Executive Assistant to the COO and International Director Finance & Controlling

SOS Children's Villages, founded in 1949, is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it.

Child neglect, abuse and abandonment is everywhere. Families are at risk of separation. Locally led, we work in more than 130 countries and territories to strengthen families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality care according to their unique needs.

Together with partners, donors, communities, children, young people and families, we enable children to grow up with the bonds they need to develop and become their strongest selves. We speak up for each child's rights and advocate for change so all children can grow up in a supportive environment.

Location: Vienna (Austria), Innsbruck (Austria), Skopje (Macedonia), Dakar (Senegal), Addis Abad (Ethiopia), Nairobi (Kenya)

Duration: Full time, Unlimited

Mission of the functional area

Together with the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Programme Officer, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a member of the Executive Board (EB) of SOS Children’s Villages International. The EB is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the General Secretariat (GSC) and helps to drive cooperation between member associations, translate strategic directions into concrete actions, initiatives, projects and to give impulses and feedback to strategic leadership.

The COO portfolio includes the following areas:

• Finance and Controlling

• Human Resources and Organizational Development

• IT

• Procurement and Facilities Management.

The COO in the role as Executive Board member is also ex-officio member of the International Senate and its respective subcommittee “Finance and Audit”.

The International Director for Finance & Controlling (ID FC) leads the Finance & Controlling function in the International Office, and has a dotted line to the Finance & Controlling directors of the regional offices. The International Director thus bundles all finance-related processes and activities of the General Secretariat (GSC), and must make sure that resources in the federation and the GSC are efficiently and compliantly used and support the pursuit of our mission. The position of ID FC has been established in 2023.

Purpose of the position

The Executive Assistant supports the COO as well as ID FC in their leadership roles by ensuring smooth and efficient processing of all administrative and organizational tasks in the office.

The Executive Assistant works closely and effectively with the COO and ID FC to keep them well-informed of upcoming responsibilities to ensure organized, efficient operations, also by ensuring smooth and efficient collaboration with the main stakeholders.

The Executive Assistant is the main contact point and collects information for and from the offices of the CEO and CPO, the Office of the President, Finance & Audit Committee as well as the Finance & Controlling (FC) Networks and FC Management. In this role the Assistant supports ID FC in maintaining the FC management network.

The incumbent is responsible for the organization, logistics and follow-up of meetings hosted by the COO Office and works in close collaboration with the other team members of FC and the Executive Assistants of CEO and COO as well as the Office of the President and other stakeholders.

Other important duties of this position include calendar management of the COO, assistance in the preparation of travel, organizing events, preparing meeting minutes, and supporting in managing official communication from the COO and ID FC.

Tasks & Responsibilities

Executive and administrative support to the COO and ID FC including:

• Managing the calendar and schedule of the supervisors as needed;

• Supporting in the management of the official communication such as organizing and prioritizing emails and inquiries, responding to the requests and ensuring efficient follow up on pending correspondence; support in drafting, proof-reading, editing and disseminating letters, memos, meeting minutes, etc;

• Receiving and collecting documents for the signature of the COO, providing quality check and coordinating the signature process;

• Preparing, submitting and tracking expenses for the supervisors’ cost centres, ensuring highest degree of correctness;

• Planning, booking and monitoring of international travel of the COO and the ID FC, including programme visits and participation in meetings and conferences worldwide;

• Organizing, preparing and handling meetings and conferences for the COO office and ID FC including planning, agenda, technical set-up, logistics, content, minutes and follow up on action points as needed;

• Managing interface to main internal stakeholders within the organization (such as legal bodies, functional networks, member associations around the world) as well as with external parties (such as external auditors, consulting companies etc.) on behalf of the COO and ID FC;

• Supporting the supervisors in other duties as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Economics, International Development, Social Studies or similar

• Minimum of 2 years of experience in providing executive and administrative support to high level management

• Proven track record in providing administrative support in international organizations, iNGOs, civil society organizations or other similar organizations would be a strong advantage

• Expert skills in planning and organizing

• Analytical and finance management skills would be a strong asset

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

• Strong command of MS Office tools (Outlook, OneNote, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Sharepoint)

• Good command of virtual conferencing tools (e.g.MS Teams, Zoom) as well as virtual collaboration tools (MS Whiteboard, Mural

• High written and oral levels of English language (German, French or Spanish would be an asset)

We offer

• A diverse range of interesting tasks in a leading INGO multicultural working environment
• As a responsible employer we provide a range of training schemes and encourage educational enhancement
• A salary that will be commensurate with experience and qualifications

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our staff, the children and young people and the communities that we work for. The organization prohibits harassment, exploitation and abuses by or of any employee, supervisor, manager, child, young people, community, contractor, applicant, or other individual with whom SOS Children’s Villages employees come into contact by virtue of their work. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our prevention and protection against Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse policy.

Please note, this position will be subject to applicable background checks, including criminal record checks. The successful candidate will be required to understand and sign the SOS Code of Conduct and the PSHEA regulation.

If you are interested in this position, please submit your detailed application in English by 19th February at https://careers-sos-kd.icims.com