Job Description
ICANN’s Policy Development Support function provides professional services and secretariat support to ICANN’s global community of Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees, helping them develop policy and advice and operate in accordance with ICANN’s Bylaws and applicable procedures.
The Executive Assistant provides administrative, organizational, and coordination support to the Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support (SVP) and helps the function operate effectively. The role manages the SVP’s calendar, travel, expenses, meeting preparation, and other core executive support activities. It also supports follow-through by preparing agendas and briefing materials, capturing decisions and action items, compiling reports, coordinating team activities, supporting budget development and tracking, and maintaining systems for requests, commitments, deadlines, and priorities.
This role is suited to a highly organized, adaptable professional who learns quickly, communicates clearly, and is interested in developing broader capabilities in executive support, project coordination, and organizational operations. The position works with colleagues and stakeholders across functions, cultures, seniority levels, and time zones in ICANN’s global environment.
Key Responsibilities & Duties:
Executive Support and Priority Management
- Manage the SVP’s calendar, including meetings, appointments, travel, preparation time, and competing priorities.
- Coordinate scheduling across multiple time zones with ICANN staff and external stakeholders.
- Review incoming requests, gather relevant context, identify conflicts, and help align the SVP’s time with organizational and functional priorities.
- Create and maintain a practical system for tracking requests, decisions, deadlines, follow-up items, and commitments.
- Anticipate scheduling, preparation, and follow-through risks and raise them early with proposed solutions.
- Arrange domestic and international travel and prepare itineraries and supporting materials.
- Prepare and submit timely and accurate expense reports and complete related administrative processes.
Team and Event Coordination
- Coordinate Policy leadership meetings, all-hands meetings, planning sessions, and other internal events.
- Support team offsites, including schedules, venues, travel, budgets, materials, vendors, catering, technology, and follow-up.
- Coordinate selected activities associated with ICANN Public Meetings and other major events.
- Support procurement, contracting, purchase-order, invoice, and payment processes as needed.
- Serve as a reliable coordination point for routine requests involving the SVP or the broader function.
- Work collaboratively with other departments and external stakeholders.
Reporting, Budget, and Information Management
- Coordinate and compile monthly and other recurring functional reports.
- Review submissions for completeness, consistency, clarity, and alignment with required formats.
- Partner with the Policy leadership team to support development of the function’s annual budget by coordinating inputs, documentation, assumptions, deadlines, and revisions.
- Maintain budget trackers and prepare summaries of actual and forecasted spending, available balances, commitments, and significant variances.
- Work with Finance, budget owners, and Policy leadership to clarify information, resolve discrepancies, and identify emerging budget risks.
- Maintain calendars and trackers for major deliverables, organizational objectives, reporting requirements, budget cycles, and recurring deadlines.
- Prepare presentations, spreadsheets, summaries, correspondence, and other materials.
- Organize information so Policy leadership can readily identify priorities, upcoming decisions, dependencies, risks, resource considerations, and required follow-up.
- Prepare materials and dashboards/reports for board meetings.
Meeting Preparation and Follow-Through
- Coordinate leadership, team, cross-functional, and external meetings.
- Develop agendas and ensure relevant materials and briefing information are available in advance.
- As familiarity in the role grows, attend selected meetings and capture concise notes, decisions, action items, owners, and deadlines.
- Maintain action-item trackers and follow up with responsible colleagues.
- Organize and maintain appropriate records while protecting confidential and sensitive information.
Process Improvement and Development
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs):
(Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions)
- Demonstrated experience using Outlook, MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint along with other Microsoft 365 tools.
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple responsibilities, deadlines, and sources of information.
- Ability to establish order and maintain follow-through in a fast-moving environment where priorities may change.
- Clear and professional written and verbal communication skills.
- Sound judgment and discretion when handling confidential, sensitive, or incomplete information.
- Strong attention to detail while maintaining awareness of broader priorities and intended outcomes.
- Ability to learn unfamiliar subject matter, systems, terminology, and organizational relationships quickly.
- Proactive approach to identifying needs, resolving routine issues, and escalating matters appropriately.
- Ability to work effectively and with diplomacy with colleagues and stakeholders across cultures, functions, seniority levels, and time zones.
- Basic financial and numerical skills, including maintaining budget trackers, reconciling information, identifying inconsistencies, and preparing spending summaries.
- Proficiency with common office, calendar, spreadsheet, presentation, virtual meeting, and collaboration tools.
- Ability to learn and use financial, procurement, expense, reporting, workflow, and artificial intelligence tools.
- Ability to remain neutral and professional when supporting ICANN’s multistakeholder policy environment.
- Interest in ICANN’s mission, public-interest role, and global work.
Education and Experience Requirements:
- Bachelor's Degree preferred
- Minimum five (5) years of experience performing advanced and/or executive level administrative, secretarial, and clerical functions in a corporate environment required or equivlent years of related work experience if without a degree
- Prior experience directly supporting a senior executive is preferred.
- Experience coordinating meetings, preparing written materials, tracking actions, compiling reports, or maintaining budgets is strongly preferred.
- Experience with spreadsheets, expenses, invoices, purchase orders, or financial tracking is desirable.
Languages:
- Fluency, both written and spoken, in English is required
- ICANN is a global organization that values diversity; preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated skills in additional languages besides English
Working Conditions & Physical Requirements:
- Work location is ICANN’s Los Angeles Office
- Work is performed in a normal office environment with limited privacy and some exposure to background noise
- ICANN currently employs a hybrid work policy with some required days in the office per week. This is subject to change.
- International travel may be required to support ICANN related meetings as requested for lengths of 7-10 days for each trip, approximately three times per year, likely on different continents
- Comfort level with an international work environment that requires availability at times outside normal business hours
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand and walk. The employee regularly is required to sit. The employee is frequently required to talk or hear; use hands and arms to reach, handle or feel. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
- The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds
