Main duties/ Responsibilities
The Senior Administrative Assistant
• Provides full administrative and secretarial support for the Managing Director, Director and team (including preparing letters, emails, travel, and reports and diary management).
• Communicates with internal/external contacts including high ranking officials in donor markets, on behalf of the Managing Director, including drafting and editing of standard and specific donor correspondence.
• Ensures Managing Director and team members are prepared for major donor engagement including planning logistics, compiling briefings.
• Anticipates and pro-actively plans for future team engagements and needs.
• Ensures proper maintenance and retrieval system of team records.
• Works in close collaboration with Operations team to manage contracts for consultants and interns, ensuring smooth processing through Gavi’s SAP and Zycus systems.
• Administers the team’s budget, provides regular reports to Director and thorough follow up of expenditures and budget balance.
• Screens and prioritises incoming communications and workflow, determines routing for action, and ensures logging (for official correspondence) and rigorous follow-up.
• Prepares the Gavi web site updates to reflect donor commitments as necessary.
• Builds excellent, harmonious working relationships with colleagues and external contacts.
• Supports external meetings and events as may be required.
Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistently with the department needs.
QUALIFICATIONS
Academic:
• Completion of at least two years of university education. Training in secretarial/administrative field highly desirable.
Work experience:
• Significant career in secretarial/administrative field showing of progressively responsible work, including supporting a senior leader/team of a large private or public sector organisation for at least 3 years.
• Understanding of, and demonstrated ability to interact and engage with, public and private donors.
• Proven ability to quickly adapt to a complex administrative and organisational environment.
• Experience working in multiple countries/international environment an asset.
Skills/Competencies:
• High performer with a proven track record of operating in a high-pressure environment with tight timelines and often under extreme confidentiality.
• Discretion to protect sensitive information.
• Advanced secretarial and administrative skills, with excellent written and oral communications.
• Technology savvy, ability to work across multiple platforms.
• Ability to make decisions and operate independently, as well as judgement to know when to seek guidance.
• Ability to multitask, tracking and managing many active priorities in parallel.
• Very highly organised and structured, good planner, with a high level of attention to detail.
• Ability to support both international and local travel needs .
• Excellent interpersonal skills, diplomatic abilities, and cultural sensitivity to engage stakeholders in over 100 countries Gavi works with. Understanding of protocol highly desirable.
• As an external face of Gavi, ability to generate respect.
• Demonstrated team player, with ability to operate in a multi-cultural environment, and establish harmonious and effective working relationships..
• Pro-active, with an ability to anticipate and address needs.
• Flexibility and willingness to work outside normal business hours as needed during peak periods or during urgent situations. An ethos to do what it takes.
Languages:
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Additional languages an asset.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children's lives and protecting people's health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of nearly 760 million children and the prevention of more than 13 million future deaths. At the Global Vaccine Summit in June 2020, world leaders pledged more than $8.8bn to ensure Gavi can continue to amplify this work and immunize another 300 million children by 2025.
The Resource Mobilisation and Private Sector Partnerships Department supports Gavi by ensuring sustainable donor financing and resource innovation. This includes (i) securing donor pledges and deepening relationships with existing donors while helping to elevate Gavi and immunisation on global agendas, (ii) diversifying Gavi’s financing base to include new and emerging donors and the private sector (iii) bringing to bear the innovation and resources of the private sector through new and expanded partnerships, innovative financing, and other initiatives; and (iv) leading key fundraising and reporting exercises.
Under the oversight of the Managing Director for GRAF, the team drives sovereign and private sector fundraising and engagement, leveraging ODA, innovative financial instruments, and ambitious new public-private partnerships, in key industrialized markets with a particular focus on Canada, UK, Europe, the US and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The team also builds visibility and trust across a range of national, regional, and global forums through smart donor relations and campaigning with civil society advocates, parliamentarians and influential voices.
Gavi is now preparing the road to its next replenishment for 2026 – 2030, in a context of poly-crisis for the international community. Support from existing donors and engagement of new donors will be critical to enable the organization to meet its objectives.
