Executive Assistant, Programmatic Monitoring

The Executive Assistant, PMRD, provides timely and comprehensive executive support to the Head of PMRD and CRO ensuring effective prioritization of the Head and CRO’s time and workload in alignment with divisional and organizational priorities.

The incumbent works with divisional department heads and team managers to support effective and timely coordination across teams, again in line with divisional and organizational priorities and emerging operational needs.

The incumbent provides support to the Head and CRO, departments heads and team managers, and the wider division, in areas including front office support, coordinating and tracking outputs on cross-departmental initiatives, preparing presentation materials, general research support and utilizing all relevant computer software to retrieve, maintain and manipulate data as needed., In addition, the incumbent leads coordination amongst team assistants within the division to enable the Head and CRO and the PMRD Governance & Delivery Support Team to manage the division in an efficient, effective and consistent manner.

Key Responsibilities
- Acting with the highest level of discretion, manage the schedule and workflow of the Head and CRO to ensure the effective prioritization of their time and workload in alignment with divisional and organizational priorities. This will involve proactively responding to and prioritizing requests for meetings and building and maintaining relationships with other internal and external Executive Assistants (EA), coordinators and senior stakeholders.
- Act as first point of contact for queries from, and liaise with, the Office of the Executive Director, senior managers, department heads, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and external stakeholders, on behalf of the Head of PMRD and CRO, including routinely handling sensitive and confidential information.
- Manage the coordination of materials in readiness for meetings, conferences and other forums. This will involve working with, and influencing, colleagues at all levels of seniority from within the division and across the organization to ensure materials are available in line with deadlines and quality expectations.
- Provide wide-ranging executive assistant support to the Head of PMRD and CRO in a range of other areas including managing travel and expenses.
- Work with department heads, team managers and the wider division to track and follow-up on agreed actions to ensure that divisional and organizational priorities are delivered on time and in line with expectations and the effective closure of open actions.
- Provide cross-cutting support to the Head and CRO and the wider division with project management support, take the lead on discrete projects, provide general research support and utilize all relevant computer software to retrieve, maintain and manipulate data as needed. ,
- Leverage cross-organizational relationships and visibility of organization-wide priorities, to proactively work with department heads, team managers and the wider division to identify synergies and opportunities for potential collaboration.
- Play a lead role in driving and coordinating active collaboration between PMRD coordinators to ensure priorities and workload are understood and that coordinator capacity is effectively utilized across the Division including to cover for staff absences.
- When requested by the Head and CRO, provide support to the Division on HR related activities including coordinating and supporting the recruitment process.
- Subject to change by the Executive Director at any time at their sole discretion._

**Qualifications**:
Essential:

- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field (business administration, communications etc

Desirable:

- Certification in executive / office management or a secretarial qualification from a recognized institution.

Experience

Essential:

- Work experience at a similar level, providing comprehensive executive support, working in an international organization.
- Proven ability to adapt quickly and gain an understanding of the requirements of a senior manager’s workload, departmental and organizational priorities, and organization dynamics.
- Proven ability to quickly build and maintain the trust and confidence of colleagues, senior managers and external stakeholders.
- Experience working in diverse, fast-moving and dynamic teams with the ability to positively work with a variety of individuals and adapt to different situations.
- Proven ability to effectively multi-task and independently exercise good judgement to effectively prioritize work and manage competing demands in line with tight deadlines.
- Extremely well-developed interpersonal skills with a proven ability to communicate effectively and persuasively both verbally, and in writing, at all organizational levels, and where required, to manage conflict.
- Proven ability to respond appropriately and deal effectively with diverse situations that require good judgm