Senior Administrative Assistant

Senior Administrative Assistant

Job #: req34649
Organization: World Bank
Sector: Administration / Office Support
Grade: GD
Term Duration: 3 years 0 months
Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Required Language(s): English, Arabic
Preferred Language(s): English, Arabic
Closing Date: 11/9/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit

Regional Context The Middle East and North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan Region serves twenty two countries across different income groups, of which fourteen are active / potentially active IBRD / IDA borrowers (Afghanistan, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, West Bank and Gaza, Tunisia, and Yemen), with a total of 251 projects and over $51 bn in total commitment. Eight are users of the Region's non-lending services, mostly on a reimbursable basis (Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Malta, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). The mission of the region is to foster sustainable growth with a focus on job creation and poverty reduction, economic and social inclusion, and good governance. The region attaches importance to creating a supportive work environment based on the values of teamwork, transparency, trust, and client service, underlined by professional excellence. The region places high value on diversity. The region is organized into seven Country Departments (CMUs), the Office of the Regional Chief Economist, and the Development Effectiveness Unit (MNADE).

With an expanded regional strategy, the World Bank aims to help the region weather the current crises, move from stabilization to transformation, unlock its vast economic potential of youth and women, develop its human capital to adapt to global megatrends, and foster innovation (.).

The Regional Hub Office The World Bank is establishing a Regional Hub office for the Middle East, Northern Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan (MENAAP) region in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In this context, the regional senior management, including the Regional Vice President and Regional Practice Directors have moved to Riyadh. A Regional Hub Manager oversees the day-to-day operations of the Hub office which is emerging as a growing and vibrant international development platform to facilitate cross-regional knowledge and co-financing opportunities. This includes close collaboration with the World Bank teams in the GCC Country Department with ongoing programs in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, growing International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) teams in Riyadh, and across the MENAAP region. The Hub Office works closely with the Regional Development Effectiveness Unit (MNADE) in the World Bank HQ in Washington, .

Roles and Responsibilities The new Senior Administrative Assistant position at the level of GD will provide dedicated support in areas of Administration, Transaction Processing and Logistics, including performing administrative tasks for the Hub Manager, transaction processing for the Hub Office, coordination of major events / conference planning and logistical support where needed. The Senior Administrative Assistant is also expected to take on several corporate roles, such as Learning Coordinator, Transport coordinator, Travel Coordinator, Leave Coordinator, and Health Focal Point. Additional tasks include Facilities liaison, and oversight of the shared room facilities coordination and booking, including for the training facilities and cafeteria where needed.

The successful candidate is expected to work under the leadership of the Regional Hub Manager, and closely liaising with the Regional Operations Director in Washington DC, and the Regional Practice Directors based in Riyadh.

The Senior Administrative Assistant will be expected to handle a variety of concurrent activities and competing demands in a fluid and fast-paced environment, including the following duties :

Administrative Support

• Ensure smooth operation of office and administrative support by maintaining and coordinating general office procedures and guidelines and ensure their dissemination across the function to enable efficiencies and consistency. Identify potential areas for improvement and develop solutions.
• Perform with a high degree of efficiency, discretion and judgment to provide a wide range of administrative assistance to the Regional Hub Manager, especially in the areas of managing priorities, and work flow; staff interaction with the Hub Manager; screening of all in-coming documents; screening, prioritizing and following up on emails and phone calls and ensuring the smooth delivery of services. Ensure all documents requiring signature are of high quality and adhere to administrative operational guidelines. Routinely prepare correspondence on a range of topics on behalf of the Hub Manager and prepare minutes of meetings.
• As the first point of contact for the Hub Manager, keep abreast of and maintain sufficient working knowledge of the tasks being performed in each unit with an ability to independently respond to inquiries and exercise strategic thinking and decision-making skills to address clients within and outside the Bank.
• Use judgment, tact, diplomacy and discretion in answering and / or redirecting inquiries to appropriate sources and in dealing with sensitive or highly confidential matters; make decisions when multiple courses of action are possible.
• Coordinate the time management and scheduling on behalf of the Hub Manager, to include effective prioritizing and resolving related conflicts and competing demands. Gather and collate materials and prepare mission briefing materials and binders for the Hub Manager's schedule of meetings. Handle logistics of the Hub Manager's mission travel. Handle logistical planning for meetings or equivalent events held in the office or sponsored by the office.
• Support the management team of the Hub Office as well as work collaboratively with other colleagues and teams from the GCC regional team and other regional country offices in diverse work groups / teams / task forces.
• Coordinate with the Administrative teams of the other Offices to ensure alignment with processes and procedures.

Transaction Support

• Liaise with the Resource management (RM) staff, as needed, for information on cost object master data accuracy and budget availability.
• Monitor contracts in context of the Hub Office unit budget.
• Work with the RM staff to collect data necessary for various outputs from available systems and databases; maintain a database to facilitate information update and retrieval within the SAP framework.
• Liaise with Task Teams, as needed, for the identification of upcoming contract needs and specifications.
• Create and maintain contracts and payment requests within the SAP framework using Epayables and AdminPortal.
• Communicate with the Hub Manager to gather all required information pertaining to all contract creation and ensure requirements are clear.
• Adhere to ex ante and ex post controls related to various commitment items including travel, the procurement of goods and administrative services.
• Adhere to record retention policies regarding commitment items procured within the unit.
• Check status of specific contracts.
• Flag and troubleshoot project specific discrepancies and problems identified by RM staff.
• Monitor e mail and SAP workflow and take immediate action on any rejected payment requests in SAP.
• Liaise with Appointments (HR), Accounting, GSD as needed to ensure contracts and associated payments are processed quickly and accurately.
• Check goods and services payment status.

Office Procurement

• Assist with procurement of office goods and services in collaboration with other staff.
• Assist the Resource Management Officer with day-to-day procurement by identifying potential suppliers and requesting quotes.
• Work with Administrative colleagues in the office liaisons to be assured the procedures and processes are respected on procurement and assist them with all administrative issues.
• Identify and update periodically the list of vendors.
• Assure the secretariat of the Administrative Procurement Review Committee (APRC) for the Regional Hub office by preparing report for the review of members and the approval of manager.
• Establish the manual purchase order and have them approved and provide to suppliers.
• Request goods (via SAP and GSD) and services (via SAP and eServices).

Logistics and Event Management

• Provide leadership in the coordination and preparation of large events. S / he will supervise the office Event Coordinator and support the Regional Hub Manager and event implementing staff in large forums, large meetings, or special seminars, including marketing, identifying vendors, negotiating and processing contracts, travel arrangements of participants and speakers.
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