Job Title： Executive Assistant
Classification Level： Band 5
Organizational Unit / Duty Station
(Department / Zone Office /
Delegation etc.)： East Asia Regional Delegation (EARD)

Immediate Supervisor’s Title： HoCCST

Interested candidate please send English and Chinese CV and cover letter to eastasia.delegation@ifrc.org before the closing date.

Organizational context (where the job is located in the Organization)
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian network. Together with our 190 National Societies worldwide, we reach 97 million people annual through long-term service and development programmes as well as 85 million people through disaster response and recovery programmes.
The four countries supported by the IFRC country cluster support team in Beijing – China, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea, cover 28 per cent of the Asian continent and comprising 1.5 billion people. Disasters, poverty, unprecedented aging of the population, urbanization and migration contribute to increased vulnerability in this region. The population are also exposed to increased health risks due to epidemics, communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The IFRC office supports Red Cross Red Crescent Societies in East Asia in becoming stronger at home and abroad and in both disaster response operations and sustainable development initiatives. We act as a resource centre and conduit for exploration and adaptation of global initiatives to meet the sub-region’s needs and capacities.

Job purpose

The Executive Assistant (EA) is a position of trust and confidence, will render day-to-day administrative and programmatic support that may be necessary for the effective and efficient running of the office of the Head of CCST (HoCCST). Post-holder will handle a wide range of contacts with stakeholders including Secretariat, National Societies, ICRC, government departments, embassies, partners, and the International donor community.

Job duties and responsibilities
Key tasks and responsibilities
The position will be an IFRC national staff position based in the IFRC Office in Beijing. The position will be fully integrated with EARD (East Asia Regional Delegation), reporting to HoCCST.
Specific Duties, Responsibilities and Accountabilities:
Executive Assistance
• Provide various duties including management of HoCCST’s schedules; dairy; budget; receive and screen requests for meetings.
• Identify and handle confidential or sensitive materials and information professionally while protecting the interests of the Federation, and IFRC Secretariat.
• Receive and screen communications to the HoCCST including phone calls and email messages and provide assistance using independent judgement to determine requiring priority attention: prioritize, channel and facilitate communication between department managers/coordinators.

• Ensure presentation of daily mails and documents for information and approval before midday for distribution Job description the same day.

• Ensure timely and accurate transmission and exchange of information, and follow up to ensure feedback is provided, necessary actions taken and deadlines met.
• Review all outgoing correspondence prepared for the HoCCST; edit as appropriate to ensure correct spelling, grammar, and formatting style. In addition, draft standard administrative correspondence, complete forms for administrative actions and keep records of actions taken.
• Manage head’s email in his/her absence and as per instruction – ensuring messages are handled properly, referred or acted upon
• Produced/compile weekly/mid-term/annual reports of HoCCST in coordination with all concerned and provide sound analysis of the information.
• Prepare and maintain selected budgets under the office of the HoCCST.
• Take minutes of the meeting, circulate minutes as necessary and follow up decisions from HoCCST with the respective teams/staff.
• Assist in translating Chinese to English either in verbal or written form as required.
• Reconcile and allocate working advances for the HoCCST and follow up with finance to ensure working advance has been cleared.
External Relations
• Support the HoCCST role of external relations, coordination and cooperation with all components of the movement, with national authorities, international organizations, donor governments, embassies and other organizations.
• Liaise with internal and external contacts/stakeholders to promote a good and positive image of the Federation through information exchange and professional feedback.
• Arrange appointments as required, follow up and support for the management of relations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic corps, UN agencies and other Non-Governmental Organizations.
• Assist in relationship management, representation and advocacy.
• Develop and maintain a database for all external relations of HoCCST.
• Arrange and participate upon request in representative duties.
Visitors/meetings/events/travel
• Coordinate the conduct of regular and special senior management team and staff meetings, check with Head of CCST for the meeting agenda, take minutes and post in office’s public drive (to include weekly, monthly, quarterly management team meetings, movement meetings and staff meetings and other senior management meetings).
• Oversee travel requirements for HoCCST including: invitation letter, travel order, visa processing, transportation, per diem, cash advance, accommodation arrangements, prepared presentation, materials/documents to bring, etc., in liaison with the Admin team.
• Arrange and coordinate bi-monthly teleconference meeting of HoCCST with NS SGs, take minutes and follow up actions from concerned management team and report delays in action to the HoCCST.
• Draw up programme for visitors of the HoCCST.
Administrative and Ad Hoc matters:
• In coordination with administration, keep the up-to-date contact lists of the Federation structures, National Societies and other important partners.
• Organize and maintain efficient information storage and retrieval systems that guarantees the correctness and integrity of records as well as ease of cross-referencing with well-defined levels of access.
• Create and maintain the yearly eventrix.
• Any other task within the competence of the staff as may be assigned by the HoCCST.

Maybe assigned by the HoCCST to assist in managing the fulfilment process for events including, but not limited to meetings, seminars, workshops, conferences and so on, and developing informational print materials.

Duties applicable to all staff
1. Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals
2. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
3. Perform any other work related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Position Requirements

Education 

Required：University degree or Diploma in International Relations, Management or other related degree. 

Experience 

Required ：Experience of working with an international organisation, international corporation or an international non-governmental organization

                 At least 5 years or more in Executive Assistance Role, secretarial services, programme management, public relations and general administration.

                 Experience in protocol, customer relations and marketing.

Preferred：Experience with Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Capability

Required: Ability to establish effective working relation in multi-cultural and cross-functional environment.

               Very good knowledge of computers (word processing, spreadsheets, eCalendar, emails and skype)
               Excellent in communications and presentation skills (use of PowerPoint) 
               Experience in modern office management principles and procedures 
               Experience in filing and archiving in large organizations 
               Experience in planning and budgeting 
               Capability to research, consolidate, analyse and handle multiple tasks. 

Languages 

Required: Fluent in oral and written English; 

               Proficiency in oral and written Mandarin Chinese; 

Preferred: Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic) Interpretation Skills (English to Mandarin) vice versa