Executive Assistant to the CEO

Location: Barsha Heights (Tecom), Dubai

Reports to: CEO

Role Overview:

We are looking for a high-performing Executive Assistant to support our British CEO, who is based in Dubai. You will enable him to operate at maximum effectiveness by acting as a trusted extension, anticipating needs, keeping priorities in motion, and creating the space for focus and impact.

You’ll be based in our Dubai office and serve as his right hand: a gatekeeper, problem-solver, and strategic enabler who helps both him and the business to move faster and smarter. You’ll liaise daily with leaders across all functions and geographies, ensure critical actions are tracked and completed, and handle both business and lifestyle admin to reduce friction and distractions.

We need someone sharp, discreet, and adaptable - someone who thrives in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial setting and is confident working at pace across both strategic and detailed work.

Key Responsibilities:

Priorities & Focus:

• Act as a gatekeeper for the CEO - triaging issues, managing access, and filtering noise
• Maintain a steady rhythm of updates to keep the CEO aligned on top priorities
• Track follow-ups, deadlines, and outstanding decisions, ensuring progress without prompting
• Protect time in the calendar for deep work, strategic planning, and prep
• Prepare concise briefings, summaries, and supporting materials for key meetings

Business Support:

• Support and facilitate coordination across the leadership team, tracking progress and deliverables
• Liaise with teams across finance, legal, commercial, and operations to collate decision-ready data
• Plan, coordinate, and track leadership meetings, ensuring clear agendas and actions and following up on those actions
• Identify bottlenecks and suggest improvements to processes
• Provide ad-hoc project support and assist with research, analysis, or communications as needed
• Manage inbox and correspondence: draft replies, chase responses, and flag actions

Personal & Lifestyle Support:

• Manage complex travel plans, logistics, and itineraries
• Assist with personal bookings, household admin, and lifestyle logistics as required
• Support event planning and coordination for personal or professional occasions

UAE Office Support:

• Oversee day-to-day running of the Dubai office, ensuring a professional, efficient and well-supported working environment.
• Act as primary point of contact for office suppliers, service providers, and building management.
• Support onboarding logistics for Dubai-based hires and coordinate local team needs as required.

Ideal Candidate:

Experience & Skills:

• 10+ years in an EA, Business Manager, or high-level support role to a CEO or senior exec

• Commercially aware, able to prioritise business-critical vs operational matters

• Outstanding organisational skills with obsessive attention to detail

• Fluent written and spoken English

• Strong tech capability: confident using Microsoft 365, Teams, AI platforms and productivity platforms

• Adept at multi zone calendar management

• Proactive, solutions-focused, and comfortable anticipating needs

Personal Attributes:

• Assertive and confident in managing access to the CEO and pushing back where needed

• Able to communicate confidently and appropriately at all levels of the business and build strong relationships

• Efficient and highly organised, able to constantly prioritise

• Discreet and trusted with confidential or sensitive information

• Calm under pressure, with high resilience and adaptability

• Equally happy supporting strategic initiatives and managing routine admin

• Entrepreneurial and culturally aligned with a high-performance, fast-growth business

• Learns to “think like the CEO” – anticipating responses and priorities

Who is One Retail Group:

One Retail Group is an international online retailer, brand owner, and marketplace specialist. Our story is humble, growing from a single product launched in 2013, we now own multiple brands in the home appliance, lifestyle and personal care categories. Our future is exciting as we strive to launch onto new platforms and expand our operations even further across the globe.

We work at pace, we learn fast, where necessary we fail fast. This role will provide you with the chance to leave your mark and make a difference to a very exciting company. We’re proud of our collaborative team and continued high standards as we work together to achieve our shared ambitious goals.