Hours and status: Part time (20 hours/wk), permanent 

Salary: Competitive, based on experience 

Start date: As soon as possible 

Reporting to: Finance and Administration Manager

Location: Geneva, Switzerland (possibility to work from home some days, but must be in the office at least 1 day a week)

Advert Closing Date: 23:59 CET on Sunday 18 June 2023  

The New Humanitarian is seeking a detail-oriented and self-motivated Operations and Administration Assistant to join our head office in Geneva, Switzerland to provide high quality and service-orientated administrative and operational support to TNH’s globally dispersed team of staff, consultants and freelance journalists.  

The New Humanitarian is an independent, non-profit newsroom that believes in journalism as a force for good. We produce fact-based journalism from the heart of conflicts and disasters to build an understanding of how to improve the lives of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world.  

Our 5-year strategy to become a transformative newsroom sets out our commitments to decolonise our journalism, centre impact in our work, strengthen our newsroom, build a more sustainable business model, and nurture an organisational culture of excitement, innovation, and well-being.  

Our small and growing organisation consists of a diverse and dispersed global team, who work from home bases around the world to produce original on-the-ground reporting and policy analysis focused on two areas that no other news organisations cover consistently: forgotten crises, and accountability and innovation within the humanitarian sector, all while paying particular attention to imbuing stories with a diversity of voices, among those in need and those responding, and in particular those of women and local communities.  

The role  

This role is an integral part of TNH’s Operations Team, reports to its Finance and Administration Manager, and takes responsibility for two core areas of focus:  

• Operational Support for People Processes: TNH works with freelancers across the globe. The Operations and Administration Assistant takes care of preparing and issuing our standard freelancer contracts, works alongside the Finance and Administration Manager to ensure timely payment of invoices from freelancers, and prepares inputs for the payroll of our own employees too – ensuring quality control and compliance throughout. 
• Office Management and General Administration: The successful candidate will provide support for the overall office management of the head office in Geneva, including liaising with the landlord and regie, and local Swiss authorities as necessary. They will also provide support to staff with travel logistics, and maintain TNH’s shared files, including contact databases, leave requests, policies, official correspondence from the authorities, contracts, and employee records. 

 Who we’re looking for 

The ideal candidate for this will be meticulous and service-oriented with excellent communication skills and impeccable attention to detail. You will possess strong organisational skills with solid understanding of operational and administrative work processes, be excited by a diversity of tasks, and not be easily frazzled, thriving off of having many tasks and projects on the go at any given time.  

Proactive and diligent, you take initiative, work well in a small team, and are motivated to deliver the best level of care and support to ensure the smooth operation of the organisation.  

You will possess a client and solutions-orientated personality that can effectively and confidently communicate with both external and internal stakeholders, and have the ability to see what’s not working, and suggest improvements, in particular to make work processes smarter and more user friendly. The ability to work in French would also be advantageous.   

The single most important quality for this role is that you are motivated and keen to learn and grow in an exciting and fast-paced scale-up environment that brings many opportunities for professional learning.  

The successful candidate will join an organisation with a compelling mission; a strong reputation – built over more than 25 years – for journalistic integrity and credibility; a team who deeply cares about its work; and a commitment to becoming a transformative newsroom that practises decolonised journalism, puts impact at the centre of its work, and adopts a progressive culture centred on wellbeing.  

We especially welcome candidates who reflect the diverse communities our journalism serves.  

Though we have described the qualities we are seeking in this position, we also recognise that there will be strong candidates who do not meet all the requirements listed here but have other important qualities. Thus, we encourage all interested candidates to apply.  

Compensation and Benefits  

• Compensation is based on our salary framework. Benefits include: 
• 35 days of annual leave inclusive of all local public holidays, increasing to 40 days after 5 years of service 
• Paid sick leave, carer’s leave, parental leave and compassionate leave 

• TNH contribute 75% to required pension contribution 
• TNH contribute 300 CHF per month as a health allowance 
• Annual 300 CHF IT/hardware allowance (TNH staff work on their own personal devices. This stipend contributes to the cost of buying or updating your hardware)

To Apply  

By clicking on the 'Apply' button, you will be taken through to our TNH Careers page where you can submit a copy of your CV and answer one or two screening questions. Please ensure you include a cover letter as part of your application explaining why this role is right for you and the skills you will bring to it.  

Please note - we will be reviewing applications and interviewing relevant candidates throughout the advertising period. We would therefore recommend that interested candidates apply as soon as possible as we may close the advert early if/when we review enough suitable applicants.