Technical Assistant to CEO

SUMMARY:
Technically strong, business-minded role, energetic individual, who acts as an extension of the CEO’s analytical and problem-solving capability. Not a PA role. Will assist the technical executive to grow commercial & technical acumen, provide a pathway to leadership roles.

POSITION INFO:

Job Specification

Position: Technical Executive Assistant to the CEO
Industry: Manufacturing
Location: Gauteng (Vereeniging with travel to Krugersdorp and Hammanskraal)
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Role Purpose

The Technical Executive Assistant to the CEO provides high-level analytical, systems and operational support to the Chief Executive Officer within an industrial manufacturing space. The role focuses on collecting, validating and interpreting business data, implementing management systems, coordinating strategic information flows, and investigating operational or commercial issues on behalf of the CEO.

This is a technically strong, business-minded role for an energetic individual who acts as an extension of the CEO’s analytical and problem-solving capability rather than a traditional personal assistant function.

This role will assist the technical executive grow their commercial and technical acumen and provide a possible pathway to leadership roles in the business.

Key Responsibilities

Continuous Improvement

• Secondment to different divisions and manufacturing areas to drive short-term improvement with CEO guidance.
• Train and develop teams to maintain and grow performance in the area of secondment.

Business Intelligence & Data Management

• Collect, validate, and consolidate operational, financial, and commercial data from across the business.
• Prepare dashboards, reports, and executive summaries for CEO review.
• Identify trends, variances, risks, and opportunities within business data.
• Ensure consistency and integrity of management information.

Systems & Process Implementation

• Support the design, implementation, and improvement of management systems, reporting frameworks, and performance dashboards.
• Coordinate system enhancements with IT, finance, and operations teams.
• Document processes, controls, and reporting methodologies.

Investigation & Problem Solving

• Investigate operational, financial, or commercial issues as directed by the CEO.
• Gather facts, interview stakeholders, analyse root causes, and propose practical solutions.
• Prepare concise investigation reports with findings and recommendations.

Strategic & Operational Support

• Track execution of strategic initiatives and operational improvement projects.
• Monitor KPIs, milestones, and corrective actions.
• Support the preparation of strategic, operational, and board-level analysis.

Executive Office Support

• Act as a central point for analytical and technical requests from the CEO.
• Coordinate information flow between business units and the CEO.
• Maintain structured records of executive decisions, actions, and outcomes.

Key Competencies

• Work closely with CEO to implement operational improvements and update systems
• Able to analyse data and problems to present information to a team that can then use to form action plans or make decisions
• Root cause skills
• Turn around or improve underperforming departments
• Train teams on systems
• Set standards in operations
• Audit operations to understand implementation and drive the entrenchment of systems and values.
• Must be a strong communicator
• Must be strong on reports and office packages
• Must be curious to learn and eager to improve
• Willing to get hands-on in operations
• Will receive missions but then needs to interact with staff and work independently to get results.

Qualifications & Experience

• Degree in Business, Commerce, Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Accounting, Data Analytics, or similar.
• Minimum 2 years’ experience in business analysis, operational analysis, management reporting, consulting, or similar roles.
• Experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment strongly preferred.
• Proven experience implementing systems, dashboards or reporting frameworks.
• Advanced Excel, Power BI / Tableau, or similar analytics tools.

Personal Attributes

• Logical, disciplined and methodical thinker
• Curious, investigative and improvement-oriented
• Confident working with senior leaders
• Professional, discreet and trustworthy
• Comfortable challenging assumptions with facts
• Results-focused and execution-driven

Key Relationships

• CEO
• Executive Leadership Team
• Finance, Operations, IT and Supply Chain
• External system or technical partners

Measures of Success

• Ability to work with CEO to turn around performance or effect improvement in an area.
• Quality and reliability of management information
• Speed and accuracy of issue investigations
• Effectiveness of implemented systems and reporting frameworks
• Value of insights provided to the CEO

Contribution to improved decision-making and business performance