Executive Assistant to CEO & Head of Coverage

Job Summary

As the Executive Assistant to the CEO and Head of Coverage in South Africa, you will play a pivotal role in orchestrating the smooth operation of senior leadership activities. Your primary focus will be to provide comprehensive administrative support, ensuring that the CEO and the leadership team can focus on strategic priorities without distraction. This involves coordinating departmental workflows, proactively managing day-to-day tasks, and providing timely follow-up on critical matters. You will act as a trusted liaison, facilitating effective communication across internal teams and external stakeholders to uphold high performance standards and superior client service.

This position requires a high level of discretion and confidentiality, given the sensitivity of information handled. You will be expected to anticipate needs, adapt to evolving priorities and work with agility to deliver outstanding organisational support in a dynamic and fast-paced banking environment. Your contribution is vital to the achievement of overall country objectives and the seamless execution of business activities at the executive level.

Key Responsibilities

The role involves a diverse set of responsibilities vital to the efficient functioning of the executive office and broader department. Your key duties will include:

• Coordinating and scheduling meetings, conferences, and video calls, ensuring seamless logistics and effective participation by all relevant stakeholders.
• Drafting, typing, and managing correspondence on behalf of the CEO and their team, demonstrating precision and professionalism in all communications.
• Handling inbound communications including mail, faxes, and telephone enquiries related to the executive office, providing timely and courteous responses.
• Maintaining an organised and retrievable filing system, both digital and manual, to support quick access to critical documents and records.
• Planning and organising complex travel arrangements including flights, accommodation, visas, and itineraries for the executive team and visiting clients or partners.
• Processing invoices and travel expenses accurately and ensuring timely submission to relevant cost centres, supporting fiscal accountability.
• Assisting with event management and coordination for client or internal staff functions, contributing to a positive organisational culture.
• Supporting onboarding activities by managing resource requisition submissions (RMS) and ensuring smooth integration for new team members.
• Upholding the highest standards of integrity and confidentiality in line with company policies and applicable regulatory requirements.

Skills

Successful candidates will bring a robust set of skills and experience that enable high performance in a demanding executive support role, including:

• Proven capability in managing complex and dynamic diary schedules with competing priorities and tight deadlines.
• Experience preparing detailed meeting minutes, reports, professional presentations, and analytical spreadsheets that aid decision-making processes.
• Demonstrated expertise in organising comprehensive travel logistics at an executive level, encompassing multi-leg journeys and visa requirements.
• Exceptional proficiency in computer applications essential for the role, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and internet navigation, supporting efficient work processes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to interact effectively with diverse stakeholders inside and outside the organisation.
• Highly developed organisational skills with an acute attention to detail and a proactive approach to task management.

Qualifications And Experience

• A minimum of a Matric (Grade 12) qualification or equivalent, with a preference for additional relevant certifications or training.
• Between five to seven years of demonstrable experience providing executive-level administrative support, ideally within a financial services or corporate environment.
• Proven expertise in managing demanding and pressurised executive diaries, balancing shifts in priorities with efficiency.
• Experience documenting complex meetings with extensive minutes, creating executive presentations, and compiling financial and operational spreadsheets.
• Proven track record in managing multi-faceted travel arrangements with attention to detail and timeline sensitivity.
• Advanced computer literacy, including proficiency with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), and comfortable navigating internet research tools.
• Typing skills with a high degree of accuracy and speed, ideally exceeding 80 words per minute.
• Preferred experience includes exposure to working in multinational organisations and a professional financial services environment, where confidentiality and high ethical standards are critical.

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together We

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What We Offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.