Executive Assistant to the Country Director - Beirut (Open for nationals only)

Anera Background

Since 1968, Anera has helped refugees and others affected by conflicts in Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan live with purpose and hope.

Anera, which has no political or religious affiliation, works on the ground with partners in Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. We mobilize resources for immediate emergency relief and for sustainable, long-term health, education, and economic development. Our staff serve in their communities, navigating complex realities to ensure assistance reaches those who need it most.

Job Overview

The Executive Assistant to the Country Director provides high-level executive, coordination, correspondence, scheduling, and logistical support to the Country Director and functional support to the Director of Operations and Director of Programs.

The position is responsible for managing the Country Director's calendar and priorities, coordinating meetings and executive documentation, monitoring and following up on priority correspondence and action points, preparing meeting notes and follow-up summaries, supporting senior visitors and delegations, and coordinating travel and executive-level events.

The position requires a high level of confidentiality, discretion, judgment, initiative, attention to detail, and professionalism, given its access to sensitive information related to senior leadership, organizational matters, staff, partners, visitors, travel, and other confidential business matters.

As the position reports directly to the Country Director, the Country Director's priorities, requests, and assignments take precedence. The position will provide functional support to the Director of Operations and Director of Programs as required, while maintaining clear communication and coordination with the Country Director.

The role works closely with the Senior Administration Officer, Operations, Procurement, Finance, Security, and other relevant departments to ensure that executive support and travel-related requirements are delivered efficiently and in accordance with Anera policies and procedures.

Key Responsibilities

1. Executive Support to the Country Director

• Manage and coordinate the Country Director's calendar, meetings, appointments, travel schedule, and administrative priorities.

• Coordinate competing meeting requests and priorities, identify scheduling conflicts, and propose appropriate solutions.

• Schedule internal and external meetings, confirm participation, coordinate meeting rooms or virtual links, and ensure required materials are prepared in advance.

• Support the Country Director in organizing priorities, deadlines, commitments, and follow-up actions.

• Prepare agendas, briefing notes, presentations, supporting documents, talking points, and other materials as requested.

• Maintain organized records of executive correspondence, meetings, decisions, action points, and other relevant materials.

• Anticipate the Country Director's needs and proactively follow up on pending actions and commitments.

• Provide functional executive support to the Director of Operations and Director of Programs as assigned and in coordination with the Country Director.

  2. Correspondence, Communication, and Follow-Up

• Monitor and organize priority emails and correspondence requiring the Country Director's attention and follow-up.

• Support the Country Director in prioritizing incoming correspondence and identifying matters requiring urgent or further action.

• Draft routine correspondence, responses, acknowledgements, and follow-up communications on behalf of the Country Director when assigned.

• Coordinate with relevant staff and departments to obtain information required for responses and follow-up.

• Track priority communications, commitments, requests, and deadlines and ensure timely follow-up with responsible individuals.

• Maintain clear follow-up trackers for outstanding requests, decisions, action points, and commitments.

• Escalate delayed or outstanding actions to the Country Director or relevant manager as appropriate.

• Ensure correspondence and follow-up records are organized and easily accessible.

• Exercise appropriate judgment regarding confidential or sensitive communications and ensure information is shared only with authorized individuals.

  3. Meetings, Minutes, and Action Tracking

• Coordinate internal and external meetings for the Country Director and other senior leadership as assigned.

• Prepare meeting agendas, briefing materials, presentations, background documents, and other required materials.

• Attend selected meetings as requested and prepare accurate meeting notes, key decisions, action points, and follow-up summaries.

• Circulate meeting notes and action points to relevant participants following approval or as instructed.

• Maintain action trackers and follow up with responsible individuals to ensure agreed actions are completed within the required timeframe.

• Prepare concise follow-up summaries highlighting outstanding actions, deadlines, and matters requiring senior leadership attention.

• Support the organization of senior management meetings, leadership discussions, and cross-departmental coordination meetings.

• Ensure confidential meeting materials and records are securely maintained and shared only with authorized participants.

  4. Confidentiality and Information Management

• Maintain strict confidentiality when handling sensitive information, correspondence, documents, schedules, travel arrangements, and matters related to senior leadership.

• Handle confidential organizational, personnel, financial, programmatic, security, partner, donor, and other sensitive information with the highest level of discretion.

• Ensure confidential information is accessed, stored, shared, and filed appropriately and only with authorized individuals on a need-to-know basis.

• Exercise sound judgment regarding the sensitivity of information and determine when matters should be escalated or referred to the appropriate manager.

• Maintain secure and organized electronic and physical filing systems for confidential executive documents.

• Ensure confidential documents and communications are not inadvertently disclosed or shared with unauthorized individuals.

• Comply with Anera's confidentiality, data protection, information security, and records management requirements.

• Report any actual or suspected unauthorized disclosure, loss, or inappropriate access to confidential information through the appropriate channels.

  5. Senior Visitor and Delegation Coordination

• Coordinate the executive and administrative aspects of visits by donors, board members, HQ/regional staff, consultants, partners, and other senior visitors.

• Prepare and maintain visitor itineraries, including meeting schedules, field visit plans, transportation, hotel arrangements, airport transfers, contact information, and other relevant logistical details.

• Coordinate with the Senior Administration Officer, Programs, Operations, Security, Communications, and other relevant teams to ensure visitor schedules are practical, safe, and well organized.

• Support the organization of donor visits, board visits, HQ missions, regional meetings, workshops, and special events.

• Coordinate meeting requirements and ensure relevant briefing materials and schedules are available to senior visitors and leadership.

• Ensure visitors receive relevant practical information and logistical details before and during their visit.

• Maintain organized records of visitor requests, itineraries, confirmations, and related documentation.

  6. Travel Coordination and Support

• Coordinate travel arrangements for the Country Director and other senior leadership as assigned, ensuring alignment with approved travel requirements and Anera policies.

• Coordinate international travel arrangements for Lebanon staff when assigned, including flight options, ticket bookings, accommodation where applicable, airport transfers, and travel itineraries.

• Work closely with the Senior Administration Officer, Operations, Procurement, Finance, and Security to ensure that travel arrangements are properly coordinated, approved, cost-effective, and compliant with organizational requirements.

• Coordinate with travel agencies, airlines, hotels, transportation providers, and other service providers as required.

• Coordinate visa-related and other travel documentation requirements where applicable.

• Ensure travelers receive complete itineraries, contact details, transportation information, and other relevant practical information.

• Follow up on travel changes, cancellations, delays, and other issues and ensure timely communication with travelers and relevant managers.

• Maintain organized records of travel requests, approvals, tickets, itineraries, invoices, confirmations, and related documentation.

• Ensure that travel coordination is appropriately divided with the Senior Administration Officer and does not duplicate office administration, fleet, or general logistics responsibilities.

  7. Executive Events and Leadership Activities

• Support the logistical and administrative coordination of senior management meetings, leadership retreats, workshops, trainings, and special events.

• Coordinate with the Senior Administration Officer and relevant departments regarding meeting rooms, refreshments, equipment, materials, transportation, and other logistical requirements.

• Ensure agendas, presentations, briefing materials, and other documents are available as required.

• Support the smooth implementation of executive-level meetings and events and resolve administrative issues through the appropriate channels.

• Maintain appropriate records of meeting and event arrangements.

  8. Coordination and Process Improvement

• Act as a coordination point between the Country Director and relevant departments on assigned administrative and organizational matters.

• Coordinate with the Director of Operations and Director of Programs on matters requiring cross-departmental follow-up, while keeping the Country Director appropriately informed.

• Track pending requests, decisions, and actions and ensure timely follow-up with responsible individuals.

• Escalate delays, challenges, or issues requiring management attention.

• Identify opportunities to improve executive support, scheduling, correspondence, follow-up, documentation, and coordination processes.

• Support the development and updating of executive support templates, trackers, checklists, and standard operating procedures.

• Ensure executive support activities comply with Anera policies, procedures, approval requirements, and documentation standards.

• Perform other duties related to executive support, coordination, and organizational priorities as assigned by the Country Director.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Management, Office Administration, Communications, Operations, or a related field preferred.

• Minimum 5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in executive assistance, executive support, senior administration, coordination, or a related field.

• Direct experience supporting senior management, executives, or senior leadership is required.

• Demonstrated experience managing executive calendars, scheduling complex meetings, coordinating correspondence, preparing meeting documentation, and following up on actions and priorities.

• Experience handling confidential and sensitive information in a professional environment is required.

• Experience coordinating senior visitors, delegations, travel, meetings, workshops, or executive-level events.

• Experience working with senior-level visitors, international staff, donors, consultants, or external stakeholders is an advantage.

• Experience in an NGO, international organization, embassy, UN agency, donor-funded program, or similar environment is strongly preferred.

• Experience working in a fast-paced and multicultural environment is an advantage.

  Required Competencies

• Excellent organizational, coordination, and time-management skills.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities, competing requests, and deadlines simultaneously.

• Excellent attention to detail and strong follow-through.

• High level of integrity, confidentiality, discretion, and professionalism.

• Strong judgment and ability to assess the sensitivity and priority of information and requests.

• Ability to anticipate needs and proactively resolve administrative and coordination challenges.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Arabic, including the ability to draft clear and professional correspondence.

• Excellent calendar management and scheduling skills.

• Strong meeting coordination, note-taking, action tracking, and follow-up skills.

• Strong travel planning and itinerary preparation skills.

• Strong proficiency in Google Workspace, including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Sheets.

• Good working knowledge of Excel or Google Sheets for trackers and follow-up tools.

• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder-management skills.

• Professional, service-oriented, proactive, reliable, and responsive.

• Ability to work independently with limited supervision and under pressure.

• Ability to interact professionally and confidently with senior leadership, staff, visitors, vendors, and external stakeholders.

• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality and exercise sound judgment when handling sensitive information.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Anera strives to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, creed, political or national views or background, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, sex, or any other factor unrelated to ability to perform the required work. Recruitment decisions are based first and foremost on merit, qualifications, and ability to perform the role.

Code of Conduct

Anera is committed to conducting its operations with the highest standards of honesty, integrity, professionalism, fairness, respect, responsibility, and sound judgment. All employees, managers, officers, and representatives are expected to uphold these standards at all times and act in accordance with their duty of loyalty to Anera.

No individual may misrepresent the organization or speak on its behalf without proper authorization. Confidential and sensitive information, including financial data, strategic plans, staff information, partner information, and beneficiary information, must be handled with the utmost discretion and only shared on a need-to-know basis, in line with Anera’s confidentiality and privacy policies.

Any violation of the Code of Conduct may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Our Values

We are inspired: We are committed to energizing, engaging, and motivating others to achieve the best outcomes for the diverse communities we serve.

We are people-centric: We are respectful and empathetic. We believe that each person, no matter their circumstances, embodies promise and has the power to shape the lives of their community and world.

We are collaborative: Teamwork and collaborative action are at the heart of how we do our work and deliver results.

We are versatile: In a region burdened by obstacles, we make the right connections to find a way and bring can-do, innovative approaches to everything we do.

We are impactful: We make a lasting difference in the lives of those we serve by delivering impactful solutions at the local community level.

We are accountable: Our words, actions, and results stay true to our mission and values.