Executive Assistant to the CEO and Director

Overview

The Design Museum is seeking an exceptional Executive Assistant to the CEO and Director to support them in their role. The role is varied and involves working with a wide range of high-profile individuals in a busy and fast-paced environment. The role provides a full EA service to the Director including complex diary management, targeted research and briefings, arranging national and international travel, email and meeting management and minute taking.

Job scope

The Executive Assistant is the main point of contact for the Board of Trustees and acts as the interface between the Director and their network, so they will need to be a confident and proactive individual. The ability to help coordinate plans with a wide range of colleagues and departments throughout the museum and with external stakeholders is essential. Excellent IT and digital skills are required.

Job description

• The complete job description/person specification is available to download from our careers portal vacancy listing.

Administration

• To provide high-level EA and project support to the Director.
• To manage and maintain procedures relating to the Director's diary and correspondence, ensuring that all messages receive a timely reply; draft correspondence as required; where appropriate, to handle enquiries personally or to direct them to relevant members of staff.
• To manage the Director's travel arrangements for national and international meetings, lectures and events.

CEO and Director's Office

• To act as the first point of contact for all enquiries and correspondence relating to the Director. To be the public face of the Museum and to act as a gatekeeper/filter to ensure that the Director's time is used effectively. To answer all mail, e-mail and telephone messages.
• To undertake a wide range of research tasks to support the Chief Executive and Director in his role, in particular the preparation of briefing notes, presentations and speech notes, often at short notice.
• To liaise with and host guests of the Director when visiting the Museum, and to represent the Director professionally and politely.

Meetings

• To arrange meetings in line with set schedules, booking rooms and refreshments, sending invites, and meeting and greeting attendees.
• To prepare technology set up, papers, presentations and agendas as requested.
• To assist the Director in putting together the weekly director meeting agenda and circulate to management, attend and note actions required.

Person specification

Essential - Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of EA work at senior/executive level
• Experience of complex diary and email management and of acting as gatekeeper for a senior level individual(s)
• Excellent written communications skills: the ability to draft communications to a high level of written English both grammatically and in content.
• Excellent verbal communication skills: the ability to deal with both with colleagues and externals professionally, confidently, and politely.
• Advanced IT skills including Microsoft Office and experience of managing a customer relationship database.
• Excellent attention to detail, time management and organisational skills with the ability to work under pressure in a busy environment
• Experience of arranging, servicing, and taking minutes of meetings
• Good numeracy skills and experience of invoice and expense processing
• Self-motivated, flexible, able to take initiative with the ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Reliable, enthusiastic and with a committed approach to work

Salary: up to £35,000 per annum, dependent on experience

Holidays: 25 days + Christmas Eve (museum closed)

Hours: full-time, 35 hours per week

Location: the Design Museum Kensington is the place of work - with a hybrid arrangement of 60% of an employee's role to be performed at the museum and 40% remote.

Closing date: Sunday 23 November, midnight

Interviews: Monday 08 December and Wednesday 10 December

Application process

For all the latest job vacancies at the Design Museum, please visit our Careers page to apply via our online portal: []

If you encounter any issues while completing your application, please email before the vacancy closing date. We will be in touch as soon as possible; (please note the inbox is monitored Monday-Friday).