Executive Officer to CEO

Job Summary

The salary for this fixed term, full time role is circa £42,000 per annum.

This role is offered as a 12-month maternity cover contract, ideally starting in late-May 2026.

The Executive Officer to CEO (Maternity Cover) leads the effective running of the CEO’s office, providing strategic project management, coordination of leadership priorities, and hands-on delivery across strategy development, planning and governance.

This is a pivotal role within War Child, sitting at the heart of the organisation’s leadership and governance. Working closely with the CEO, Leadership Group, Chair and Board of Trustees, the Executive Officer to CEO plays a key role in enabling effective decision-making, organisational oversight and delivery of War Child’s ambitions for children.

Reporting to the CEO and acting as a trusted representative of their office, you will be an energetic, highly organised self-starter with the judgement and confidence to balance strategic coordination with high-quality executive support. The role combines project leadership, organisational planning and culture-focused initiatives with hands-on executive assistance.

As Company Secretary, you will also support excellence in governance by ensuring War Child meets its statutory and regulatory obligations, including compliance and reporting to the Charity Commission, Companies House and the Fundraising Regulator.

This is a hybrid role, with two days per week expected in the London office and up to three days per week working remotely. Occasional additional office attendance may be required to support meetings or key organisational activity.

Your Role

The Executive Officer to CEO is a multi-faceted role, encompassing company secretary duties for War Child, professional support to the Chair and the Board of Trustees, and executive support and project coordination for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This role sits at the heart of War Child’s governance and leadership infrastructure, supporting the Leadership Group to operate effectively and to develop the organisation’s overall direction, effectiveness, oversight and accountability.

The Executive Officer to CEO is responsible for ensuring War Child meets its statutory and regulatory obligations including compliance and reporting to the Charity Commission, Companies House the Fundraising Regulator and other relevant bodies. The role plays a critical part in enabling the CEO to fulfil their leadership responsibilities, providing high-quality organisational support, coordination and judgement to ensure priorities are managed effectively and the organisation’s ambitions for children are delivered.

Acting as a trusted internal and external representative of the CEO, the Executive Officer to CEO coordinates a range of strategic, culture and operational initiatives on behalf of the CEO’s office, working closely with the Leadership Group, Board and senior stakeholders to ensure momentum, clarity and high standards of delivery.

Your Responsibilities

Governance

Lead and facilitate effective consultation and decision-making by overseeing the organisation of Board, Committee and AGM meetings and events, ensuring that high-quality papers and information are prepared, commissioned and circulated on time and in line with agreed schedules.
Support the effective governance of War Child by taking comprehensive, high-quality minutes and leading post-meeting follow-up to ensure accurate recording, tracking and implementation of decisions arising from all Board and Committee meetings;
Operate as the first point of logistical liaison between the Board and the Leadership Group ensuring clear communication, timely information flow and effective escalation where required.
Ensure War Child’s Board is fit for purpose by managing end-to-end trustee recruitment, induction and training. Also coordinating Board performance reviews and providing analysis of results and proposed follow up recommendations.
Use Salesforce to record and update crucial details for the Board and other key stakeholders, ensuring comprehensive documentation of key interactions, milestones and insights.
Manage the strategic risk register, coordinating updates with risk owners and supporting Leadership Group and Board oversight.

Regulatory reporting

Liaise with regulatory bodies, co-ordinating the timely submission of statutory updates, annual returns and Serious Incident Reports to Companies House and the Charity Commission, proactively monitoring Charity Commission alerts to brief senior management and support appropriate Board communication.
Lead the process of producing the annual report and associated statutory documents for WCUK, working closely with the Finance and IT Director to ensure quality, accuracy and delivery to external deadlines.
Coordinate data-sharing and reporting with Alliance colleagues as required, including leading on the carbon footprint return for WCUK.

Support for CEO and Leadership Group

Managing the CEO’s diary and schedule, ensuring long term strategic items planned effectively, alongside the management of a reactive and fast-moving workload, exercising judgement and discretion to align time with organisational priorities.
Prepare high-quality meeting summaries, briefings and presentations for the CEO, supporting effective decision-making and external engagement.
Act as a first filter for the CEO’s inbox and correspondence, identifying priority issues requiring CEO attention, progressing actions directly where appropriate, and ensuring timely follow-up.
Lead and coordinate cross-organisational initiatives on behalf of the CEO and Leadership Group, including developing and maintaining delivery plans, coordinating actions, researching and proposing solutions, and communicating progress and outcomes to key stakeholder groups.
Support the CEO on a range of initiatives relating to fundraising, communications and external positioning, including research, briefing and coordination with relevant teams.
Lead the coordination and delivery of organisational strategy development processes, including planning timelines, commissioning input, synthesising contributions, and supporting the Leadership Group and Board through key stages of development, review and sign-off.
Build and maintain trusted working relationships with senior internal and external stakeholders on the behalf of the CEO, clearly and professionally and coordinating meetings and engagement as required.
Oversee and coordinate travel, expenses and associated administrative processes for the CEO, working directly on some activity and delegating or working in partnership with the Executive Assistant where appropriate, to ensure efficient logistics, accurate processing and compliance with organisational policies.
Continuously prioritise and re-prioritise tasks and schedules in response to evolving organisational needs, demonstrating flexibility, sound judgement and resilience.

Support for Leadership Group and wider fundraising function

Lead on internal communications on behalf of the CEO and Leadership Group, ensuring clarity, consistency and alignment with organisational priorities.
Ensure the efficient and effective running of Leadership Group meetings including agenda planning, commissioning and circulating papers, minute-taking, and tracking and chasing actions.
Oversee the quality and presentation of key communications and materials for the Board and external audiences, including Board papers, KPI reports and CEO presentations, ensuring they are accurate, on brand and fit for purpose.
Lead on Leadership Group forward planning, including developing and maintaining annual and multi-year workplans, shaping agendas, and ensuring discussions and decisions are aligned to strategic priorities, capacity and organisational wellbeing.
Work closely with the Executive Assistant, providing direction, coordination and support to ensure effective delivery of administrative, logistical and diary management activities, with clear ownership and appropriate delegation between roles.
Maintain the WCUK policy library in SharePoint, tracking review cycles and coordinating with policy owners to ensure policies remain current and accessible.
Contribute to creating a culture committed to the safeguarding of children and adults and compliant to War Child’s Safeguarding and PSEAH (Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse & Harassment) Policies.
We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace. All staff are expected to actively contribute to this by embedding principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into their day-to-day work, decision-making, and interactions with colleagues, partners, and supporters.

These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the role.

You Are

Experienced in providing high-level executive support at C-suite level, and in supporting a Board and/or charity governance processes, including the drafting of high-quality minutes, reports and formal papers.
Possess strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with the confidence and sensitivity to engage effectively with senior internal and external stakeholders, and to represent the CEO with professionalism, discretion and sound judgement. Demonstrates high emotional intelligence and a strong commitment to confidentiality.
Exceptionally organised with the ability to manage competing priorities and produce high-quality outputs to tight deadlines.
Experience of supporting or coordinating organisational strategy development, planning or review processes, or similar organisation-wide initiatives.
Able to bring experience and learning from a range of dynamic projects, programmes or campaigns, applying best practice to improve ways of working and outcomes.
Demonstrates strong end-to-end project management capability, with the ability to introduce clear, methodical and proportionate approaches that maximise efficiency and organisational impact.
Comfortable working in a creative, fast-paced environment, with an interest in storytelling, communications and fundraising-led work.
Highly resilient, with the ability to bring clarity, structure and momentum when working in ambiguous or evolving circumstances, and to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously.
Familiar with a range of project management tools and methodologies, and able to apply them pragmatically in a charity context.
An excellent communicator, both written and verbal, with particular strength in formal correspondence, briefing and minute-taking for senior-level meetings.
Highly proficient in Microsoft Office applications, with superb document, spreadsheet and presentation skills (including Word, Excel and PowerPoint / Canva).
Able to exercise sound judgement in relation to competing priorities, making decisions and recommendations where solutions are not always obvious and initiative, discretion and prudence are required.
Experienced in managing a complex, multi-faceted workload independently, seeing work through from initiation to delivery, and thinking laterally to resolve challenges.
Able to quickly develop a strong understanding of organisational context and dynamics, and to influence negotiate and work effectively with senior leaders.

About Us

At War Child we are driven by a single goal – ensuring a safe future for every child affected by war.

Using our 30 years of experience and proven methodologies, we aim to reach children as quickly as possible when conflict breaks out and stay long after the cameras have gone to support them through their recovery. We work with local communities and governments to help protect and educate children, and support them to heal and learn, for a safer, brighter future.

We understand children’s needs, respect and stand up for their rights, and put them at the centre of everything we do – because one child caught up in conflict is one child too many.

Every day, our local teams are in communities and in refugee camps creating safe spaces for children to play, learn and access psychological support, and we specialise in responding rapidly to emergency crisis situations to deliver immediate and critical care impartially to help to those who need us most, when they need us most.

Because no child should be part of war. Ever.

Our Values

Bold:We use our passion and creativity to deliver high quality evidence-based work designed to maximise our beneficial impact for children in conflict.
Accountable to children:Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.
Anti-racism:Anti-racism is not merely a belief. It includes actions that we mainstream throughout our work to change and challenge policies and behaviours that perpetuate racism.
Transparent:We expect to be held to account by our supporters and participants and we respond with openness and honesty.
Supportive of each other:We support each other to achieve ambitious goals and be the best we can be. We are honest and open, sharing our successes & confronting our challenges.

Our Benefits

Flexible working- we recognise the considerable benefits that flexible working can bring and are happy to discuss any possible flexible working options with our employees from hiring. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, occasional working from home and compressed hours.
Annual leave– 28 days per year (full-time) rising to 33 days with service, plus bank holidays
Pension- all eligible employees automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan with a 5% employer contribution, with minimum employee contribution on a salary sacrifice basis. This increases to 6% after one year's service.
Family leave– we offer enhanced Maternity, Partner/Co-Parent/Paternity Leave, Adoption & Shared Parental Leave
Health & wellbeing- employees may take advantage of a healthcare cash plan and a range of wellbeing initiatives and training. In addition, all employees have access to free, confidential one-to-one wellbeing consultations with trained counsellors.
Learning & development- dedicated to the investment in learning and continuing professional development for all our employees
Workplace Nursery Benefit– employees make tax and NI savings on nursery costs for children up to the age of 5
Flexible public holidays- up to two standard UK public holidays can be exchanged for those that have cultural or religious significance.
Voluntary contributions can be made through payroll allowing employees to claim back on a range of cancer treatments.Cancer Cover:

GP 24/7 Helpline:A GP helpline is be available to all UK employees providing access to a qualified GP, 24/7 via a telephone or webcam consultation, and offers diagnosis, advice and reassurance on a range of medical matters, as well as authorisation of private electronic prescriptions.

Welcome Bag for new starters:A War Child Tote bag, War Child T-shirt and some other practical things to welcome new colleagues to War Child.

Discounts on War Child Merchandise: 25% discount on full price War Child merchandise, available to all employees, sold through Everpress.

Range of flexible benefits such a Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loans.

Flexible Working

We positively support flexible working arrangements. These currently include: office working, homeworking, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexi-time, flexi-place (hybrid working) and job shares. We would be happy to discuss individual flexible working requests during the interview process.

How to Apply

To apply, simply submit an application through our Current Vacancies page and attach a copy of your CV.

On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. Interested candidates are encouraged to submit their application as early as possible.

If you have any questions about reasonable adjustments before or during your application, we welcome the opportunity to talk about what we can do to fairly adapt our process for you. Please share what you’re comfortable with to help us put the right support in place, by emailing careers@warchild.org.uk. Anything you tell us will be kept completely confidential by our HR team.

We are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. In order to apply, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the country where this role is based.

Safeguarding

Our work with children and at-risk adults to ensure their safety is our top priority. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in all aspects of our work. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any behavior or practices that put children and/or vulnerable adults at risk of abuse or harm.

Successful applicants will be required to comply with and sign our Safeguarding Policy, Code of Conduct, and PSEAH Policy. You can find the Safeguarding and Integrity policies here:https://warchild.sharepoint.com/sites/Integrity

Diversity and Inclusion

We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to ensuring that all our people and job applicants are treated fairly, irrespective of where, what or whom they were born, or of other characteristics. We want to offer a safe and inclusive workplace where all our people, especially those who are currently marginalised or underrepresented, can be themselves at work. You can read our Diversity and Inclusion policy on our website, and if you have any questions about our commitment to diversity and inclusion do get in touch: https://www.warchild.org.uk/our-work/policies-and-reports/diversity-and-inclusion

Pre-employment Checks

Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International/National Criminal Record Check

a clear vetting and Due Diligence check

receipt of two professional satisfactory references

WAR CHILD

1 role available