Overview
Executive & Operations Assistant Jobs in Auckland Central, Auckland, New Zealand at OutThere Astronautics
Title: Executive & Operations Assistant
Company: OutThere Astronautics
Location: Auckland Central, Auckland, New Zealand
Executive & Operations Assistant (Part-Time)
Location: Newmarket, Auckland (Hybrid – 3 days in the office, 2 days remote)
Hours: 20–30 hours per week, with the opportunity to grow into a full-time role
Salary: Approximately NZ$30–40 per hour (depending on experience)
Help Build the Future of Space Technology
We're a small but ambitious engineering company developing advanced technologies for the space industry. Every week brings new technical challenges, unusual procurement requirements, customer meetings, investor discussions and opportunities to improve how we operate.
As we've grown, one thing has become clear: the people leading our engineering efforts are spending too much time on everything except engineering.
We're looking for someone to change that.
This isn't a traditional Executive Assistant role, and it isn't a conventional Operations role either. It's a unique opportunity to become the operational right hand to our founder and technical leadership team, helping remove friction from the business so they can focus on building technology, supporting customers and growing the company.
If you enjoy creating order from complexity, taking ownership of problems and helping a high-performing team work more effectively, we'd love to hear from you.
About the Role
You'll work across executive support, operations and project coordination, ensuring information flows to the right people, procurement stays on track, meetings are productive and day-to-day operations continue running smoothly.
No two days will look the same.
One morning you might be coordinating components arriving from suppliers across the world. In the afternoon you could be preparing an investor meeting, documenting an engineering design review, following up customer action items or helping organise travel for an international conference.
Your job is to keep things moving.
What You'll Be Responsible For
Executive Support
- Managing calendars, scheduling meetings and coordinating travel.
- Preparing agendas and briefing material.
- Taking meeting minutes and tracking action items.
- Managing inboxes and helping prioritise communications.
- Coordinating customer, supplier and investor meetings.
Procurement & Operations
- Obtaining quotes and preparing purchase requests.
- Tracking procurement from request through to delivery.
- Following up suppliers and resolving delivery issues.
- Preparing invoices and documentation for reconciliation in Xero.
- Organising company records, documentation and filing systems.
- Supporting office administration and operational logistics.
Project Coordination
- Tracking project progress across engineering teams.
- Following up on outstanding actions and deadlines.
- Helping maintain project visibility through Microsoft Teams and related tools.
- Coordinating document reviews and ensuring important information reaches the right people.
Continuous Improvement
We don't expect our systems to stay the same.
If you notice repetitive work, inefficient processes or opportunities for automation, we'll expect you to suggest improvements and help implement them.
Who We're Looking For
More important than your previous job title is how you approach problems.
You'll likely thrive here if you:
- Are exceptionally organised and detail-oriented.
- Take initiative without waiting for instructions.
- Enjoy building systems that make other people more effective.
- Stay calm under pressure and adapt quickly when priorities change.
- Are comfortable learning unfamiliar technical concepts.
- Can confidently communicate with engineers, suppliers and customers.
- Are comfortable asking questions when you don't know something.
- Can respectfully push back, manage priorities and keep people accountable.
This role requires someone who is comfortable working with ambiguity. You'll often be given an objective rather than detailed instructions.
If your instinct is to investigate the problem, gather the information and propose a solution, you'll probably enjoy working here.
Skills & Experience
Experience in some combination of the following would be beneficial:
- Executive or administrative support.
- Operations or office coordination.
- Procurement or supplier management.
- Microsoft 365 (Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and Excel).
- Documentation and process improvement.
- Xero or similar accounting software.
- Working within engineering, manufacturing or technology businesses (preferred but not essential).
An engineering background isn't required, but you should be comfortable learning technical terminology and working alongside engineers.
What Success Looks Like
Within your first six months:
- Meetings are well organised, documented and followed through.
- Procurement is visible, organised and proactively managed.
- Suppliers are followed up before delays become problems.
- Documentation is current, accessible and well maintained.
- The engineering team spends less time on administration.
- Leadership spends significantly more time on engineering, customers and company growth.
Your success won't be measured by how busy you are—it will be measured by how much time and focus you create for everyone else.
Why Join Us?
You'll have the opportunity to work directly with experienced engineers developing genuinely novel technology for the space industry.
Because we're still a growing company, this role offers far more variety and ownership than a typical Executive Assistant position. You'll have the opportunity to shape how the company operates, improve internal systems and grow alongside the business.
For the right person, this role could naturally develop into a broader operations leadership position as the company continues to expand.
If you're looking for a highly structured role where every task is predefined, this probably isn't the right fit.
If, however, you're someone who enjoys solving problems, improving systems and becoming an indispensable part of a growing engineering company, we'd love to hear from you.
