ThaiNGO

JOB TITLE: Executive Assistant to East and Southeast Asia & Pacific Director

DEPARTMENT: East and Southeast Asia & Pacific Regional Office (ESEAPRO)

GRADE: G3

Useful Information

This role acts as the first point of contact for the Regional Director, requiring the ability to exercise high standards of servicing to a range of stakeholders (internal to the Regional Office and the Amnesty International movement, media, governments, NGOs and beneficiaries of AI’s work, amongst others). The post holder must have a good understanding of the work of the ESEAPRO Management Team to enable him/her to offer executive support to the leadership. 

This is a full-time position, which requires the ability and willingness to occasionally work out of office hours to meet deadlines. A high degree of diplomacy, political judgment and trouble-shooting skills are essential. The post holder will be an active member of the team and will need to fully participate and help support the team’s activities.

Reporting to: Regional Director (RD), East and Southeast Asia & Pacific

Posts that this job manages: Occasionally, volunteers

Other key relationships: Regional office staff, Section directors, relevant AIIS teams and programmes and regional logistical support services.

LOCATION: Bangkok, Thailand

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

The post holder plays a key role in ensuring the Office of the Regional Director achieves its goals by the effective and efficient management of the work of the Regional Director and his/her Deputies. 

Under the direction of the Regional Director:

Support to Regional Director and Deputy Directors

• Coordinate and manage all aspects of the Regional Director’s diary, to ensure he/she has a regularly updated, well-organized and accessible schedule, as well as an effectively prioritized workload.

• Manage and coordinate all correspondence and requests received by the RD, identify issues of importance drawing them to the attention of the appropriate person. Prepare and draft responses to correspondence, responding directly whenever possible. Initiate and implements a range of efficient and secure channels of communication to ensure the rapid and effective flow of information.

• Research, coordinate and organize local and international travel arrangements for the RD, Deputies as well as other staff from the Regional Office as appropriate. Prepare travel itineraries, collate travel documents, meeting papers and other information needed by the RD for such business trips.

• Coordinate and flag up tasks in relation to the RD’s and his/her Deputies commitments and collate briefings and responses where needed. Monitor and follow up on requested work delegated and/or commissioned by the RD and his/her Deputies, and follow-up on progress as required to ensure that deadlines are met. Ensure appropriate sign-off is obtained for activities prior to the RD’s approval.

• Assist the Regional Director with the research and preparation of materials as delegated or originated by the RD and his/her Deputies, including researching, drafting, formatting, proof reading, coordinating, printing and distributing texts and other materials

• Assist the Regional Director and his/her Deputies manage all IS and movement-wide contributions to special projects led by him/her, ensuring the timely and effective delivery of work plans and objectives.

Event management

• Organise and coordinate meetings/events, including international meetings/events with a range of stakeholders; prepare and circulate agendas; arrange logistics and, assist in the preparation of reports or take minutes for meetings which the RD is responsible. At times, the post holder will need to source venues, accommodation, manage communications, reimburse expenses to visitors/participants and run the event on the day(s), coordinate output and follow-up activities etc), as well as resolve any problems that are encountered with minimal support, in order to deliver professional, well-run meetings/events that enable participants to achieve their objectives.

Office Management

• Together with the Finance and Office team, provide staff with sufficient logistical support, and maintain clear administrative and communication systems including technical support such as uploading content to the internet/intranet.

• Cover for the absences of members of the Regional Finance and Administrative team to ensure coverage of the Regional administrative matters.

Other

• Coordinate the information flow from the Regional Office and contribute to good communication systems between the office and other International Secretariat (IS) programmes, Amnesty International (AI) Sections and Structures, the International Board (IB) and other AI decision-making bodies and structures.

• Provides ad hoc support the Regional Office team members as appropriate within the self-servicing guidelines.

• Undertakes projects and training as directed by the RD.

• Exercise highest level of discretion through managing the exchange of confidential, sensitive or contentious information both internally and externally with managers/staff/ external persons in a professional manner.

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE IN THIS JOB?

• The Regional Director and Deputies are provided with adequate assistance and support to facilitate the smooth management of the Regional Office. The office of the Regional Director works at maximum efficiency to contribute to the achievement of the Regional Office’s objectives.

• The schedule, budget and correspondence of the Regional Director are organized and easily tracked, materials needed are complete and available in time.

• Contributes to ensuring other staff are able to complete their work in a timely manner by providing ad-hoc support to the team as required.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Significant experience in providing high level executive support to senior executives and/or board members, preferably in an international organization.

• Experience of diary management, making travel arrangements, coordinating and servicing meetings.

• Ability to draft correspondence and other documents on behalf of the Regional Director.

• Experience of setting up and maintaining hard and soft information storage, retrieval and communication systems.

• Experience and willingness to undertake office work such as answering phones, photocopying, filing and archiving and organization of own task list.

• Good working knowledge of technology systems including Microsoft office, Excel and using the intranet.

• Fluent level of written and spoken English and Thai is essential. Knowledge of other regional languages is an asset.

• Good inter-personal and communication skills including liaising with high-level guests and senior colleagues;

• Ability to work as part of a small team;

• Ability to multi task and work to deadlines, sometimes under pressure; and

• Understands the importance of and commitment to safeguarding the confidential nature of the work.

HOW YOU WORK:

Our organizational culture – which essentially represents how we behave, our working relationships and our ability to collaborate as a movement – underpins everything we do and is pivotal to the success of our impact. Our five behaviours form the basis of the type of culture we want to have in Amnesty:

Accountable – I consistently strive to reach my goals in a thorough, timely way that I can be proud of, and I re-empower others to do the same.

Considerate – I support my colleagues and try to find out what motivates them to do their best and what pressures they are under, so that I can consider this when we work together.

Creative – I continuously look for new and creative solutions and encourage others’ ideas so that we can adapt and success in an ever changing and uncertain global environment.

Decisive – I make sound judgements within my work so that a project or activity can progress with pace and confidence.

Respectful – I treat my colleagues with equality and dignity and assume they have integrity. I value the different perspectives of my colleagues as well as my own and show them that their contribution and expertise matter.

EQUALITY STATEMENT

Equality and diversity is at the core of our values and staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Public or other activity, affiliation to or support for any group or organization, personal association or other factor which may generate a real or perceived conflict of interest with Amnesty International’s principles (specifically independence and impartiality), or raise a security concern, or otherwise prevent the candidate from carrying out key functions of the specific post and would therefore disqualify the candidate from being appointed.

Written by: IS ESEAPRO Date agreed: June 22, 2022