Executive Assistant- Aotearoa

About the role

Blackbird is looking to hire an Executive Assistant, Aotearoa to maximise the productivity of Partner Phoebe Harrop Meadows, and its Auckland-based team of six.

This role is designed for someone eager to take on a wide-ranging role that combines operational excellence, creative problem-solving, and exposure to venture capital and startup ecosystems. This is an opportunity to be part of a team that’s shaping the future of innovation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Here's what you'll do in your first 12 months:

• Own the vibe at our Auckland office, making it a place our team can show up to do their best work every day, by keeping our cupboards stocked with snacks, managing relationships with external contractors (like our wonderful cleaning staff and plant caretakers) and organising our weekly shared lunch.
• Mastermind international trips for Phoebe where she will visit portfolio founders, uncover new investment opportunities and build relationships with other VC firms.
• Turn Phoebe into a productivity black belt, innovating on systems to help her focus on the highest impact activities to reach her goals, and making sure her calendar always has plenty of space for meeting-free deep work.
• Help Phoebe provide 10/10 service to Blackbird's portfolio founders through responsive communication and ready availability.
• Become an expert in Attio, a new software tool we are implementing in 2025, and help our Aotearoa team get the most out of it.
• Keep Team Aotearoa connected and focused on achieving our goals by leading dynamic standups, organising team lunches, and planning impactful twice-yearly offsites that inspire collaboration and success.
• Curate experiences that surprise and delight our portfolio founders and supporters, such as a Sunrise speaker dinner and thank you goodie-bags.
• Lead on the execution (logistics, budget and catering) of our monthly Something New event series, where we bring together 20 talented individuals looking to start or join new startups, at our Auckland office.
• Help keep track of our Aotearoa team's spending compared with our budget.
• Be the Aotearoa Leadership Ops point of contact and on the ground event coordinator for Blackbird signature events (offsites, end of year events) and assist in the planning and execution of the bi annual company wide offsites

Position requirements

‍We care less about your experience, and are looking more for the following superpowers:

• Enabler: You're driven by making other people successful and gain professional satisfaction by unlocking others.
• Owner: You love getting stuff done and have a high-ownership mindset. No job is too small. Like all of us at Blackbird, you're happy to roll up your sleeves and do the task at hand. You're conscientious - you do what you say you'll do. You take ownership, solve problems independently, and thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. 
• Communicator: You will have great communication skills, both written and verbal. You will be sensitive to your audience and have the ability to cater your language accordingly. This means ensuring everyone feels respected and valued in every interaction, even when saying ’no’.
• Detail-obsessed: You’re organised and precise, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Versatile: You’re comfortable balancing the breadth of EA responsibilities, producing strategic, high-impact work.
• 1% better every day: You know all the latest productivity tools and exercise good judgment in which tools to use. You're always looking for how things can be done better or more efficiently
• Connector: You are able to build and maintain strong relationships with Australian Blackbirds, for example our other EAs Sophie, Morven and Mahalia. 

This is a part time role based in Auckland. Things move fast in Phoebe’s world, so our preference is for someone who can split the 0.5 FTE load across at least four weekdays (for example, working 10am - 2pm each day). There is flexibility to work from home for one day per week.

Working at Blackbird

‍We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Blackbird’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home or leaving early to pick up the kids from daycare or school.
• Generous parental leave: We know family comes first, and we are proud to offer 20 weeks of parental leave for all parents (an additional 4 weeks for the birth parent), with no minimum tenure. In addition, we offer IVF, adoption and surrogacy leave. We also continue to pay superannuation and vest carried interest for up to 12 months of parental leave, and offer a supportive return-to-work policy to help with the ramp back.
• Learning & Development Budget: Our team is hungry to continuously learn and you’ll receive a budget to spend on books, conferences, training, coaching and courses relating to your profession.
• Wellbeing: We think in decades not days. To support our Blackbirds over the long haul we offer a range of holistic wellbeing benefits including a monthly healthy living allowance, 24/7 access to wellbeing support, a home office allowance, personal kit-kat days, and more!
• Unplugged weekends: We work hard without letting work get in the way of life. We’ve implemented no Slack or emails on weekends, so you can switch off and enjoy yourself.
• Connection: While being big fans of a fully distributed workforce, we value our vibe and time to connect online and IRL through team and company offsites, monthly social activities, weekly lunches and our many social clubs (#fun-manis, #fun-fantasybookclub, #bb-craft just to name a few!).

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member —  we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community. Through Pledge 1%, we established the Blackbird Foundation to supercharge the creative capabilities of young people.We are also very proud to have won the 2023 AFR Best Place to Work award in three categories including Overall winner. In 2022, we became certified as one of Australia’s Great Places to Work.About Blackbird

• Blackbird is Australasia's biggest venture capital fund whose mission is to supercharge Australia and New Zealand’s most ambitious founders. We do this by raising venture capital funds, investing into the best startup companies and helping them succeed. We have a portfolio valued at over $7B, including some of the most successful Australian and Kiwi startups such as Canva, Halter and Tracksuit.
• We are inspired by investment firms such as Berkshire Hathaway and Bridgewater Associates. Like the companies we back, we want to build a business that lasts for decades and produces excellent returns for our investors. Most of all, we want to support our region’s most talented founders build category-defining technology companies.

We’ve written a lot about what we love at Blackbird, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us. In particular, you should read about our mission and values, our Blackbird’s Operating Principles (BOPs) and what we look for in founders.