Job Description
Reports to: CEO and Founder/ Executive Director
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Hours: Full Time, 38 hours p/w, permanent
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Location: ELA's Canberra office (Kingston). Hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office
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Energy Leadership Australia (ELA) is a community organisation working to build enduring and broad support for evidence-based climate and energy policies to reduce emissions this decade. We work in partnership and collaboration with a range of stakeholders to strengthen leadership for well-designed policies to reduce emissions.
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The Senior Executive Assistant to CEO and Founder is a trusted partner to two senior leaders, ensuring their time, relationships and commitments are managed with the highest degree of care and professionalism. This is not a purely administrative role: the right person will bring emotional intelligence, strong relationship instincts, and good judgement.
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You will provide diary, correspondence and logistics support to the CEO and the Founder/ Executive Director. You will make sure that what gets agreed in a meeting or a conversation actually gets followed through on, chasing outstanding actions and catching things that would otherwise slip through the cracks. Doing this well requires understanding, at a reasonably strategic level, where inbound requests and commitments sit relative to ELA's priorities - so you can help the CEO and Founder focus their time on the things that matter most for the mission.
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The role would suit an experienced executive assistant or APS executive officer looking for a dynamic role in a for-purpose organisation. Having said that, we care more about the person than a specific EA/PA résumé and are very open to people outside traditional executive assistant backgrounds. If you're warm, enthusiastic, highly organised, build relationships easily and write well, we'd love to hear from you.
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The role is based in ELA's Canberra (Kingston) office,



with a minimum of three days per week in the office required given the need to support the Founder in person. Benefits include a competitive salary commensurate with experience and being part of a values-driven, collaborative and kind team of twelve.
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Core Competencies:
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Emotional intelligence and relationship management. Warm, perceptive and good with people. Able to build relationships and trust quickly with the team and partners, able to read what a situation or relationship needs.
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Follow-through and reminders. Relentless about closing the loop: tracks commitments made in meetings and conversations, proactively reminds and chases the CEO and Founder, and ensures nothing important is dropped.
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Strategic judgement. Understands ELA's priorities well enough to make good calls about which inbound requests and follow-ups genuinely matter, and to flag important priorities that aren't being chased by anyone else.
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Initiative and proactivity. A self-starter, positive and enthusiastic, who acts without being asked, spots what needs doing, and solves problems on the front foot.
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Communication and writing skills. A strong, clear writer as well as a thoughtful communicator in person. Comfortable adapting tone and style across contexts.
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Planning and organisation. Highly organised, able to manage competing priorities, meet deadlines and keep work on track.
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Attention to detail. Meticulous and thorough, ensuring accuracy while maintaining awareness of the broader organisational context.
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Judgement and discretion. Exercises sound judgement,



professionalism and confidentiality when supporting senior leaders and external stakeholders.
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Technical competence. Robust capability with Google Workspace (Mail, Drive, Calendar) and experience using project management and collaboration tools including Asana and Slack. Proficiency with AI and automated workflows.
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Prior formal experience as an Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant is not required. We care much more about the qualities above than about job titles on a résumé.
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Key Responsibilities:
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Provide proactive diary management for both the CEO and the Founder, including scheduling, correspondence and meeting logistics.
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Track actions arising from meetings and conversations, and proactively follow up to make sure they happen.
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Use judgement about which inbound requests and follow-ups are genuinely important to ELA's strategy and priorities, escalating what matters and filtering out what doesn't.
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Organise travel including flights, accommodation and meetings.
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Maintain organised digital filing and archiving systems, including coding receipts.
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Take charge of special projects when requested.
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Track funding partner and other stakeholder reporting deadlines and support the preparation and coordination of reports and communications.
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Support regular and timely communication with key stakeholders.
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Support the Project Coordinator with logistics for team events, retreats and meetings, including travel, accommodation, venues, catering and equipment.
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The role is based in Canberra but involves periodic travel within Australia, including to ELA's HQ in Sydney for team meetings and events.
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Next Steps
n To submit your application, please click 'Apply Now' by 5 pm on the closing date.
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📌 Senior Executive Assistant (Canberra)
🏢 environmentjobs.com
📍 Canberra