Senior Executive Assistant

The World Bank’s Uganda Office is looking for a highly organized, energized and seasoned professional, capable of operating effectively and discreetly in a very demanding, fast-paced environment to serve as the Senior Executive Assistant to the Country Manager and to lead and manage a team of Administrative and Client Support (ACS) staff.

Duties and Accountabilities:

Specifically, the Senior Executive Assistant will be responsible for the following:

Undertakes representational duties on behalf of Country Manager, to include serving as a first point of contact to the office of the Country Manager and liaison with an extensive network of contacts, both internal and external clients and officials, including coordination with the Uganda Country Director’s Front Office, Washington based staff and management; other country offices, and outside the World Bank Group, as needed.

• Manages the Country Manager’s schedule by effectively prioritizing and resolving related time conflicts and competing demands and making logistical arrangements.
• Plays a leadership role with respect to all issues related to ACS staff, being accountable for the smooth operation of the office support work and related system, assuming primary responsibility for organizing and coordinating workflow. Participate in the ACS cross-regional initiatives and institutional/corporate activities outside the Country Office.
• Supervises the ACS staff, including recruitment and selection, onboarding, coaching, mentoring, performance, and training.
• Assess and evaluate the training needs for ACS staff through the information and Learning Plans, and coordinates with the training committee and other stakeholders as appropriate.
• Provides primary feedback to the performance evaluation of ACS staff by providing primary input to their performance evaluation in liaison with the Task Team Leaders and Country Manager.
• Effectively provides general research support and utilizes all relevant computer software to retrieve, maintain and manipulate data, as needed.
• Independently responds to diverse inquiries and makes decisions when multiple courses of action are possible.
• Coordinates and monitors multiple and diverse work processes and activities to ensure that management decisions are properly carried out and products are delivered in a timely manner.
• Acts as Secretary to the front office and staff meetings and follows up with staff on key actions.
• Facilitates official processes, including signing ceremonies, ensuring that signing packages are properly managed.
• Ensures adherence to administrative guidelines and overall quality of outputs by ACS.
• Works closely with and supports the SOO team, ensures quality of documents requiring the Country Manager’s approval and/or signature.
• Maintains effective operation of the Uganda Front Office, manages correspondence flow and specifically WBDocs/Records management.
• Keeps others informed by providing relevant information, reports or status updates.
• Drafts/finalizes correspondence on a range of topics on behalf of the Country Manager and prepares minutes of meetings, as required.
• Supports and works collaboratively with members of the front office team as well as with others in diverse work groups/teams/task forces, across World Bank Group offices.

Selection Criteria:

• Minimum Education: Preferably college diploma.  Candidates with Bachelor’s degree in business administration or social sciences will have an advantage.
• Minimum of seven years of direct relevant experience.
• Extensive and diverse experience, and in-depth knowledge of the full range of Bank Group processes, policies and procedures.
• Experience in dealing with senior officials both within and outside the Bank, previous experience or exposure as an Executive Assistant is an advantage.
• Strong oral and written communication skills including ability to draft and edit a variety of correspondence and ensure quality of written outputs for clarity of message. Ability to draft correspondence on a range of topics and ensure quality of documents requiring approval and/or signature.
• Excellent interpersonal and intercultural communications skills; maturity and ability to interact responsively and tactfully with staff at all levels, with demonstrated good judgment and discretion.
• Strong organizational skills and demonstrated ability to multitask and judge priorities under extremely tight deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to ensure total discretion, confidentiality, and strong personal ethics.
• Demonstrated ability to be proactive, exercise sound judgment, and use problem-solving skills in dealing with unexpected situations, often under pressure.
• In addition to a proven track record in areas such as judgment, reliability, resourcefulness and flexibility, it is important that the candidate have a positive attitude, be a self-starter and maintain composure under stressful situations.
• Ability to coach and mentor junior ACS staff.
• Ability to create a positive and cohesive team environment within the Country Office and in dealing with the other units in the country department.
• Expert use of all relevant computer software using advanced functions on Bank standard computer applications, in particular: Ms Office, SAP etc.
• Effective analytical, research, innovative and problem-solving skills.
• High degree of independence, motivation, initiative and reliability.
• Flexibility and willingness to adjust scope of responsibilities.
• Flexibility with working hours and willingness to work overtime

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=26942&site=1