Executive Assistant

Role Overview

The Executive Assistant will provide high-impact, proactive support to the Europe Chief Information and Transformation Officer (CITO). This role is the primary senior executive support to the Europe CITO, with responsibility for orchestrating a complex portfolio of technology, data, sourcing, partnership and transformation priorities across all European entities. 
The Executive Assistant will act as a trusted partner to the CITO, ensuring priorities are effectively managed, key initiatives are coordinated, and operational, governance and stakeholder activities are executed with precision and professionalism.

What you will help us to achieve

1. Strategic Executive Support and Agenda Orchestration
•    Provide executive support to the Europe CITO, enabling effective leadership across technology, transformation, sourcing and data agendas.
•    Shape and manage the CITO’s strategic agenda and forward calendar, ensuring that board, executive and steering forums are sequenced, prepared and followed up in line with European Technology priorities.
•    Manage complex, multi-stakeholder diaries and priorities, ensuring focus on the most critical transformation, governance and partnership activities.
•    Proactively anticipate the CITO’s needs, in advance of key engagements rather than reacting to last-minute requests.
2. Governance, Decision-Making and Continuous Improvement
•    Coordinate and prepare high-quality briefing packs, presentations and materials for executive, board-level and regulatory-facing meetings, consolidating inputs from multiple stakeholders.
•    Own the end-to-end process for recording, tracking and escalating actions and decisions arising from key meetings chaired or attended by the CITO, ensuring accountability and timely closure.
•    Support enterprise-wide change governance activities aligned to the CITO’s mandate, including preparation of progress updates, risk/issues summaries and key messages for senior forums.
•    Contribute to continuous improvement of the executive support team, governance processes and ways of working across European Technology and the CITO function, identifying opportunities to streamline workflows and enhance effectiveness.
3. External Partners, Sourcing and Commercial Engagement
•    Support the CITO’s engagement with external partners, suppliers and strategic vendors, including preparation for sourcing, procurement and partnership discussions.
•    Coordinate CITO engagement with pan-European strategic partners, alliances and key suppliers, ensuring consistent messaging and disciplined follow-up across markets.
4. Transformation Portfolio and Change Enablement
•    Coordinate European-wide leadership events, town halls and transformation communications in support of the CITO’s agenda, ensuring clear, consistent messages across entities.
•    Provide flexible on-site and virtual support for key meetings, partner engagements and leadership events as required, ensuring professional delivery and strong stakeholder experience.
5. Stakeholder Management and Cross-Functional Collaboration
•    Build strong, collaborative working relationships with executive assistants and senior leaders across Irish Life Group, Canada Life UK, Canada Life Europe and Central Technology Services – Europe to coordinate scheduling, content and follow-through.
•    Confidently engage senior internal and external stakeholders, representing the CITO’s office with professionalism, discretion and sound judgement.
6. Executive Office Operations Oversight
•    Oversee executive travel, expenses and key administrative processes with a strong focus on efficiency, compliance and professionalism.
•    Handle sensitive and confidential information with absolute discretion, particularly in relation to organisational change, sourcing decisions and strategic partnerships.
•    Ensure that the CITO office has appropriate operational and administrative support in place (e.g. travel, expenses, logistics), working with the wider support team so that these activities are managed effectively without diluting the strategic focus of this role.

What you will need to be successful in the role

The ideal candidate will demonstrate:

Experience and Knowledge
•    Significant experience supporting C-suite or equivalent senior executives in a complex, international or matrix organisation.
•    Strong understanding of executive-level operations within technology, transformation or change-focused environments.
•    Advanced proficiency in Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, including preparation of executive-level materials.
Skills and Capabilities
•    Exceptional organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced setting.
•    Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence engaging senior internal and external stakeholders.
•    High degree of professionalism, judgement and discretion when handling sensitive business matters.
Personal Attributes
•    Proactive, self-directed and able to anticipate executive needs rather than simply respond to requests.
•    Comfortable operating across ambiguous or evolving organisational structures and priorities, remaining calm and effective under pressure.
•    Strong collaborator with the ability to work effectively across technology, transformation, procurement and data teams.
•    Flexible and resilient, with a solution-oriented mindset.