Head of the Office of the Secretary General

JOB PURPOSEAmnesty International is seeking an outstanding leader to head the Office of the Secretary General (OSG). This is a pivotal role providing strategic, operational, and managerial support to the Secretary General (SG) and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), ensuring the effective delivery of Amnesty's priorities and strengthening its impact on the global human rights agenda.ABOUT YOUOur ideal candidate will have extensive experience working with senior executives in large, complex international organisations, with a proven ability to identify priorities, support effective decision-making, and manage high-level agendas. You will be able to demonstrate strong political judgement, discretion, and knowledge of global human rights issues, alongside expertise in areas such as project management, planning and monitoring systems. Skilled at working under pressure and balancing competing priorities, you will be a strategic thinker and able to communicate clearly to diverse audiences. Fluency in English is required, with proficiency in an additional language highly desirable, ideally French or Spanish. The successful candidate will also bring strong leadership and staff management experience, excellent communication and negotiation skills, and a track record of effective budget and resource management, with the ability to build constructive relationships across a wide network.This role is based in London, and requires you to be in the office at least twice a week.MAIN RESPONSIBILITIESWorks closely with the SG to shape their priorities, objectives, agenda and schedules, ensuring close alignment with the SLT objectives, and helping drive coordination with colleagues across the Amnesty movement. Monitor implementation of their priorities, ensuring timely delivery of outputs and progress on outcomes.Promotes cross-functional collaboration within the organization, especially with regard to the SG priorities, identifying blockages and working to resolve them in collaboration with the International Secretariat (IS) management team.Leads on the provision of overall strategic and operational support to the SG, ensuring all necessary information and support for internal and external activities are provided in a timely manner and to a high standard.Manages relevant staff of the OSG ensuring their effective deployment to support the SG and the SLT.Manage the budget of the OSG, including through effective financial planning and reporting.Provide management of key internal and external stakeholder-relationships, ensuring timely delivery of information, and effective logistical support.Ensures effective liaison with the SLT, IS management team, and Movement stakeholders helping set up agenda and ensure coordinated IS-wide action on complex policy and operational matters of direct relevance to the SG's priorities, identifying and addressing problems, ensuring timely, effective interventions to deliver projects of critical importance to the SG and Amnesty International.Contributes to the articulation and implementation of the overall strategic and operational direction of the organisation, working to ensure the SG's role, priorities and agenda are well represented and understood in critical internal decision-making processes.In close collaboration with the Deputy Secretary General (DSG), provides decision-making support to the SLT including for the preparation of SLT meeting's agendas, quality control and production of papers, recording, tracking and communicating decisions.Supports the SG and the SLT to fulfil their accountability commitments by drafting communications and compiling reports to the International Board and other governance bodies. In cooperation with the OSG Special Project Researcher/Manager (SPM/R), leads on detailing, incubating, and accelerating projects and initiatives that are priorities as agreed with the SG, including by establishing, commissioning and managing cross-IS programmes, and IS-Amnesty Movement project teams, defining budgets, and monitoring delivery, as appropriate and by driving new ways of working.Upholds a high level of confidentiality and discretion in handling sensitive information related to the organisation and its executives.Contributes to the articulation and implementation of the overall strategic and operational direction of the organisation, working to ensure the SG's role, priorities and agenda are well represented and understood in critical internal decision-making processes.SKILLS AND EXPERIENCEExtensive experience of working with high-level senior executives in large, complex and international organizations identifying issues requiring their attention and formulating strategies for addressing them.Proven experience in facilitating and supporting effective consultation and decision-making processes to determine necessary information, appropriate levels of consultation and decision-making, and the potential impact of decisions on related areas including meeting agendas.Experience of working under pressure, managing conflicting demands, meeting deadlines and adjusting priorities.Demonstrated experience of exercising sound political judgement, identifying critical issues and making decisions requiring discretion. Knowledge of human rights with experience of engaging with a wide range of human rights issues across multiple regions of the world.Expertise in at least two of the following areas: knowledge management, system for planning and monitoring, complex projects management, meeting facilitation.Demonstrated ability to think strategically and to identify opportunities and threats and to recommend appropriate courses of action.Proven experience in synthesising large volumes of information, identifying the key components and briefing a varied audience on these, practising discretion where appropriate.Excellent oral and written communication and negotiation skills including proven experience of representation to a high level and conveying complex information accurately and precisely.Fluent in English and in at least one other language preferably French and/or Spanish.Experience in line managing staff, including task management, performance management, professional development and support to wellbeing.Experience in designing, monitoring and adjusting plans and budgets.Ability to establish and maintain relationships with a broad range of people across an organization to establish support and garner engagement to achieve results. Please see attached job description for more information on responsibilities, skills and experience required.ABOUT USAmnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. We reach almost every country in the world.Our aim is simple: an end to human rights abuses. Independent, international and influential, we campaign for justice, fairness, freedom and truth wherever they're denied. And whether we're applying pressure through powerful research or direct lobbying, mass demonstrations or online campaigning, we're all inspired by hope for a better world. One where human rights are respected and protected by everyone, everywhere.At Amnesty International, we are passionate about what we do and we are proud of our achievements as a movement. To compensate our employees for the critical work they do, we reward them through a combination of an attractive and sector competitive salary and benefits package, high levels of engagement and involvement, and a commitment to employee development.Benefits include 37 days annual leave (inclusive of public holidays and grace days), pension scheme, employee assistance programme, life assurance and many more benefits designed to suit your own personal lifestyle. All of this, in a professional, engaging environment.For further information on our benefits, please visit https://www.amnesty.org/en/careers/benefits/WHAT WE HOPE YOU WILL DO NEXTIf you are talented, passionate about human rights and want to use your skills, knowledge and experience to change the world then we would encourage you to click ‘Apply for this Role' below.Freedom, Justice, Equality. Let's get to work.N.B. We reserve the right to close a vacancy BEFORE the closing date in the event of an overwhelming response or a change in business priorities, therefore we recommend you apply now if you are interested.Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Amnesty International believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable. Together, we're committed to being an anti-racist organisation with a diverse workforce that can better tackle the global human rights challenges that face our world today. We know that different voices, ideas, perspectives, experiences and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of people around the world.We are committed to building and sustaining an anti-racist, culturally diverse and inclusive organisation, where all employees feel valued, have a sense of belonging and an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential. We therefore strongly welcome applications from suitably qualified people regardless of their background; including underrepresented groups, LGBTQI+ individuals and those who may have or are living with a disability.To see our full statement please visit this link: Racial equality, equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion policy - Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International is committed to being an inclusive employer and providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all. If you would like to receive any information in a different way or would like us to do anything differently to help you apply for our roles, please get in touch with the team by emailing recruitment@amnesty.org