Chief of Staff

As Chief of Staff, you will support and advise our CEO in leading ClientEarth. You will help our CEO prioritise her time to best effect, ensuring strong positive leadership of our increasingly global organisation. You will also support the CEO with effective external engagement, relationship building, and influencing – including with donors, trustees, NGOs, the media, businesses, and Government.

As a connected, organised forward thinker with emotional intelligence, judgement, and excellent drafting skills, you will help the CEO plan and prioritise; travel, time, and workload. This will allow the CEO to be deliberate in how she focuses her time and leads the organisation.

Meet your Manager

In this role you will be line managed by our CEO, Laura Clarke. Laura joined ClientEarth in September 2022, after two decades in public policy, and in diplomatic roles across Africa, Asia and Europe. Prior to joining ClientEarth Laura was British High Commissioner to New Zealand, and Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, from 2018 – 2022.

Main Duties

• Acts as a key connector between the CEO and all other parts of the organisation
• Supports with Board forward planning and engagement with Trustees
• Convenes meetings to ensure a coherent ClientEarth response
• Co-ordinates speeches, letters, articles or reports
• Works to ensure communication and information flow into and out of the CEO’s office

See the job description (below) for a full list of duties for this role.

Role requirements

• Experience of working with senior leaders, trustees, and other high level internal and external stakeholders
• Experience of working with governance processes, drafting board reports, briefings and relevant communications on behalf of executive level leaders
• Experience of working as a chief of staff or senior adviser or Executive Assistant working in complex matrix organisations
• Substantial experience and proven success in a project or team coordination role
• Strong understanding of the external context in which ClientEarth operates, including the wider NGO landscape and strong political awareness.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Fluent (CEFR level C2) in English

See the job description (below) for a full list of requirements for this role.

Note to candidates: We know that long lists of criteria can be daunting and thatsome candidates will not apply for a role unless they feel they are 100% qualified. If you feel you meet at least some of the essential criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

Further Information

Have a question about this job? Please visit our Careers site for advice on applying, FAQs, and more.

Flexible working: We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based See our Benefits page for more.

ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds.

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in the UK or Belgium

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.