Special Assistant to the Executive Director

Position description

The GCCM Foundation seeks a Special Assistant to the Executive Director who will provide high-trust, high-speed support to the Executive Director (ED) across strategy, general execution, and various external engagement opportunities. Act as a force multiplier for the ED’s office and a connective role between the organization’s internal teams.

The Special Assistant to the Executive Director will support and enable the ED’s remit to lead organizational coordination, strategy, programme execution, project design, strategic communications, Human Resources and related administration, partnership development, and resource mobilization.

Key responsibilities include:

• Support for Executive Coordination and Advisory Board Governance
  1. Manage the ED’s operating cadence – maintaining awareness and proactively scheduling and coordinating the weekly leadership agenda; develop action logs and decision trackers
  2. Support materials preparation and meeting coordination necessary to successful Advisory Board meetings, handling related scheduling, compilation of briefs, meeting notes, record decisions, and track follow-up actions
  3. Working with ED and Chief Operations Officer (COO), support development of monthly ED office dashboard linking delivery and core operational core functions, including budget, risk factors, fundraising, Human Resources, etc.

• Strategic Planning
  1. Provide cross-cutting coordination and strategic planning support to ED, as they ensure organization’s overarching strategic plan is executed through complementary work plans and cross-team timelines
  2. Build portfolio dashboards that link milestones, budgets, and risks
  3. Following guidance of ED,draft decision memos with clear actions and recommendations that will help enable completion of work plans

• Support Cross-Team Coordination and Programme Execution
  1. Track delivery across regional and global programmes from initiation to close, maintain acute awareness or and proactively flag delays or potential challenges, support coordination of course corrections with leads
  2. Quality-check work plans, budgets, change requests, and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) updates before ED review and/or sign-off

• Project Design and Planning
  1. As directed by the ED, turn conceptual ideas or plans shared into short concept notes, theories of change, budgets, and/or implementation plans that can aid the ED in ensuring execution from across the organization
  2. As relevant, coordinate inputs on safeguards, inclusion, and do-no-harm standards working with the COO and/or other members of the GCCM Foundation team
  3. Working with ED, develop internal project management tracker that captures initial proposal, progress to date and reporting pipeline with latest status, project owners, and relevant deadlines

• Administration for the ED office
  1. As directed by the ED, handle sensitive scheduling, travel, and protocol for high-level engagements and convenings
  2. Create and maintain regular two-week rolling ED brief including latest priorities, travel opportunities, speaking engagements, and prospective or active partner touchpoints

• Partnership Development
  1. Map and support ED and the Senior Management Team is identifying priority counterparts or relationship opportunities across governments, multilaterals, philanthropy, research, and civil society
  2. Track MOUs and collaboration frameworks
  3. Prepare partner briefers and follow-up notes with clear next steps

• Resource Mobilization
  1. Maintain the fundraising pipeline and donor calendar
  2. Working with the COO and other team members handling grant and contract management, help support and coordinate proposal development, budgets, compliance checks, and reporting packages

Decision rights and delegation

• May request information and task owners across teams on behalf of the ED
• May clear internal drafts up to agreed thresholds and route only clean decisions to the ED
• No independent external commitments or budget approvals unless delegated in writing
• Acts as ED delegate in internal meetings when assigned

Qualifications & Experience

• 4–8 years in policy, international development, philanthropy, government, or mission-driven orgs
• Expert project management across a variety of areas of work, involving multi-stakeholder portfolios and time zones
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with proven engagement with senior audiences and events
• Ability to present and execute structured thinking, clear writing, and work with team members to ensure follow-through
• Maintains a discreet, diplomatic approach when supporting the Executive Director in key activities
• Comfortable navigating high-level instances of stakeholder management
• Some general financial and budget literacy
• Comfort working independently in remote, globally dispersed teams with evolving reprioritization
• High integrity and judgment with sensitive information
• Familiarity with key applications needed to support project management, including Office or Google suite, development of project trackers, Customer Relationship Management system for partners, and basic budget sheets
• Ability to build living trackers, not static decks
• Works across EU and US time zones as needed during peak moments

Preferred Skills

• Exposure to fundraising, grantmaking, or donor reporting is a plus

Application instructions

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