EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Under the overall authority and the direct supervision of the Assistant Director-General (ADG) of Social and Human Sciences Sector, the incumbent provides secretarial and administrative support services to the ADG. This involves ensuring the smooth running of the Office, as well as the management of information and document flow. The incumbent is in direct contact with other staff members within and outside the Sector, including contacts with high-ranking officials, both within and outside the Organization. In particular, s/he will\: 

• Organize the work of the ADG’s office\: manage communications, correspondence, conferences and meetings; ensure that the work is done in accordance with priorities and within established deadlines; monitor work progress and cases of priority and concern to the supervisor; evaluate and improve the operation of paper-based and electronic systems to ensure effective access to information and documents through different collaboration tools. 
• Take full responsibility for ADG’s time management and schedule; arrange appointments and maintain ADG’s agenda; serve as first point of contact and liaise with senior officials; receive visitors (often high-ranking); place, screen telephone calls and answer enquiries; prioritize and resolve related competing demands.
• Respond to inquiries from all levels and external sources on a variety of questions; communicate sensitive information to senior management; coordinate responses to sensitive inquiries on behalf of the supervisor.
• Make travel/mission arrangements; organize high-level meetings, prepare correspondence and assembles documents for these meetings/missions; take notes, prepare minutes of meetings and follows-up on required action.
• Receive, analyze and distribute correspondence, reports and other documents addressed to the ADG; identify complex or sensitive subjects and bring them to the attention of the ADG; establish and improve procedures, filing and tracking systems for correspondence and documents; propose deadlines for responses.
• Draft responses; informally translate the correspondence from either French or English to the other language; follow up on the preparation by staff of reports, correspondence, briefing notes and other documents for the ADG; proofread and ensure quality control of outgoing correspondence for completeness, grammatical and typographical accuracy and compliance with UNESCO format standards.
• Develop, contribute and maintain elements within the digital and shared institutional memory of the Sector, concerning the work of the professional staff in their individual capacity, as well as, a team member of the Sector.

EDUCATION

• Completed secondary, technical and/or vocational education.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• At least 10 years of professional, experience in secretarial and/or administrative tasks in an international environment, of which at least 5 years working for high-level officials.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent drafting skills in English or French and ability to make synthesis.
• Excellent organizational and coordination skills.
• Good time management skills.
• Capacity to deal efficiently and tactfully with different partners/institutions and other stakeholders at all levels in a multicultural environment.
• Ability to work under pressure, to deal with complex situations and flexibility to adjust work schedules.
• Ability to set priorities and to organize work independently based on established guidelines and general direction from the ADG.
• Sense of diplomacy, discretion and professional integrity.
• Excellent IT skills (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

LANGUAGES

• Excellent knowledge of either English or French and very good knowledge of the other language.

EDUCATION

• Specialized training/certification in administration and/or secretariat.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Knowledge of UNESCO rules, administrative procedures and standard practices.
• Working experience in similar functions within the UN system or an international organization/institution.

LANGUAGES

• Knowledge of another official language of UNESCO (Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Russian).