Job Description
Job Title:Senior Executive Assistant to the CEO
Contract:Full-time, 2 year fixed-term with potential to extend
Cluster/Team:Executive Office
Location:Hybrid / High Wycombe – requirement to work in the office 2 days per week
Job Band:From £36,000 to £37,500 per annum plus £312 working from home allowance.
Total £36,312 to £37,812 per annum inclusive of the working from home allowance.
Reports To:CEO
Role Purpose:
Working closely with Embrace’s CEO and Leadership Group, to provide effective Board and committee governance support. You will ensure clear preparation of Board papers, managing the tracking of decisions and actions agreed by Trustees and CEO, alongside providing executive office support to the CEO. You will play a key role in supporting the charity to deliver strategic priorities and maintain strong charity governance. In addition, you will oversee the project management of organisation-wide projects and events, working in close collaboration with the CEO and Director of Shared Services, ensuring projects are delivered on time and to budget.
What success looks like:
•Board and committee meetings are well-planned, run efficiently, and have clear decisions and actions.
•Work with the CEO and members of the Leadership Group to compile and confidentially circulate Board and Committee documents, ensuring these meet regulatory requirements and Articles of Association
•The CEO’s diary and inbox are proactively managed, with strong preparation for all meetings and external engagements.
•Manage the Board of Trustees SharePoint site, ensuring files and documents are stored securely and access management.
•Board papers are consistently high quality, issued on time, and Trustees are sufficiently supported to fulfil their governance responsibilities.
•Action and decision tracking is robust, with priorities progressed and risks or delays flagged early.
•Organisation-wide projects and events are well coordinated, with clear ownership and timely reporting.
•Clear, professional communication and strong working relationships are maintained across the organisation and with trustees and external stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
Board and Governance
•Support the CEO in enabling effective governance by the Board of Trustees, ensuring meetings are well‑planned, adequately documented, and focused on oversight, strategy, and accountability.
•Coordinate the annual Board and committee calendar, ensuring meeting schedules comply with governance requirements and are agreed and communicated in a timely way.
•Work with the CEO and the Leadership Group to organise Board and committee meetings end‑to‑end, including agendas, meeting schedules, papers, logistics, accessibility arrangements, and follow‑up actions, to support informed Trustee decision‑making.
•Ensure Board and committee papers are prepared, collated, quality‑checked, and circulated in line with agreed timelines and governance standards.
•Take accurate, impartial minutes of Board and committee meetings, clearly recording decisions, challenge, conflicts of interest, and agreed actions.
•Maintain action logs and decision trackers, monitoring progress and supporting timely follow‑up to strengthen accountability and assurance.
•Support in the planning, logistics and delivery of the annual residential Board meeting, ensuring governance objectives, Trustee engagement, and compliance obligations are met.
•Maintain accurate records of Trustee terms of office, appointments, reappointments, resignations, and declarations of interest.
•Support compliance with statutory, regulatory, and internal governance requirements, including Charity Commission and Companies House expectations, safeguarding, data protection, and confidentiality.
•Assist with governance‑related processes such as Trustee onboarding, induction materials, training coordination, and annual governance reviews.
•With People Adviser, assist with Board recruitment.
•Provide expert advice to the CEO, Leadership Group and Trustees on governance processes, regulatory expectations and best practice.
•Anticipate risks to governance cycles and proactively resolve or escalate issues.
•Develop and improve operational governance processes for Board, Development Board and committees.
•Monitor changes in charity governance regulation and advise on necessary updates to policies, frameworks or processes.
Executive Support
•Manage a busy diary and inbox; prioritise requests; protect strategic focus time, ensuring timely responses to internal and external priorities.
•Advise the CEO on priorities, risks and interdependencies affecting the executive agenda.
•Make autonomous decisions on diary prioritisation, workflow sequencing and briefing requirements to protect the CEO's focus time.
•Resolve complex scheduling or prioritisation issues by applying judgement and organisational awareness.
•Make sure the CEO is fully prepared for each meeting visits, speaking engagements and external commitments.
•Draft and proof short updates, emails and letters for internal and external audiences.
•Build good working relationships across the charity and with external contacts.
•With People Advisor, coordinate all‑staff events (e.g. away days, team briefings): logistics, agendas, speakers, materials and follow‑up notes.
•Provide project support to Fundraising & Communications with the delivery of supporter events (e.g. talks, supporter gatherings): e.g. venue, materials, on‑the‑day support and post‑event follow‑up.
•Book CEO UK and overseas travel, accommodation and itineraries; manage expenses claims in line with internal procedures.
Development Board (Major Donor Development) support
•Provide the same end-to-end support to the new Development Board (major donor advisory/engagement forum) as for Board committees: scheduling, agendas, papers, logistics and follow-up.
•Coordinate with Major Donor fundraising colleagues to ensure proposals, impact briefings and stewardship materials are prepared and quality checked.
•Record accurate minutes and actions; track follow-through (e.g., introductions, briefings, visits, reporting commitments).
•Maintain a Development Board calendar, contact list and confidentiality protocols; ensure GDPR compliant handling of donor information.
•Prepare concise updates for the CEO and Chair on Development Board activities, outcomes and next steps.
•Advise fundraising colleagues on governance expectations for Development Board materials and decision‑making.
•Review and quality‑assure proposals, impact briefings and stewardship materials for accuracy, clarity and compliance.
Programme Support
•Provide support across charity projects which are part of key organisation-wide programmes, working with stakeholders to deliver project plans, timelines and clearly defined action lists.
•Coordinate project and programme meetings and workshops, including scheduling, agendas, papers, notes and follow-up actions.
•Support consistent use of agreed templates, tools and file structures (SharePoint/Teams/Planner) across the organisation so project information is accessible, up to date and easy to navigate.
•Shape programme governance processes, ensuring consistent standards for reporting and decision‑making across projects.
•Prepare concise project status updates and dashboards for the CEO, Senior Leadership Team and Board, as required.
•Support the CEO and Director of Shared Services to drive delivery across projects by monitoring actions, milestones and interdependencies.
•Identify cross‑programme risks and work with senior leads to resolve or escalate issues.
Cross‑Organisational Working / Collaboration
•Lead coordination across teams to ensure governance, Board and CEO priorities are aligned and delivered.
•Influence colleagues without line management authority to meet governance, reporting and deadline expectations.
•Support capability‑building across the organisation by good practice guidance and governance tools.
Success Milestones
3/6/12 month milestones
3 Months
•Established as a calm, reliable and trusted team member aligned with organisational culture and supporting leadership effectiveness.
•The CEO diary is running smoothly.
•Meeting packs and minutes are delivered to expectation.
•Action lists are clear and up to date.
•Early governance risks or gaps are identified and escalated with clear recommendations.
6 Months
•Trusted as a central coordination point between Trustees, CEO, senior leaders and key external stakeholders.
•The CEO has more time for priority work each week.
•Board administration and logistics delivered efficiently and effectively.
•Board papers and governance frameworks show improved consistency due to proactive coordination and influence across teams.
12 Months
•Continues organisation‑wide systems are well embedded for meetings, papers, actions and project reporting.
•CEO and Programme support run at a consistently high standard with minimal reactive work needed.
•Board administration and logistics runs smoothly
•Governance systems (SharePoint/Teams/Planner) fully embedded, with improved accessibility and compliance across the organisation.
•End-to-end governance cycle fully owned, requiring minimal CEO intervention.
Organisation-wide Contribution
•Model Embrace’s values of trust, respect, integrity, and compassion.
•Support organisation‑wide capability building
•Uphold safeguarding responsibilities and compliance with GDPR and charity regulations.
•Actively support organisational goals.
•Adhere to Embrace’s policies & procedures at all times.
Ways of working and tools
•Keep simple checklists, templates and filing so work is easy to find and repeat.
•Use Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, OneNote, SharePoint, PowerPoint, Excel) confidently; help colleagues adopt straightforward processes.
•Act as systems owner for governance‑related Microsoft 365 structures (SharePoint, Teams, Planner), ensuring they remain fit for purpose.
•Lead colleagues in adopting consistent governance workflows using digital tools.
Person specification
Essential – Experience, Knowledge and Qualifications
•Proven experience providing high-level support to a CEO or senior executive in a demanding role.
•Experience advising senior leaders on governance processes, regulatory expectations and best practice.
•Experience supporting Boards or committees, including agenda preparation, paper coordination, minute taking and action tracking.
•Strong organisational skills with exceptional attention to detail, including the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
•Advanced proficiency in cloud-based Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, OneNote, SharePoint, PowerPoint and Excel).
•Clear, professional written communication skills, with the ability to draft concise papers, updates and correspondence.
•Experience influencing others without line‑management authority to meet governance or reporting deadlines.
•Sound judgement and discretion when handling confidential, sensitive or reputationally important matters.
•Understanding of, or willingness to learn, charity governance and regulatory requirements, including trustee responsibilities.
Skills and Competencies
•Skilled in project management, planning, execution, within scope, time, and budget constraints
•Proactive planning and prioritisation, with the ability to anticipate issues and keep leaders focused on strategic priorities.
•Strong governance administration skills, including Board calendar management, paper quality control and accurate, impartial minute taking.
•Ability to anticipate governance risks and propose practical solutions.
•Ability to track decisions and actions, maintain logs and provide assurance that follow-up is progressing.
•Confidence coordinating organisation-wide activity through light-touch PMO support, including project tracking and action chasing.
•Calm, credible stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to work closely with trustees, senior leaders and external partners.
•Strong attention to process, consistency and documentation without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
•Strong influencing and negotiation skills to ensure timely delivery of papers, actions and updates from colleagues.
•Autonomous decision‑making skills, particularly around prioritising the CEO’s workload and managing governance workflow pressures.
•Technical competence in maintaining governance systems and structures
•Familiarity with Board portals and project management tools.
Tools & systems:
•Advanced user of Microsoft 365 (Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive Planner
•Project management technology.
•Cybersecurity Awareness
Desirable Experience
•Previous experience working in the charity, not-for-profit or public sector, or within a regulated environment.
•Experience supporting cross-functional projects or organisational change initiatives.
•Experience contributing to governance improvements, process reforms or compliance enhancements.
Personal Qualities
•Highly organised, dependable and trustworthy, with a strong sense of personal accountability.
•Calm and resilient under pressure, with a practical, solution-focused approach.
•Professional, approachable and confident, able to build trust with trustees, colleagues and partners.
•Collaborative and service-oriented, with a strong sense of ownership and follow-through.
•Confident guiding or advising colleagues on governance expectations and best practice.
•Values-led, demonstrating integrity, discretion and respect, and aligned with the charity’s mission and ethos.
•Comfortable influencing senior stakeholders diplomatically and constructively.
Role Requirements
•Commitment to the Christian mission, vision and values of the charity, either as a practising Christian or as someone supportive of and sympathetic to Embrace’s faith-based ethos.
•This is a hybrid role, with a minimum requirement of two days per week working from the High Wycombe office.
•Occasional UK travel is required to support the CEO and to attend external meetings or events as needed.
Benefits at Embrace the Middle East:
•To support every member of staff to work as effectively as possible, Embrace offers remote and flexible working arrangements. This includes flexi-time and home-working arrangements.
•Embrace’s flexi-time framework means that staff can vary, by agreement with their manager, their start and finish times, taking into account the needs of their work and personal preference/circumstance. Staff are required to start work between 7:30am – 10:00am and finish between 3:00pm – 6:00pm. Our core collaborative working hours are between 10:00am to 3:00pm.
•Pension - option to join from day 1. Maximum employer contribution of 10%
•Holiday - 32 days, days made up of 24 personal leave days (including 1 day off for staff’s birthday) and 8 recognised public/bank holidays – rising to 33 days after 5 years' service and 34 days after 10 years' service, plus 3 days leave between Christmas and the New Year
•Access to retail discount portal.
•Life Assurance - 3x salary.
•Employee Assistance Programme (confidential counselling, legal and financial advice) - available 24 /7, 365 days a year
•Training and development programme for all employees.
•Commitment to staff health & wellbeing.
Probationary period: 6 months
The closing date for this vacancy is Monday, 16th February 2026, at 12 noon. We strongly encourage you to submit your application before this deadline.
How to apply:
Please use the purple Apply Now button located at the top of the page to submit your application.