The Senior Program Assistant to the Director, Africa is a key member of the Africa team. The focus of the Africa team is to enable collective impact for the foundation in Africa by influencing policy and finance towards key development priorities, strengthening capacity and enabling systems for delivery, and innovating and leveraging cross-cutting enablers for impact at scale. The Senior Program Assistant (SPA) will provide a wide and varied range of organization and administrative support to the Director, Africa while assisting with project coordination and working as part of a small team of other assistants to support the overall work and ensure the smooth running of the Africa team’s regional office based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Senior Program Assistant will report to the Director, Africa.
Areas of Responsibility:
- Completes a broad variety of administrative tasks for the Director, Africa including: managing an extremely active and complex calendar of appointments; completing expense reports; composing and preparing correspondence that is sometimes confidential; arranging complex and detailed travel plans, itineraries, and agendas; and compiling documents for travel-related meetings.
- Plans, coordinates and ensures the Director’s schedule is followed and respected. Provides "gatekeeper" and "gateway" role, creating win-win situations for direct access to the Director’s time and office.
- Works closely and effectively with the Director, Africa to keep him/her well informed of upcoming commitments and responsibilities, following up appropriately. Acts as a "barometer," having a sense for the issues taking place in the environment and keeping the Director, Africa updated.
- Successfully completes critical aspects of deliverables with a hands-on approach, including drafting acknowledgement letters, personal correspondence, and other tasks that facilitate the Director’s ability to effectively lead the Africa team.
- Prioritizes conflicting needs; handles matters expeditiously, proactively, and follows-through on projects to successful completion, often under deadline pressures.
- Assist with the planning for events, key leadership meetings, retreats, convenings, and presentations which may include coordinating arrangements for multiple participants, managing participant communication, handling logistics, preparing and disseminating materials.
- Create, update and maintain organized files and records including a system for tracking, monitoring and prioritizing tasks and projects. Compile and process expense reports and reimbursements.
- Acts as a subject matter expert resource for the Africa team Program Assistants (PAs). Represent the PAs in leadership/management team meetings and with the Director, Africa.
- Responsible for high quality interactions and clear and consistent communications with grantees, partners, government officials, consultants and internal staff. Cultivate solid working relationships with staff and a broad range of senior contributors including community leaders, consultants, grantees and public officials.
- Supports communications to ensure timely responses to inquiries including: acting as liaison for team with internal partners, routing requests appropriately, drafting and editing correspondence and taking and distributing minutes of meetings.
- Demonstrates keen ability to anticipate needs of the Director, Africa team, and is proactive in spotting and resolving issues.
- Work on assignments that are complex in nature where considerable judgment and initiative are required in resolving problems and making recommendations. Determines methods and procedures on new assignments and may provide guidance to other support staff.
Educational Background:
Bachelor’s degree with at least 7 years of experience supporting a senior executive in a complex, fast-paced environment.
Skills/Experience:
We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment in which they thrive, will do phenomenal things.
Core Knowledge and Skills
- At least 7 years’ experience supporting a senior-level executive in a fast-paced, matrixed environment is required.
- Strong organizational skills that reflect ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build relationships with stakeholders, including internal staff, grantees, high-level officials and other stakeholders
- Demonstrated proactive approaches to problem-solving with strong decision-making capability
- Highly resourceful team-player, with the ability to also be effective independently
- Proven ability to handle confidential information with discretion, be adaptable to various competing demands
- Demonstrated savvy in working across multiple time zones and across multiple cultures.
- Knowledge of South Africa business environment and standards is required.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, French skills a plus but not required.
- Experience in an environment requiring diplomacy and good judgment in managing interactions inside and outside an organization, with individuals at all levels, including senior executives and other high-level officials.
- Ability to effectively manage and work through ambiguity.
- Experience of providing guidance to and supervising the work of others is desirable.
- Experience establishing organizational systems to improve efficiency and functioning in a changing environment.
- Demonstrated proficiency using MSWord, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, MS SharePoint is required. Experience in learning and mastering new software applications.
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Aug 3 2019
Active Until:
Sep 4 2019
Hiring Organization:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
industry:
Nonprofit