Role: Executive Assistant
Contract: Permanent, Full Time
Location: Hybrid working. Cornwall or London office three days per week, home working two days per week.
Job Purpose
The Executive Assistant will provide administrative and internal and external stakeholder management support to the Executive Director. The role will also provide some support to the Director of Finance and Administration, and the wider team.
Eligible candidates should be extremely organised, have excellent communication and the confidence to independently manage a wide variety of tasks and stakeholders. They must have relevant experience in supporting executive roles and be enthusiastic and proactive in completing a wide variety of vital tasks independently.
The position will be hybrid, with 3 days per week (Tues-Thurs) based in Oceana’s UK offices in Newquay, Cornwall or Paddington, London. Regular national, and occasional international, travel will be required to meet team members and stakeholders in geographically diverse locations, including Washington, DC.
About Oceana UK
Oceana UK is focused on some of the biggest threats facing UK seas, including protecting seabed habitats, ending overfishing, and preventing new offshore oil and gas developments. We fight for UK seas to get the protections they deserve through highly visible campaigns and detailed policy interventions to secure measurable changes to rebuild and maintain ocean abundance and health. We act as a vital public-policy interface – raising the profile of our issues through campaigns, science, communications, and expeditions, and directly influencing policymakers and politicians.
We are now at a pivotal moment of growth, impact, and development. We have delivered meaningful progress in our first full three years of operations, helping secure major victories to protect and restore UK seas, including protecting huge areas of our seas from industrial fishing and stopping new offshore oil and gas expansion. Working closely with our international team, we are now evolving our organisation and campaigns to deliver even greater impact in the next 3-5 years, underpinned by strengthened funder relationships.
Our small, experienced, and highly motivated team are based in London and Cornwall, coming together both digitally and in person as part of developing and delivering our ambitious campaign strategy to restore ocean biodiversity and abundance. We’re proud of the team we’re creating here in the UK, and we’d love for you to join us.
Responsibilities
-
Support the ED to align time, attention and decision-making with organisational priorities, ensuring focus on high-impact work.
-
Provide diary support to the Executive Director, including coordination of meetings, focus-time, effective travel planning, and other cross-team calendar management.
-
Provide inbox management support to the Executive Director, assisting with task and diary prioritisation.
-
Provide administrative support to the Executive Director, including travel bookings, expense reporting, and credit card statement reconciliations.
-
Act as the first point of contact for the organization, including monitoring and responding to email inbox.
-
Provide a liaison point between the ED and senior leaders, staff, and external stakeholders, ensuring timely follow-up, actions, and clear communication.
-
Proatively coordinate and manage correspondence, briefings, meeting memos, departmental reports, and presentations on behalf of the Executive Director, ensuring timeliness, accuracy, and alignment with the ED’s voice.
-
Attend meetings to capture notes and follow up actions, ensuring these are circulated and completed.
-
Use a high degree of tact, judgment, and strong interpersonal skills to address timely correspondence, minimizing handling by the Executive Director.
-
Manage occasional internal and external events (in-person and virtual), including planning and managing vendors, venues, online platforms, guestlists and invites, run of shows.
-
Organise and manage external, departmental and international meetings, including scheduling, drafting agendas, taking notes, reviewing action items, and maintaining relevant documents.
-
Follow up on assignments given by the Executive Director to direct reports and provide the Executive Director with periodic updates.
-
Support the coordination of campaign and fundraising tasks including mailouts, guestlists, reports, updates, as required.
-
Arrange couriers, order office supplies, and support the Director of Finance and Administration with other office administration as required.
-
Support effective functioning of the UK leadership team, by scheduling meetings, preparing agendas, and assisting with leadership travel bookings.
-
Support Director of Finance and Administration with co-ordination of occasional full team events, and manage team travel bookings for international meetings.
-
Assist the Director of Finance and Administration with other general financial, office and HR administration tasks.
-
Travel occasionally, both nationally and internationally, to meet with team members and wider internal and external stakeholders.
Other responsibilities as appropriate and necessary to achieve organisational objectives.
-
Requirements
-
At least 5 years of professional experience in executive assistant roles (essential), ideally with some experience and understanding of an NGO or Not For Profit working environment.
-
Alongside required professional experience, proven relevant training courses and certifications will be advantageous, e.g. IEAA, Prince 2 or equivalent.
-
Excellent computer skills, including confident proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Outlook, Powerpoint and Excel.
-
Demonstrable experience in project delivery and project management methods.
-
Some previous experience of events planning and management is preferred.
-
Ability to represent Oceana UK in a professional, diplomatic, and responsive manner.
-
Excellent written and verbal communication with wide ranging internal and external stakeholders, and ability to communicate on behalf of executive leadership with clarity and credibility.
-
Must be friendly and enthusiastic team member, confident and motivated to build strong relationships across the team.
-
Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, with the ability to build and maintain positive relationships with all internal and external stakeholders.
-
Excellent judgement, discretion and integrity in handling sensitive and confidential matters.
-
Ability to navigate complexity, with strong problem identification and resolution skills, and ability to design and implement insightful process improvements.
-
Ability to plan and handle many tasks independently and simultaneously, with speed, accuracy, courtesy and initiative.
-
Flexibility to adjust to shifting priorities and deadlines. Must be willing to accept varied workload, including travel and some working outside of normal work-week hours.
-
Highly reliable and dependable.
-
Strong commitment to the organisation’s values and vision.
-
Some CRM / Salesforce experience is desirable.
Application Deadline: 19 July 2026
Interviews: From 30 July 2026
