Principal Assistant

The Principal Assistant supports the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General by coordinating and supervising administrative support duties within the Office of the Secretary General. The role includes managing schedules, coordinating work among assistants, and acting as Personal Assistant to the Chief of Staff and Director of the OSG.

Responsibilities

• Assist with the day-to-day administration of the COS’s schedule: arrange meetings, answer enquiries and incoming calls, travel arrangements and mission coordination.
• Organise own workload to ensure the accurate and timely execution of duties.
• Monitor the work flow of the OSG, ensuring deadlines are met, for both the SG and the DSG whilst working in close co-ordination with other staff in the OSG.
• Coordinate and supervise the work of the other OSG Assistants and act as their back-up during leave/absences.
• Ensure that proper financial procedures are followed for budget expenses and track and prepare financial documents as necessary.
• Draft and format various documents.
• Assist in the screening and distribution of incoming mail to the appropriate Deputy Director, and coordinate timely response and actions.
• Collect, categorise, and track relevant information required for various tasks and projects.
• Maintain well-structured paper and electronic filing systems.
• Maintain all lists of internal and external contacts and liaise with them to ensure efficiency in daily management of workload and processes.
• Serve as first point of contact for requests of various nature directed to the COS.
• Be prepared to receive and assist visitors of all levels on behalf of the COS.
• Proactively develop skills in areas such as planning and organising, new technology, languages and effective communication.
• Liaise with other Assistants across the International Staff (IS), International Military Staff (IMS) and national delegations to leverage knowledge and keep abreast of generic NATO policy issues and corporate knowledge.
• Perform any other related duty as assigned.

Requirements

• Have a good general education at least to higher secondary level.
• Have at least five years' experience of senior administrative support duties with a focus on organisation, prioritisation and office/cabinet level administration.
• Have extensive experience of NATO best practices and standards in the field of information and data management, and be familiar with the life-cycle management of documents.
• Be self-confident and demonstrate strong ethics, integrity and confidentiality at all times.
• Possess the following minimum levels of NATO’s official languages (English/French): V (“Advanced”) in one; III (“Intermediate”) in the other.
• Experience in protocol duties, especially when organizing events with senior stakeholders, is considered an advantage.
• Experience with Information and Technical systems and tools and their application to document processing, in particular experience working with NATO IKM Tools (HYDI, Divisional Team Sites and Committee Portals) is considered an advantage.
• A level higher than III (Intermediate) in the other official language is considered an advantage.

Skills

• Administrative Support
• Office Management
• Document life-cycle management
• Information Management
• Data Management
• NATO best practices
• Protocol duties
• Event Organization
• NATO IKM Tools
• HYDI
• Divisional Team Sites
• Committee Portals
• Schedule Management
• Work Coordination
• Personal assistant duties

Languages

English, French