Purpose
The client is seeking a highly capable Chief of Staff to partner with and support the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) by driving strategic planning, operational execution, and organizational alignment across priority initiatives.
This is a high-trust, high-impact delivery leadership role working at the centre of the organisation. The Chief of Staff will act as an extension of the CEO, translating priorities into plans, setting a disciplined execution cadence, and driving on-time delivery through clear ownership, dependency management, and proactive escalation. The role also includes active management of the CEO’s time and priorities, curating the executive diary and securing the right engagements with internal and external stakeholders to maximise impact. The role requires sound judgement, discretion, analytical capability, and the ability to operate confidently at executive and Board level in a fast-paced, policy-influenced environment.
Key Accountabilities
The Chief of Staff supports delivery by coordinating across owners, driving follow-through, and escalating risks and decisions; functional leads remain accountable for subject-matter content and execution.
1. Operations and Delivery (CEO Priorities)
- Coordinate the CEO priority portfolio as an execution lead, translating decisions into delivery plans with clear scope, milestones, owners, and success measures, and driving follow-through with accountable leads.
- Implement a structured operating cadence (weekly delivery reviews, RAG status, action logs) to maintain momentum, surface risks early, and support rapid decision-making.
- Proactively manage dependencies and constraints across teams and partners, unblock delivery, and escalate issues with pragmatic options and recommendations.
2. Governance, Decision Support and Follow-through
- Coordinate Board, Committee, and Executive governance processes and meeting cycles, working with relevant internal owners to ensure agendas, packs, briefings, and minutes are prepared to standard and on time.
- Coordinate inputs to governance documentation (agendas, packs, briefings, minutes and action logs), ensuring accuracy, confidentiality, and on-time delivery through the relevant document owners.
- Own the tracking of Board and executive decisions, actions, and follow-ups, driving closure, accountability, and timely escalation.
3. Stakeholder and Relationship Management (to enable delivery)
- Coordinate engagement between the CEO and senior internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the right people are in the room, objectives are clear, and outcomes/actions are captured.
- Maintain an engagement plan and coordinate relationships with members, partners, government officials, and industry leaders, working with Council teams to prepare briefing points and follow up actions.
- Triage and coordinate responses to high-level correspondence and membership enquiries, ensuring timely input from the right subject-matter owners and an appropriate CEO-level response.
4. Programme Delivery and Cross-functional Execution
- Orchestrate delivery of cross-functional initiatives on behalf of the CEO, mobilizing workstreams, coordinating inputs across member organizations and partners, and supporting accountable leads to deliver agreed outcomes.
- Build and maintain simple delivery artefacts (plans, RAID logs, action trackers, dashboards) and provide concise progress updates to the CEO and executive team.
- Prepare delivery-focused briefs, decision papers, and stakeholder updates that highlight status, risks, dependencies, and required decisions.
5. Operational Excellence and Business Management
- Own key internal operational processes (planning, procurement/contract coordination, vendor performance) to ensure the CEO’s office runs efficiently and reliably.
- Coordinate logistics for priority engagements, workshops, and delivery forums so that outcomes, actions, and next steps are captured and progressed.
- Manage the CEO’s diary end-to-end by coordinating priorities, scheduling key internal and external engagements, aligning attendee availability, and ensuring logistics and briefing materials are in place.
- Drive continuous improvement across executive-office workflows, including automation, templates, and standard ways of working.
6. Team Enablement and Ways of Working
- Enable the team to deliver by clarifying responsibilities, improving handovers, and strengthening coordination across workstreams.
- Introduce fit-for-purpose delivery ways of working (templates, meeting rhythms, trackers) to
improve pace, quality, and accountability.
Qualifications and Experience
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
- 10–15 years’ experience supporting senior executives, with demonstrated responsibility for operations, programme/project delivery, governance processes, and cross-functional execution.
- Proven experience operating at C-suite and Board level, with the credibility to engage senior stakeholders and influence outcomes without formal authority.
- Strong understanding of South Africa’s energy sector, public policy environment, and developmental agenda.
Skills and Capabilities
Core Skills
- Advanced proficiency in all Microsoft Office products.
- Strong report writing, editing, and proofreading capability.
- Strong programme/project delivery capability (planning, RAID, action tracking, and executive-ready reporting).
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong organisational, planning, and time management skills.
- Excellent diary, meeting scheduling, and coordination skills, including managing competing demands and senior stakeholder availability.
Business and Technical Skills
- Data management and information governance awareness.
- Analytics and reporting capability, including the ability to create simple dashboards and RAG status views for decision-making.
- Operations management expertise, including vendor/contract coordination, process improvement, and establishing standard ways of working.
- Technology-savvy with a continuous improvement mindset.
Key Competencies
- Strategic thinking and critical reasoning
- High attention to detail and accuracy
- Strong interpersonal and stakeholder engagement skills
- Emotional intelligence and professionalism
- Adaptability and resilience under pressure
- Proactive, solutions-oriented approach
- High levels of discretion, integrity, and confidentiality
- Ability to manage complexity and competing priorities
Company Description
The client – unified voice of the South African energy sector, bringing together leading public and private sector organizations to drive collaboration, innovation, and action across the energy value chain. Through advocacy, partnerships, and thought leadership, the client plays a pivotal role in advancing South Africa’s energy transition and supporting a secure, inclusive, and sustainable energy future.
The client engages extensively with senior stakeholders across government, business, labour, communities, industry associations, and international partners, including Board members, CEOs, and senior Government officials, particularly the Department of Electricity and Energy (DEE).
