Senior Executive Assistant

Location: Vancouver, BC

Employment Type: Full Time / Hybrid / Term (3-year fixed term contract)

Language Designation: Both English Essential and English/French Bilingual (BBB) positions

Posting Close Date: February 16, 2025

About Destination Canada
Tourism is the heartbeat of communities from coast to coast to coast. At Destination Canada, our aspiration for the tourism industry is to generate wealth and wellbeing for all of Canada and enrich the lives of our guests. Our mission is to influence supply and build demand for the benefit of locals, communities and visitors through leading research, alignment with public and private sectors, and marketing Canada nationally and abroad. We seek diverse, ingenious thinkers teeming with intellectual curiosity and a deep desire to grow Canada's tourism industry – strengthening the socio-cultural, environmental and economic vitality tourism brings to Canada.

About the role:
We are seeking a Senior Executive Assistant to provide advanced administrative, operational, and executive support to our Vice Presidents and C-Suite Executives. In this role, you will oversee and implement a wide range of administrative services, including calendar management, travel and event coordination, providing financial support, information management, and communication services.

You will also serve as a central point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, addressing emerging issues with discernment, proactivity and an excellent understanding of organizational issues. As a Senior Executive Assistant, you will demonstrate a deep understanding of executive needs and organizational nuances, effectively handle complex and high-stakes responsibilities, and represent the Executive's brand and interests. This position also includes providing project coordination support to the Executive and their wide organizational unit. If you are known for your leadership, proactivity and ability to understand the environment, we'd love to hear from you.

Key accountabilities

Strategic Executive Support

• Plans, directs and coordinates the development and delivery of executive services required to meet the overall business needs of the Executive. Proactively identifies and addresses Executive's needs, manages processes and workflows seamlessly, manages the executive's time effectively and in line with priorities.
• Advises the Executive on relevant issues and remains up-to-date on emerging issues.
• Maintains and fosters effective liaison with other areas of the organization and stakeholders in order to manage and coordinate emerging issues for a timely resolution.
• Assesses the urgency and sensitivity of issues and requests to the Executive and informs senior management and other stakeholders of priorities requiring immediate attention; follows-up on priorities.
• Researches issues and acquires supporting documents, drafts correspondence, reports, and decision-making documents.

Project Coordination

• Supports in the execution and planning of various projects, including setting timelines, managing project schedules, and tracking key milestones.
• Coordinates tasks, roles and responsibilities among project team members, ensuring deadlines are met and deliverables are complete on time and on budget.
• Coordinate the development of briefing notes and memos for the board meetings, ensuring all materials are accurate, concise, and aligned with strategic priorities. This includes managing timelines and facilitating the review and approval process to deliver final materials.

Communications

• Acts as a focal point and gatekeeper for incoming inquiries and requests for the Executive.
• Manages and organizes a high volume of incoming and outgoing correspondences and ensures that all outgoing correspondence meets protocol requirements and internal standards.
• Develops and maintains communications links and an extensive network with senior management, partners, senior officials of industry, etc. to foster effective working relationships for the management and coordination of sensitive issues; and ensures collaboration and identifies, coordinates and advises on key requirements and expectations of the Executive.
• Manages information flow and quality control of documents (i.e. presentations, handouts, meeting materials, briefings). Edits documentation for appropriate language, style and grammar.
• Routes and responds to questions/requests, prioritizes issues and ensures that they are handled accordingly.

Event & Travel Coordination

• Arranges and coordinates meeting and event logistics for the Executive and the business unit.
• Coordinates and manages travel arrangements, bookings, and travel expenses for the Executive(s).
• Prepares detailed itineraries and agendas.

Calendar Management & Meeting Preparation

• Arranges conference calls and meetings for the Executive.
• Develops and circulates meeting materials, including, but not limited to meeting agendas, documentation, and meeting minutes.
• Manages the complex needs of the Executive's schedule and calendar, which includes organizing private, sensitive and confidential meetings.
• Anticipates and maintains awareness of priorities, monitors tasks and deadlines, anticipates Executives' needs, and makes critical decisions to prioritize meetings.

Administrative Support

• Prepares, reviews, and proofreads documents, reports, presentations and briefings, and handles meeting minutes when necessary.
• Manages administrative tasks related to service providers, including credit cards, travel arrangements, office supplies, beverages, and remote conferencing. Ensures these products and services are consistently available, and that they follow established policies and procedures.
• Interprets and applies established Destination Canada procedures, and identifies courses of action to resolve administrative issues.
• Provides advice, information and instructions to Destination Canada employees related to administrative and other services and Destination Canada control features required for those services.
• Coordinates and administers contracts, including tracking, routing documents for approval, and managing sign-off on contracts and partnership agreements.
• Supports the business unit(s) with contract coordination, Statements of Work, vendor performance management, and tracking spend with individual suppliers.

Financial Support

• Manages day-to-day financial duties, including processing and managing invoices and expenses and reviewing monthly GL statement, while following financial and procurement policies.
• Monitors and reports on financial activities, ensuring compliance with established guidelines and standards.
• Prepares budget and financial reports, including variance and forecast reports, and provides advice and recommendations on line items.

Information Management

• Compiles and manages the updating and storage of important documentation on behalf of the Executive and the business unit.
• Protects sensitive information and upholds confidentiality of information.

Other Duties

• Performs other related duties.
• Provides backup for other EA or Senior EA positions when needed.

What you need

• Successful completion of post-secondary education in administration or related field or an acceptable combination of education, training and experience.
• 5+ years of experience as an Executive Assistant.
• 3+ years of experience providing executive services to C-suite executives or senior leadership.
• Comprehensive knowledge of administrative practices and procedures including invoice processing, budget tracking, contracts, expense claims, travel arrangements, calendar management, meeting arrangements and minutes, filing and records management.
• Advanced knowledge of executive support practices and techniques.
• Excellent multi-tasking, organizational, and prioritization skills.
• Superior attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
• Ability to develop comprehensive and deep understanding of the Executive's strategic objectives and priorities, needs, and preferences.
• Ability to develop deep understanding of the strategic goals, priorities and operations of the BU as well as Destination Canada's governance structure, external environment, objectives, activities, programs, partnerships, issues and operations.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, ability to prepare, edit, and manage high-level correspondence, documents, reports, presentations, briefings with an understanding of the audience, purpose and context.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and protect private and highly sensitive information.
• Advanced problem-solving skills. Strategic foresight with the ability to proactively identify and address the Executive's needs before they arise and mitigate problems in advance.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, able to represent the Executive professionally, diplomatically and effectively with high level stakeholders.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to develop strong relationships with internal and external contacts at senior levels.
• Ability to manage issues effectively including conducting research, briefing the Executive and providing advice.
• Ability to handle sensitive issues and interactions with exceptional professionalism, diplomacy and tact.
• Exercises sound judgment to make decisions independently where appropriate and escalating to the Executive when necessary.
• Excellent project coordination skills, with the ability to set timelines, coordinate tasks, and ensure deliverables are completed on time.
• High level proficiency in MS Office Suite, virtual meeting tools, and collaboration tools.

It would be great if you also had

• Knowledge of the tourism industry.

Compensation
Salary range: $63,707 - $79,633
Within the range, the base pay offered is determined by multiple factors, including job-related skills and relevant education/experience. Please note starting salaries for new hires typically fall between the minimum and mid-point of the range, to support internal equity and allow room for progression as employees grow and excel in their roles. The range above reflects base pay only and does not include the competitive at-risk pay program and benefits that we offer

Other components of our total rewards offerings include:

• Extended health and dental benefits.
• Minimum 3 weeks of accrued vacation plus other paid time off.
• Employee assistance program.
• Defined contribution pension plan.
• Generous parenthood top-up.
• Flexible working options like compressed workweek and hybrid model.
• Support towards your professional growth with learning and development opportunities, mentorship and more.

Things you should know:

• This role follows a hybrid work arrangement, where work is performed onsite at least 2-3 days per week. Please note the work arrangement is subject to change.
• We are looking to fill several openings for this role across a variety of interesting departments, including Marketing, Finance, and Industry Engagement.
• These openings have a fixed end date— one of is an 18-month maternity leave coverage term role, the other openings are three-year term roles.
• Several openings are in unionized roles.

At Destination Canada, we believe that Canada's diversity is its greatest asset and is what touches travellers' hearts most deeply. To that end, we are committed to inclusive leadership within our workplace, workforce, and interactions with partners and travellers alike. Destination Canada is an equal opportunity employer committed to reflecting Canada's diversity through fair and accessible hiring and employment practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. If you require accommodations at any point in the recruitment process, please reach out to accessibility@destinationcanada.com.

We know that applying for a new job can be both exciting and intimidating, and we sincerely appreciate your interest and effort. Only those applicants under consideration will be contacted.
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