Executive Assistant to the Artistic Director & Executive Director in London

Department/Team: Executive Office

Responsible to: Artistic Director and Executive Director (Co‑Chief Executives)

Contract: Permanent

Location: The Old Vic, 103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB / Working from home (hybrid until further notice)

Hours: Full‑Time – 40 hours per week, Monday‑Friday. Home‑working and office‑working will reflect the schedules of the Artistic Director and Executive Director and the postholder must be available to work from the office on a regular basis. Additional hours may be necessary in order to fulfil the requirements of the post, including some evenings and weekends.

Salary: £46,440

Role Summary

To assist the Artistic and Executive Directors with all aspects of their work at the theatre and provide smooth and efficient senior administration and diary management support.

• To coordinate the governance of The Old Vic, arranging and minuting Board and sub‑committee meetings and ensuring The Old Vic’s Board administration is kept up to date.
• To act as a key point of contact for a wide range of contacts at all levels both internally and externally.

This role will work very closely with both the Executive Director and Artistic Director, as well as the Senior Leadership Team and Board of Trustees.

Diary Management and Meetings

• Accurate and efficient high‑level diary and schedule management for both Directors including internal/external meetings, activities and events registrations.
• Managing the regular Senior Leadership Team and All Staff meetings, including preparing the agenda and noting actions.
• Ensuring they are fully briefed and have all necessary documentation for meetings.
• Minuting meetings to a high standard and distributing as required.
• Coordinating any travel arrangements and couriers as requested.
• Conducting any preparatory high‑level research and providing detailed briefing notes where requested.
• Organising meetings including booking space and ensuring refreshments and IT needs are arranged and welcoming guests, anticipating any requirements for accessibility.
• Liaising with stakeholders across all mediums to ensure seamless communication and support relationship building.

Administration

• Managing the Director’s inboxes and in‑trays, assisting with and/or creating correspondence in all forms (including emails and letters), ensuring that these are prepared in a timely and professional manner.
• Preparing agendas and meeting schedules, collating and binding documents, copy typing of notes, minutes and reports, and relevant circulation.
• Maintaining action logs and managing stakeholder engagement with these, ensuring prompt deadline reminders and collation of updates.
• Ensuring that any required documents are prepared, drafted and produced to a high standard of presentation, and to proof‑read such papers.
• Arranging meeting space as necessary, including booking space and ensuring refreshments and IT needs are arranged and welcoming guests.
• Processing invoices, expenses and credit card statements.
• Updating and maintaining systems (filing, accounts, credit card statements, contacts, etc.).
• Drafting and editing quality documents, including PowerPoint presentations and other documents as needed.
• Managing ticket requests and/or house seats requests.

Governance

• Supporting the management of the Board relationships.
• Managing the Board and sub‑committee paper process and taking minutes as required.
• Overseeing Trustee communications and administration, keeping Trustees informed of relevant events and booking tickets for Trustees as needed.
• Manage Board agendas, planning and meeting logistics and hosting throughout the year.

Artistic Support

• Liaising with the Producer to ensure that the Artistic Director is supported in contacting potential collaborators, artists, and staff.
• Maintain and develop your own artistic interest in work, keeping aware and informed about the theatre world, development and shows, sharing reflections as appropriate.
• Acting as the point of contact for Old Vic stakeholders including the Associate Artists, Ambassadors and previous acting companies and creative teams on behalf of the Artistic Director.
• Responding to general enquiries from actors, writers, designers, and similar stakeholders and partners.
• Minute meetings as required.

General Support

• Support the planning and execution of strategic and artistic initiatives.
• Support press night administration, guest lists, and hosting duties with the Executive.
• Track progress on key projects and ensure timely follow‑up on action items.
• Coordinate logistics for special events, performances, and public engagements involving the Executive and Artistic Directors.
• Coordinate and manage any ad‑hoc administration resource support for and on behalf of the Executive where required, including filing, archiving, expenses, credit card returns.
• Complying with The Old Vic’s Equal Opportunities, Sustainability and Health & Safety policies at all times.

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and the Theatre's management may, at any time, allocate other tasks which are of a similar nature or level.

Person Specification – Essential

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills and personal presentation.
• A proven ability to deal diplomatically, sensitively and discreetly with information, which may often be confidential.
• Experience in diary and inbox management.
• An ability to organise work and prioritise effectively between multiple tasks and meet deadlines.
• Ability to build strong relationships at all levels internally and externally.
• Demonstrable experience of working in a recognised cultural organisation. Preferably, but not essentially a theatre.
• Flexibility to work from our offices in London Waterloo on a regular basis.
• Ability to work independently and autonomously.
• A meticulous eye for detail, a good proof reader, and immaculate presentation of work.
• Computer literate (Microsoft Office suite essential).
• Experience taking and transcribing minutes, drafting and editing written documents.
• Passion for, and interest in, theatre.

Person Specification – Preferable

• Experience with Board governance processes.
• Experience around producing theatre – subsidised or commercial sector.
• Familiarity with The Old Vic’s work and where it sits in the wider sector.

Equal Opportunities

We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We are particularly keen to receive applications from people of the global majority, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse and disabled candidates.

We may take positive action, in cases where candidates are equally qualified, to increase the employment of under‑represented groups at The Old Vic.

In the event that we ask you to attend the theatre for a conversation and you are struggling financially, we may be able to reimburse you for any reasonable travel costs.

We partner with a range of inclusive organisations, to find out more please read our FAQs.

As a Disability Confident employer, The Old Vic has made a commitment that all applicants with disabilities who meet the essential criteria for this job will be invited to interview. However in the event that we have a high volume of applications all of whom meet the criteria and identify as disabled, meaning it is not practicable to interview everyone, we may apply a weighting to the shortlisting criteria, or add an additional shortlisting stage before any interviews take place. In all cases we will take care to ensure that any criteria or weightings do not disadvantage disabled applicants.

All appointments are made subject to satisfactory references and proof of eligibility to work in the UK.