Executive Assistant to the Executive Board & Chief Executive Officer

Hivos is looking for an enthusiastic, service driven, cool headed and assertive Executive Assistant for the Executive Board and the Chief Executive Officer. Are you inspired by Hivos’ values and do you want to contribute to the goals of our organization by supporting the Executive Board, then this job vacancy might be right up your ally.

About Hivos

Hivos is an international development organization guided by humanist values. Together with citizens and their organizations, we aim to contribute towards just, inclusive and life sustaining societies where people have equal access to opportunities, rights and resources. We work in partnership with others in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America on three impact areas: Civic Rights in a Digital age, Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Climate Justice. Our approach is solution driven, and we build wider movements for change by amplifying and connecting voices.

Context

The EB consists of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Chief Operations Officer (COO) and is supported by the Global Management Team (MT). The MT consists of five Regional Directors (Latin America, Southern Africa, East Africa, MENA and operations hub Global Office) and five functional Heads of Department (Strategy & Impact, Business Development, Communications & Fundraising, HR and Finance & IT).

In this position, the Executive Assistant works in close collaboration with the other Executive Assistant (to the COO). The position is based in The Hague. Both the CEO and COO are travelling on regular basis or working from other locations, which adds to the challenging dimension of this international job.

Aim of the job

The Executive Assistant supports and assists the CEO and the EB in general in managing the organization regarding all administrative, logistical, operational and financial matters to ensure a smooth functioning of Hivos globally.

The Executive Assistants work as a team and are ‘spiders in the web’ in a truly global and decentralized organization. They are the ‘go-to’ persons for all practical issues that need attention of the EB.

Your responsibilities

• Deliver (both requested and non-requested) assistance to the CEO in all administrative, logistical, operational and financial matter in order to enable the CEO to fulfill her duties in the best way possible.
• Coordinate, organize and follow up on EB meetings and MT meetings in such a manner that decision-making processes are facilitated, properly prepared and recorded, which includes minute taking, progress monitoring on outstanding actions and future agenda planning.
• Function as first point of contact and intermediary for external and internal relations to the CEO and EB and maintain all relevant contacts in the CRM database;
• Ensure, together with the Executive Assistant to the COO, a complete, up-to-date Executive Board management information archive, according to legal standards, including a compliance register and take actions to update all necessary legal documents and licenses to operate for the different Hivos’ legal entities and country/regional offices;
• Be the contract manager and oversee supplier performance for all contracts related to facilities in the Global Office in The Hague and ensure compliance with procurement standards;
• Realize continuous quality improvements in work processes of EB Support to increase efficiency, reduce workloads and take on small quality improvement projects.

Your profile

The Executive Assistant to the CEO is a self-starting independent functioning professional with the ability to deal with conflicting priorities while maintaining a service orientated approach to internal and external parties. The candidate has a secondary vocational education and/or higher level of working and thinking through work experience and can assess the relevance of substance matters that are at play at EB level. We are looking for someone who is fluent in English and preferable Dutch. She/he/they has at least 2 years of work experience in a similar position and has experience in supporting senior executives.

As Executive Assistant you can maintain confidentiality regarding sensitive matters and act with the highest level of integrity. Crucial competences are teamwork, pro-active planning, problem solving and maintaining and monitoring your own work organization with good planning skills. As candidate you should be able to set priorities and/or escalate competing priorities to the CEO, and to show flexibility in working styles depending on the situation, including sometimes flexibility in working hours and in hybrid working settings. The work that you deliver is of high quality, accuracy and can be trusted of a ‘one-time-right nature’. You additional have excellent skills in MS office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

What we offer

An inspirational work environment in a value-driven international organization with dedicated staff and a great team to work with. Employment is offered for one year, with an extension in an indefinite contract after good performance. Depending on your experience and skills, your salary will be in accordance with the salary scale applicable to the Global Office.