Executive Assistant to General Manager Operations & Maintenance

SA Water; Adelaide; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

SA Water is seeking an exceptional Executive Assistant to partner with the General Manager Operations & Maintenance. This is a highly visible role providing high‑level support, coordinating priorities, preparing briefings and ensuring smooth executive operations across South Australia.

You will build relationships with the executive team and stakeholders, manage critical communications, and help executives focus on decisions that matter.

Qualifications

• Proven experience supporting senior leaders in a fast-paced corporate environment.
• Excellent diary management and calendar coordination.
• Strong written and verbal communication with discretion.
• Ability to build relationships and collaborate with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Provide proactive, high‑level executive support to the General Manager, Operations & Maintenance.
• Strategically manage the General Manager’s diary to align with priorities and maximise executive capacity.
• Manage executive correspondence, briefs and workflow, ensuring actions are progressed and recorded.
• Coordinate leadership forums and key business group activities with effective agendas, papers and minutes.
• Build strong relationships across the organisation and with key stakeholders as a trusted contact for the GM.

Skills

Executive support

Diary management

Stakeholder management

Communication

Job description

About the Company

At SA Water, our work sustains life. Every day, we deliver safe, reliable water and wastewater services to more than 1.8 million South Australians, supporting healthy communities across our state.

Behind this essential service are people who care. From engineering and science to construction, digital, operations and customer experience, every role plays a part. We bring our authentic selves to work, driven by purpose, supporting one another to deliver work that truly matters.

About the job

Behind every high-performing executive is a trusted partner who keeps things moving, challenges thinking, anticipates what's next and creates the space for leaders to focus on what matters most.

At SA Water, we're looking for an exceptional Executive Assistant to partner with our General Manager Operations & Maintenance. This is far more than diary management and administration. It's a highly visible role at the heart of one of South Australia's most critical service organisations, supporting decisions and priorities that help deliver safe, reliable water and wastewater services to communities across the state.

You'll provide high-level executive support across a broad and dynamic portfolio, coordinating priorities, managing critical communications and ensuring the smooth operation of executive activities. From preparing executive briefings and board papers to anticipating emerging issues, streamlining processes and supporting leadership forums, you'll play a key role in enabling strategic decision-making and organisational success.

You'll build strong relationships across the executive team, senior leaders and key stakeholders, becoming a trusted point of contact known for professionalism, discretion and sound judgement. The role offers exposure to significant business initiatives, executive leadership and meaningful work that contributes directly to outcomes for South Australians.

Occasional travel across metropolitan and regional South Australia is part of the role, giving you a broader view of our operations and people.

About the Person

You're an experienced Executive Assistant who thrives in complex, fast‑paced environments and genuinely enjoys being the trusted partner behind senior leaders. You understand that great executive support is about far more than managing diaries and meetings. It's about anticipating needs, understanding priorities, removing barriers and creating the conditions for leaders to focus on the decisions and conversations that matter most. Drawing on your sound judgement, discretion and initiative, you'll confidently navigate competing demands while managing sensitive and confidential matters with professionalism and care.

You are highly organised, proactive and naturally relationship focused. You build credibility quickly, communicate with confidence and authenticity, work effectively with stakeholders at all levels and value working collaboratively with the broader Executive Assistant team, sharing knowledge and contributing to a strong and supportive EA network.

Whether you're preparing executive briefings, coordinating major priorities, improving business processes or supporting organisational initiatives, you bring a strong sense of ownership and accountability to everything you do. You enjoy finding smarter ways of working, embrace continuous improvement and are motivated by the opportunity to make a genuine impact through the success of the leaders and teams you support.

Most importantly, you see yourself as an enabler of organisational success. You take pride in being the calm, trusted presence behind the scenes, helping executives operate at their best while contributing to meaningful outcomes that benefit customers, communities and the broader organisation.

About Operations and Maintenance

Operations and Maintenance (O&M) is where our essential services come to life. Our teams operate and maintain water and wastewater infrastructure right across South Australia, ensuring we continue to deliver services that communities rely on every day.

Working in O&M means hands‑on, meaningful work running treatment plants, maintaining critical assets, responding to faults, and solving real‑world problems. Depending on the role, this may include rostered hours, on‑call responsibilities, or weekend work.

Be part of a safety‑first, people‑focused team where experience is valued, learning is supported, and everyone knows their work matters today and for the future of South Australia.

In addition, your responsibilities will include:

Fostering trust with our people, customers and community by providing expert advice and service that ensure we effectively communicate and engage audiences with our business strategy and its delivery across South Australia, every day.

You will:

• Provide proactive, high‑level executive support to the General Manager, anticipating priorities, emerging issues and competing demands


• Strategically manage the General Manager’s diary to ensure alignment with business and organisational priorities, appropriate preparation time and effective use of executive capacity


• Manage executive correspondence, briefings and workflow, ensuring actions are progressed, followed through and appropriately recorded


• Coordinate leadership forums and key business group activities, ensuring effective agendas, papers, minutes, actions and follow‑up


• Build strong relationships across the organisation and with key stakeholders, acting as a trusted point of contact for the General Manager

Your success in this role will come from:

• Demonstrated ability to provide General Manager and Executive level support in a fast paced, corporate environment


• Excellent communication skills both oral and written along with interpersonal skills with an ability to influence and have authentic conversations


• Highly motivated individual with a strong sense of accountability who has a desire to achieve significant impact

Further information can be found in the attached PD – Executive Assistant to General Manager Operations and Maintenance

Applications close 6:00pm, Wednesday 21 October 2026.

A great customer experience is best achieved by having a diverse and inclusive team that reflects the community we serve. Applications are encouraged from everyone, including people living with disability, job seekers of all ages, members of the LGBTIQA+ community, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Our Industry is like no other. Dive into the wonderful world of water and explore the boundless opportunities. Learn more about the water industry at careersinwater.com.au.

Please note: We request that recruitment agencies do not submit candidates for this position, as they will not be accepted.