Executive Assistant (m/f/d)

The successful candidate will provide comprehensive assistance to a homebase, including a Scientific Director and associated Research Group Leaders. Fulfilling an important role at the intersection between scientists and administration, you will provide a professional, efficient and courteous first point of contact, often requiring a high level of creativity and tact. The job will benefit from someone with a service-oriented mentality, attention to detail, and excellent communication skills.

Main Responsibilities:

Director Support

• Organize and plan administrative logistics for a Scientific Director, including scheduling, communication, events, and travel
• Provide proactive oversight and support for the director
• Prioritize messages for action, draft and proofread responses in English and German, preserving confidentiality
• Facilitate interactions and communication in German
• Prepare agendas and take high quality minutes, follow up for the director

Group & Institute Support

• Organize administrative tasks for the director’s homebase (2-3 additional group leaders), focusing on scheduling, communication, events, and travel
• Support for institute committees, prepare agendas and minutes, follow up tasks
• Coordinate guest researcher visits and events (e.g. meetings, seminars, summer schools, alumni events)
• Assist with personnel matters (supporting initial contract requests and extensions, onboarding and offboarding)
• Engage with fellow executive assistants regarding work matters, quality improvement, and continued personal development
• Organizing office supplies, filing systems and other equipment
• Arranging repairs or replacements together with the responsible departments

Your Profile:

• Professional training/education as an executive assistant, events manager, foreign language assistant, or similar
• Excellent written and spoken English and German (the latter at B2 level or higher)
• Proactive mindset with very strong time management skills and structured work style
• Ability to multitask and prioritize a diverse and changing workload
• Intercultural competence and organizational talent
• Good software skills, especially Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and in-house databases

Desirable qualities:

• Ideally over 3 years of experience working in a comparable environment
• Experience in developing internal processes and filing systems
• Excellent interpersonal skills and customer-service orientation
• Creativity, optimism, and motivation in problem-solving

What we offer:

• an initial 2-year contract, with prolongation contingent on mutual agreement
• remuneration based on qualifications, activities, and experience in accordance with TVöD Bund, up to EG8
• a varied, interesting, and crucial role in a modern, scientific, and international environment
• opportunities for regular professional growth and exchange, individual training, and personal development
• social benefits of the public service (company pension scheme (VBL), annual special payment, subsidy for VVO job ticket, group accident insurance)
• active measures to promote company health management and work-life balance
• possibility for home office and mobile work upon agreement

Initial questions about the position can be addressed to Brian von Rueden, Head of Human Resources, via hr@mpi-cbg.de.

Please submit your complete application by 13.11.2026 via our online application system stating 2026-ExecutiveAssistant-Homebase-6000 via: https://careers.mpi-cbg.de/.

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Pfotenhauerstr. 108
01307 Dresden, Germany
http://www.mpi-cbg.de

• The Max Planck Society strives for gender equality and diversity. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, regardless of gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age, and other components of identity.
• The Max Planck Society specifically aims to increase the proportion of women in the areas in which they are underrepresented. We therefore explicitly invite women to apply.
• The Max Planck Society is further committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.
• The Max Planck Society supports the compatibility of family and career and is certified according to the "berufundfamilie" (“job and family”) audit.
• When you submit a job application to MPI-CBG, you are transmitting personal data. Please refer to our privacy notice for information on how we collect and process personal data in accordance with Art. 13 of the Datenschutz-Grundverordnung. By submitting your application you confirm that you have taken note of the information in our privacy notice.