Executive Assistant

Role & Responsibilities:

Executive partnership and prioritization

• Serve as a strategic thought partner and primary point of contact for executive leadership, internal leaders, employees, clients, partners, and other external stakeholders.
• Develop a strong understanding of each executive’s priorities, working style, relationships, and decision-making preferences.
• Anticipate needs, identify risks, and recommend solutions before issues become urgent.
• Triage competing requests by determining what requires two or more executives’ attention, what can be delegated, and what should be deferred.
• Maintain visibility into open commitments, decisions, and follow-up items, and drive accountability through completion.

Calendar and meeting leadership

• Own the complex and dynamic calendars of multiple executives, balancing strategic priorities, internal operating rhythms, client and partner commitments, travel, and personal focus time.
• Protect executive time by resolving conflicts, managing tradeoffs, and ensuring that meetings have a clear purpose and the right participants.
• Prepare the relevant executive for meetings by gathering background information, briefing materials, agendas, talking points, and relevant decisions or action items.
• Capture and distribute action items as appropriate, ensuring that decisions and next steps are documented and advanced.

Communications and information flow

• Communicate on behalf of the executive in a tone that is clear, thoughtful, responsive, and aligned with AHEAD’s standards.
• Monitor executive inboxes and incoming requests with sound judgment, confidentiality, and an understanding of organizational context.
• When required to draft, edit, and proofread correspondence, presentations, meeting materials, and other communications in the appropriate executive’s voice.
• Provide timely updates on emerging issues, organizational developments, upcoming commitments, and decisions requiring attention.

Travel, expenses, and logistics

• Coordinate domestic and international travel, including air, hotel, ground transportation, itineraries, changes, and travel-related materials.
• Manage expense reporting and related approvals accurately and on time.
• Own end-to-end logistics for executive meetings, offsites, and events, including:
• • Room selection, setup, and AV or virtual platform readiness
  • Catering and refreshment orders, dietary needs, and vendor coordination
  • On-site hosting of guests, including greeting, directions, and parking or access
  • Post-meeting cleanup and room reset, stepping in personally when needed

  Special projects and executive operations

  • Create practical systems, templates, and operating rhythms that improve executive effectiveness and reduce friction.
  • Partner with other Executive Assistants and cross-functional teams to coordinate coverage, improve processes, and provide consistent executive experience.
  • Support preparation for senior leadership, board, advisory, and client-facing engagements as assigned.
  • Handle sensitive information with the highest level of discretion and professionalism.

  Office Presence, Availability, and Responsiveness

  • Work in the office 4-5 days per week. An in-person presence is required when the executive(s) you support are in the office, when the office administrator needs backup coverage, as well as key meetings and events.
  • Treat the role as a 24/7 executive support position, remaining available and attentive beyond standard business hours.
  • Always respond promptly to time-sensitive needs.
  • Anticipate what the supported executives may need before they ask.

Required Qualifications:

• Five or more years of experience supporting one or more C-level executives, senior executives, or equivalent leaders in a complex, fast-moving organization.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a high-volume, constantly changing workload while maintaining accuracy, composure, and attention to detail.
• Exceptional organizational, prioritization, and time-management skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft polished executive communications.
• High emotional intelligence, sound judgment, and the ability to handle confidential information appropriately.
• Always demonstrates professionalism, including in high-pressure situations and when representing the executive and AHEAD.
• A genuine can-do attitude.  Always willing to roll up your sleeves and chip in. You move comfortably between strategic work, like advising on sensitive matters, and hands-on tasks, like resetting a room after an executive lunch. 
• Proven ability to anticipate needs, identify risks, and independently move work forward.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft 365, calendar and travel tools, virtual meeting platforms, and presentation and document tools.
• A college degree or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting an executive in a professional services, technology, consulting, or similarly client-focused environment.
• Experience coordinating executive leadership meetings, offsites, board or advisory meetings, and high-visibility company events.
• Experience working across multiple time zones and with geographically distributed stakeholders.
• Experience managing projects, improving administrative systems, or coordinating work across an EA team.

How You Work:

• You are proactive rather than reactive and bring solutions, not just problems.
• You are discreet, dependable, and trusted with sensitive information.
• You remain calm under pressure and are comfortable making informed decisions with incomplete information.
• You stay above the fray, maintaining perspective, discretion, and professionalism even when circumstances are tense or competing priorities arise.
• You communicate directly and thoughtfully, and you follow through on your commitments.
• You know when to move independently and when to escalate.
• You balance warmth and approachability with the confidence to protect priorities and maintain boundaries.
• You take pride in creating a polished, seamless experience for the supported executives and everyone who works with them.

What Success Looks like:

Success in this role means enabling the executive and key stakeholders to work with greater focus, clarity, and consistency.

• Executive time is aligned with the highest-value priorities, with fewer avoidable conflicts and interruptions.
• Meetings are purposeful, well-prepared, and followed by clear decisions and next steps.
• Important information reaches the appropriate executive at the right time, with appropriate context and a recommended path forward.
• Commitments are tracked, stakeholders are informed, and follow-through is reliable.
• Travel booking, expenses, events, and executive logistics are handled smoothly and proactively.
• The supported executives, leadership team, and key partners experience the EA as a trusted, responsive, and highly capable representative of AHEAD.

Progress in this role is demonstrated through increasing impact, autonomy, and scope—not simply through the volume of tasks completed.

First 90 days

• Build trusted working relationships with the supported executives and key stakeholders.
• Establish a reliable understanding of each executive’s priorities, preferences, communication norms, recurring commitments, and decision-making patterns.
• Bring the calendar, inbox, travel, expenses, and follow-up systems to a consistent and well-organized state.
• Identify recurring friction points and implement at least two practical improvements to reduce avoidable interruptions, rework, or scheduling conflicts.
• Consistently prepare the relevant executives for priority meetings with the right context, materials, and next steps.

By six months

• Independently manage each executive’s operating rhythm, including calendar strategy, meeting preparation, travel, communications, and follow-through.
• Demonstrate measurable improvement in calendar quality, including fewer avoidable conflicts, clearer meeting purposes, better preparation, and protected focus time.
• Maintain a dependable action-item and commitment-tracking process, with timely follow-up and clear ownership.
• Earn strong trust from the supported executives and key partners through discretion, responsiveness, sound judgment, and proactive communication.

Ongoing measures of success

• Executive time is increasingly focused on the highest-value priorities.
• Priority meetings are prepared, decisions are clear, and follow-through is visible.
• Requests and information are triaged accurately and handled with appropriate urgency.
• Stakeholders experience timely communication, clear expectations, and dependable execution.
• Travel, expenses, events, and logistics are completed accurately with minimal escalation.
• The scope of responsibility, level of independence, and strategic contribution continue to grow. 

Reporting Relationship:

This role reports to the Manager, Executive Experience and Services, while receiving day-to-day direction from the C-level executive or executives it supports. The role works closely with the Executive Leadership Team, other Executive Assistants, and cross-functional partners across AHEAD.