Executive Assistant

About Drakken Inc.

Drakken is a Dubai-headquartered Electrical, Instrumentation & Controls (E,I&C) systems integrator and Main Automation Contractor delivering turnkey electrical, automation, instrumentation, and commissioning scope to the energy and industrial sectors. Our veteran team has executed projects across approximately 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, operating from our Dubai headquarters (DMCC and Mainland licences) and our office in Calgary, Canada.

From deserts to deepwater, we manage every aspect of a project to create comprehensive solutions that minimize cost and maximize schedule certainty, execution quality, and single-party accountability. We are not the cheapest — we are the most reliable.

Drakken’s corporate culture promotes innovation, collaboration, and true integration of international teams. Our office environment focuses on honesty and continual improvement, both professionally and personally, and drives excellence through motivational development planning and engaged management. Drakken is ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 certified.

The Position

The Executive Assistant is responsible for owning the information flow, calendar, and day-to-day operating rhythm of Drakken’s Office of the CEO. The role reports to the Chief Executive Officer and acts as the first line of defense for inbound communication, the guardian of executive time, and the driver behind open tasks closing on schedule. As Drakken grows, the scope of this role is expected to expand to broader executive support within the company.

The successful candidate does not “assist” with the inbox and calendar — they own them. They exercise professional discretion at all times, move items forward without waiting for instruction, and use modern AI tools to compound their output. They operate with the confidentiality expected of the Office of the CEO in a privately-owned, international company.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Ownership of Information Flow (Inbox)

• Take direct ownership of the CEO’s inbox. Triage, categorize, and filter so the CEO sees only the correspondence that genuinely requires his attention.
• Draft and release responses in the CEO’s voice for review, and handle routine correspondence independently within agreed guidelines.
• Flag any incoming email that contains a commitment, commercial implication, scope change, or risk before any response is released.
• Route low-value messages to the appropriate team member or dispose of them — protect the CEO’s attention as a scarce resource.
  
  
  

Calendar and Scheduling Ownership

• Own the CEO’s calendar end-to-end: book, reschedule, protect focus blocks, resolve conflicts, and prepare meetings in advance.
• Produce concise meeting briefs with relevant background, prior correspondence, required documents, and suggested outcomes.
• Coordinate confidently across Gulf Standard Time (UTC+4), North America, and active project geographies including Iraq, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
• When scheduling requests conflict or commitments compete for the same time, escalate with options and a recommended path — do not wait for instruction.
  
  
  

Task and Project Follow-Through

• Maintain a shared register of outstanding actions, commitments, and deliverables for the CEO. Chase internal and external parties until items close.
• Coordinate with Drakken’s functional leads across projects, automation, proposals, accounting, and administration to keep work moving.
• Produce a concise weekly status summary for the CEO covering closed items, open items, blocked items, and items requiring decision.
  
  
  

Confidentiality and Information Handling

• Apply strict discretion at all times. Treat customer names, financial figures, commercial terms, staff matters, and strategic plans as confidential by default.
• Adhere to Drakken’s document control conventions in Ottofiles (the company document management system). Any AI-assisted output is a draft only until it has been uploaded, versioned, checked, and approved in Ottofiles by the appropriate authority.
• Apply the classification markers already in use (for example, (U) Unclassified) on controlled documents.
  
  
  

Personal Support (Light)

• Manage light personal matters for the CEO: appointments, reservations, personal travel coordination, errands, vehicle servicing, and gift-buying.
• Maintain clear boundaries between business and personal scope. The role does not include household staff management or broader family-affairs administration.
  
  
  

Errands and In-Person Support

• Handle in-person errands in and around Dubai — document collection and delivery, courier drops, bank runs, vendor visits, and office support as required.
• Coordinate logistics for visiting members of the Drakken leadership team when they are in Dubai.
  
  
  

AI Tools and Systems Leverage

• Use AI tools (including Claude and ChatGPT) to compound your output — for drafting, summarizing, research, email triage, and meeting preparation. You should be curious about AI tools and comfortable building workflows with them alongside the CEO.
• Work comfortably within Drakken’s technology stack: Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams), Ottofiles, Avaza.
• Build and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), templates, and checklists for recurring work so the contribution of the role compounds and scales over time.
  
  
  

Decision-Making and Autonomy

• In the CEO’s absence, make informed decisions within agreed authority limits to ensure continuity of operations.
• Operate with a bias for forward motion: when an item is stuck pending CEO attention, propose the next step and execute on approval.
• Represent Drakken with external parties — clients, vendors, and visitors — with the same professionalism expected of the Office of the CEO.
  
  
  

Success

Success in this role means that the CEO sees only the 10–20% of inbound communication that genuinely requires his attention; his calendar runs without conflict and with meetings fully prepared with briefs before sit down; open tasks close on time; and confidential information stays confidential. Success also means that the EA continuously expands the scope of what they own — identifying new repeatable work, systematizing it, and taking it off the CEO’s plate. Drakken values continual improvement and welcomes suggestions and expertise to elevate this role over time.

Key Performance Indicators

Inbox Management

• The CEO sees only 10–20% of inbound email — the portion that genuinely requires executive attention. The remainder is triaged, routed, responded to, or archived by the EA.
• High-priority emails acknowledged within 1–2 hours; full responses released the same business day. Non-urgent communications responded to within 24 hours.
• Zero commercially significant items, commitments, or risks passed through without being flagged for the CEO’s awareness.
  
  
  

Calendar Management

• Long-term target of zero scheduling conflicts, with an initial tolerance of no more than one to two minor conflicts per month.
• 100% of scheduled meetings confirmed in advance and supported with an agenda and any required documents.
  
  
  

Task and Deliverable Follow-Through

• 95% on-time closure of tracked actions and deliverables. All outstanding items have a named owner, due date, and next action.
• Weekly status summary delivered to the CEO by end of business each Friday.
  
  
  

Confidentiality and Document Control

• Zero breach of confidential information.
• 100% compliance with Ottofiles versioning, naming, and classification conventions for controlled documents.
  
  
  

Living Job Description Model

This role operates within a Living Job Description framework. The responsibilities and expectations outlined above represent the current scope of the position. As Drakken grows and evolves — and as the EA’s capability is demonstrated — this scope is expected to expand, with additional responsibilities progressively transferred to the role. Any material changes will be discussed collaboratively and in advance, ensuring transparency and mutual understanding. Adaptability and a willingness to take on evolving responsibilities are essential to success in this role.

Key Requirements

• 5–8 years of experience in executive support, ideally at the C-suite level
• Proven experience managing an executive inbox and calendar independently
• Exceptional organizational and prioritization skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills (fluent English required)
• High level of discretion and professionalism
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams)
• Comfortable working across multiple time zones and international teams
• Experience or strong interest in using AI tools to enhance productivity
• Ability to operate in a fast-paced, high-responsibility environment
  
  
  

Preferred

• Experience in engineering, energy, or project-based organizations
• Additional languages are a plus

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