Senior Executive Assistant

environmentjobs.com; Canberra; Hybrid; AUD 95,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Hybrid work model

Canberra office

Job summary

Energy Leadership Australia (ELA) is seeking a Senior Executive Assistant to the CEO and Founder/Executive Director in Canberra, with hybrid work and a minimum three days per week in the Kingston office. The role focuses on strategic calendar management, correspondence and logistics in support of mission-driven climate and energy policy work.

The successful candidate will bring emotional intelligence, strong relationship skills and sound judgement, handling high-trust information with discretion

Qualifications

• Proven experience as an executive assistant or personal assistant.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• High level of discretion and confidentiality.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and tight deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Provide proactive diary management for CEO and Founder.
• Coordinate travel, meetings and logistics.
• Track actions and ensure follow-through.
• Draft correspondence and manage communications.
• Support reporting deadlines and stakeholder communications.
• Assist with special projects and team events.

Skills

Emotional intelligence

Relationship management

Follow-through

Strategic judgement

Initiative and proactivity

Communication and writing

Planning and organisation

Attention to detail

Technical competence (Google Workspace

Tools

Google Workspace

Asana

Slack

AI automation

Job description

Reports to: CEO and Founder/ Executive Director

Hours: Full Time, 38 hours p/w, permanent

Location: ELA's Canberra office (Kingston). Hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office

Energy Leadership Australia (ELA) is a community organisation working to build enduring and broad support for evidence-based climate and energy policies to reduce emissions this decade. We work in partnership and collaboration with a range of stakeholders to strengthen leadership for well-designed policies to reduce emissions.

The Senior Executive Assistant to CEO and Founder is a trusted partner to two senior leaders, ensuring their time, relationships and commitments are managed with the highest degree of care and professionalism. This is not a purely administrative role: the right person will bring emotional intelligence, strong relationship instincts, and good judgement.

You will provide diary, correspondence and logistics support to the CEO and the Founder/ Executive Director. You will make sure that what gets agreed in a meeting or a conversation actually gets followed through on, chasing outstanding actions and catching things that would otherwise slip through the cracks. Doing this well requires understanding, at a reasonably strategic level, where inbound requests and commitments sit relative to ELA's priorities - so you can help the CEO and Founder focus their time on the things that matter most for the mission.

The role would suit an experienced executive assistant or APS executive officer looking for a dynamic role in a for-purpose organisation. Having said that, we care more about the person than a specific EA/PA résumé and are very open to people outside traditional executive assistant backgrounds. If you're warm, enthusiastic, highly organised, build relationships easily and write well, we'd love to hear from you.

The role is based in ELA's Canberra (Kingston) office, with a minimum of three days per week in the office required given the need to support the Founder in person. Benefits include a competitive salary commensurate with experience and being part of a values-driven, collaborative and kind team of twelve.

Core Competencies:

• Emotional intelligence and relationship management. Warm, perceptive and good with people. Able to build relationships and trust quickly with the team and partners, able to read what a situation or relationship needs.
• Follow-through and reminders. Relentless about closing the loop: tracks commitments made in meetings and conversations, proactively reminds and chases the CEO and Founder, and ensures nothing important is dropped.
• Strategic judgement. Understands ELA's priorities well enough to make good calls about which inbound requests and follow-ups genuinely matter, and to flag important priorities that aren't being chased by anyone else.
• Initiative and proactivity. A self-starter, positive and enthusiastic, who acts without being asked, spots what needs doing, and solves problems on the front foot.
• Communication and writing skills. A strong, clear writer as well as a thoughtful communicator in person. Comfortable adapting tone and style across contexts.
• Planning and organisation. Highly organised, able to manage competing priorities, meet deadlines and keep work on track.
• Attention to detail. Meticulous and thorough, ensuring accuracy while maintaining awareness of the broader organisational context.
• Judgement and discretion. Exercises sound judgement, professionalism and confidentiality when supporting senior leaders and external stakeholders.
• Technical competence. Strong capability with Google Workspace (Mail, Drive, Calendar) and experience using project management and collaboration tools including Asana and Slack. Proficiency with AI and automated workflows.

Prior formal experience as an Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant is not required. We care much more about the qualities above than about job titles on a résumé.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide proactive diary management for both the CEO and the Founder, including scheduling, correspondence and meeting logistics.
• Track actions arising from meetings and conversations, and proactively follow up to make sure they happen.
• Use judgement about which inbound requests and follow-ups are genuinely important to ELA's strategy and priorities, escalating what matters and filtering out what doesn't.
• Organise travel including flights, accommodation and meetings.
• Maintain organised digital filing and archiving systems, including coding receipts.
• Take charge of special projects when requested.
• Track funding partner and other stakeholder reporting deadlines and support the preparation and coordination of reports and communications.
• Support regular and timely communication with key stakeholders.
• Support the Project Coordinator with logistics for team events, retreats and meetings, including travel, accommodation, venues, catering and equipment.

The role is based in Canberra but involves periodic travel within Australia, including to ELA's HQ in Sydney for team meetings and events.

Next Steps
To submit your application, please click ‘Apply Now’ by 5 pm on the closing date.

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