Executive Assistant (Melbourne)

About the Role

At Blackbird, executive assistance is a force multiplier: the best EAs make our Partners and our team better at their jobs. We are looking for an Executive Assistant to work with Blackbird’s Partners. We are big believers in Danny Meyer’s concept of ‘enlightened hospitality ’-so much so that it’s become one of our core Blackbird operating principles. Having hospitality at the heart of everything we do includes an obsession with creating great experiences for all of our Blackbirds. This role will focus on the delivery of enlightened hospitality to our Blackbird Partners and the whole Blackbird team.

Responsibilities

You will work closely with our Blackbird partners to reach new heights of productivity and efficiency; building trusted relationships across the firm, our founders and the wider ecosystem and using heightened judgment on how best to direct partner attention. You are AI-native: you build your own systems and agents to amplify your work, and you measure them by the time they save and the quality they add, not by how much you use them.

Some examples of work you will do:

• Partner productivity: You will work with each partner to optimise their systems for prioritisation and goal-tracking, ensuring they are consistently spending their time and attention on the highest-leverage work. You are confident with a range of productivity approaches and the software tools or systems to implement them. You help each Partner be a great manager by lifting meeting hygiene and outputs, and handling expenses, budget, and leave approvals.
• Inbox zero: Ensure Partners get to Inbox Zero every day by prioritising what’s important, what isn’t and pre-drafting responses to a high standard, in the right tone. As you earn trust and build context, you go beyond drafting to take autonomous action where appropriate.
• Calendar control & prioritisation: Ensure their calendar is focused and aligned to their key goals, and identify opportunities to shift attention towards higher impact work. You think ahead, clear friction before it lands, and own work end to end so nothing slips.
• Relationships and trust: Build trusted relationships across the team, our founders and the wider ecosystem. Handle sensitive founder, portfolio and investor matters with discretion, and use judgment about what to escalate and when.
• AI: Build your own systems and agents to amplify your work, from drafting and triage to research and meeting prep. Keep what proves impactful and retire what doesn't, use sound judgment about when not to use AI (including with sensitive information), and choose the right tool for the task.
• Melbourne experience. You’ll manage the Melbourne office experience, including ensuring common spaces are maintained and fully stocked, and managing the relationships with external contractors, vendors and other key stakeholders. Note: We already have this covered for the Blackbird office in Sydney and Auckland.
• Travel: Coordinating the Partners’ international and domestic flights and accommodation; you use best judgement and earned insights on partners' networks and priorities to plan travel effectively.
• Events: Assist with internal events that build community and connection at Blackbird including, weekly lunches, team celebrations, and assisting with the organising of company offsites.

This role is full-time, based in our Cremorne office, with the option to work flexibly when appropriate.

Position Requirements

Your background is less important than your specific superpowers:

• Hospitality mindset: You take pride in delivering high quality experiences for our team, founders and investors.
• Strategic partnership and discernment: You see the whole picture, know what matters versus what is noise, and bring recommendations, not just questions.
• Learn-it-all: You throw yourself into understanding what your Partners work on, our portfolio and the wider ecosystem; you never stop learning. You build deep context on their priorities and special projects, then use it to anticipate what they'll need before they ask and to spot where your skills can benefit your Partner and the firm.
• AI-native: You build your own systems and agents, measure their impact rather than your usage, and have clear judgment about when not to use AI.
• Execution excellence: You bring strong project management, high ownership and a never settle mindset; you see things through from start to finish and nothing slips.
• Comms: Beyond dotting i's and crossing t's, you are a confident writer and communicate flawlessly with our founders, investors and stakeholders.
• Trust and discretion: You can be trusted with confidential founder, portfolio and investor matters from day one.
• Multi-tasking: You can juggle priorities while remaining supremely organised. You’re a productivity pro who loves building and implementing systems.
• Ownership mentality: 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.
  

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 blind hiring to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home, leaving early to pick up the kids or fitting in your favorite exercise class. We encourage you to explore when you're most productive and work in that style.
• 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 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. Additionally, you can find us on the Hatch Hotlist for 2024 and 2025.

About Blackbird

Blackbird is a venture capital firm with offices across Australia and New Zealand. We invest in technology companies founded by Australians and New Zealanders, wherever they are in the world. Founded in 2012, we've backed more than 190 companies worth over $10B combined, including Canva, Airwallex, PsiQuantum, Halter, Eucalyptus, Heidi and Baseten.

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.

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