stakeholders, including the ability to interact with high level partners.
• Able to work in a manner that is consistent with the organisation’s core behaviours and competencies;
• Possess a high level of resilience, initiative and drive, is creative and able to be flexible and change orientation as required;
• Strong administrative skills and the ability to organise and manage systems for information flow, filing and data management ;
• Experience of diary management, making travel arrangements, coordinating and servicing meetings.
• Ability to draft correspondence and other documents on behalf of the Director;
• Experience of setting up and maintaining hard and soft information storage, retrieval and communication systems is desirable;
• Experience and willingness to undertake office work such as answering phones, photocopying, filing and archiving and organisation of own task list;
• Good working knowledge of Office software including Microsoft Word, Excel and using social media.
• Good inter-personal and communication skills including liaising with high-level guests and senior colleagues. Courteous and customer focused – experience of service provision;
• Good financial acumen or numeracy skills;
• Ability to work as part of a small team;
• Understands the importance of and commitment to safeguarding the confidential nature of the work. Experienced in and capable of handling such confidential information relating to human rights issues, organizational issues, staffing/personnel and other matters.
• This is not an exhaustive list of duties. The need for flexibility is required and the post holder is expected to carry out any other related duties, that are within the employee’s skills and capabilities whenever reasonably instructed.

Equality Statement

• Equality and diversity is at the core of our values and staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.

Conflict of Interest

• Public or other activity, affiliation to or support for any group or organization, personal association or other factor which may generate a real or perceived conflict of interest with Amnesty International’s principles (specifically independence and impartiality), or raise a security concern, or otherwise prevent the candidate from carrying out key functions of the specific post and would therefore disqualify the candidate from being appointed.

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