Executive Assistant

Pinocchio's Children's Nurseries; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 35,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Board level exposure

Career development

Job summary

Pinocchio’s Children’s Nurseries is seeking an Executive Assistant to provide broad executive, operational and administrative support to the Operations Director and CFO. The role is hybrid, with travel between Edinburgh & Midlothian, and involves coordinating priorities, meetings and actions, preparing information and presentations, and supporting Board processes.

The successful candidate will be highly organised, comfortable dealing with senior stakeholders, and capable of owning tasks.

Qualifications

• Experience as an Executive Assistant or similar role.
• Experience supporting a senior management team or Board.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills.
• Comfortable with MS Office and data handling.

Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day executive support to the Operations Director and CFO.
• Manage diaries, meetings and appointments, ensuring priorities are coordinated.
• Prepare agendas, papers and materials for Board meetings.
• Attend meetings, take minutes and maintain action logs.
• Coordinate information between the Board, management team and nursery settings.
• Support operational priorities and group-wide activities.
• Assist with preparation of Board packs, presentations and management reports.

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

Outlook

MS Office

Job description

Executive Assistant

Location: Hybrid – home working with travel between nursery settings across Edinburgh & Midlothian

Salary: £30,000 – £35,000 per annum

Hours: Full time

Contract: Permanent

Reporting to: Operations Director and CFO

Company: Pinocchio’s Children’s Nurseries

About Pinocchio’s

Pinocchio’s Children’s Nurseries is a growing group of high-quality early years settings across Scotland. We are backed by private equity investor Foresight Group and have an ambitious growth strategy, combining the development of our existing nurseries with a programme of acquisitions.

The Role

The Executive Assistant will provide broad executive, operational and administrative support to the Operations Director and CFO / Board.

The role will involve coordinating priorities, meetings and actions, preparing information and presentations, supporting Board and management processes, and ensuring that important actions are followed through to completion. The successful candidate will be highly organised, confident dealing with senior stakeholders and comfortable taking ownership of tasks rather than simply waiting for instructions. The candidate will be familiar with MS Office including Excel and PowerPoint.

Key Responsibilities

Executive & Board Support

• Provide day-to-day executive support to the Operations Director and CFO.
• Manage diaries, meetings and appointments, ensuring priorities are effectively coordinated.
• Prepare agendas, papers and supporting information for Board and senior management meetings.
• Attend meetings where appropriate, take accurate minutes and maintain action logs.
• Follow up actions with members of the management team and ensure deadlines are met.
• Assist with preparation of Board packs, presentations and management reports.
• Coordinate information and requests between the Board, management team and nursery settings.
• Maintain a clear record of key decisions, actions and deadlines.

Operational Support

• Support the Operations Director with the coordination of operational priorities across the nursery group.
• Help coordinate meetings, inspections, visits, training and other group-wide activities.
• Maintain central schedules, trackers and action plans.
• Support the implementation of operational initiatives and ensure actions are progressed.
• Liaise with nursery managers and central functions to obtain information and updates.
• Help identify outstanding actions or issues and proactively chase them through to resolution.
• Assist with the coordination of new nursery openings, acquisitions and integration projects as required.

Finance & Commercial Support

• Preparing and maintaining financial and operational information.
• Assisting with the preparation of management and Board reporting.
• Maintaining trackers for budgets, expenditure, projects and key actions.
• Coordinating information required for acquisitions, due diligence and integration activity.
• Supporting invoice, purchase order and supplier administration where required.
• Assisting with the preparation of presentations, analysis and reports.ia
• Liaising with external advisers, suppliers and professional advisers when required.

Project & Administration Support

• Take ownership of specific projects and workstreams delegated by the Operations Director or CFO.
• Maintain project plans, timelines and action trackers.
• Coordinate activities across different departments and nursery settings.
• Prepare documents, reports, presentations and correspondence.
• Establish and maintain effective filing and document management systems.
• Help improve administrative processes and introduce greater consistency across the group.
• Handle confidential information appropriately and maintain a high level of discretion.

About You

We are looking for someone who is organised, proactive and commercially aware, with the confidence to work with senior people and the initiative to identify what needs doing.

You will ideally have experience working as an Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant, Business Administrator, Office Manager, Project Coordinator or in a similar role.

More important than having worked in exactly the same role is having the right approach and mindset.

As you will also be supporting the CFO, an analytical mindset and being comfortable with numbers will be desirable.

You will be:

• Highly organised with excellent attention to detail.
• Proactive and comfortable working independently.
• Confident communicating with people at all levels of an organisation.
• Comfortable dealing with Nursery staff and Board members.
• Able to manage multiple priorities and competing deadlines.
• A strong written and verbal communicator.
• Discreet and trustworthy when dealing with confidential information.
• Commercially minded and interested in understanding how a business operates.
• Comfortable working with Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and other business systems.
• Able to produce professional documents and presentations.
• Confident chasing people for information and actions when required.
• Flexible and willing to get involved in a wide variety of activities.
• Calm and organised when working in a fast-moving environment.

Desirable Experience

• Previous experience supporting a senior management team or Board.
• Experience within a multi-site organisation.
• Experience in a private equity-backed or growing business.
• Experience supporting acquisitions, projects or business integrations.
• Experience preparing Board papers, minutes or management reports.
• Experience within childcare, education, healthcare, hospitality or another multi-site service environment.

What Success Looks Like

• Established effective working relationships with the Operations Director, CFO, Board and nursery managers.
• Created a robust system for managing actions, deadlines and priorities.
• Improved the quality and consistency of Board and management meeting administration.
• Taken ownership of a number of recurring administrative and project processes.
• Reduced the administrative burden on the Operations Director and CFO.
• Ensured important actions are followed up and completed.
• Become a trusted and reliable point of coordination across the group.
• Demonstrated the ability to take on increasing responsibility as Pinocchio’s grows.

Why Join Pinocchio’s?

This is an opportunity to join a growing business at an exciting stage of its development.

The successful candidate will have exposure to senior management, Board-level activity, acquisitions and the development of a growing multi-site organisation. The role offers significant variety and the opportunity to develop alongside the business.

As Pinocchio’s continues to grow, there will be opportunities for the role to develop and take on additional responsibility.

Package

• Salary: £30,000 – £35,000, depending on experience.
• Full-time position.
• Hybrid working.
• Regular interaction with senior management and Board.
• Opportunity to develop within a growing, private equity-backed group.
• Varied role with significant exposure across the business.

Closing date: 5pm on Wednesday 2nd December 2026.