Executive Assistant

MUST BE LOCAL TO SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA

JOB TITLE: Executive Assistant

TRAVEL: Some Travel Required

LOCATION: Remote/Hybrid

EMPLOYMENT TYPE: W2

HOURS: Part Time (<32 Hours/Week)

Overview

Mayeda Consulting is a women-owned small business providing organizational development services to government and community-based organizations — including consulting, staff and leadership training, strategic planning, grant writing, and more.

The Executive Assistant is a pivotal, high-trust role that directly supports the CEO/CPO and senior leadership. This individual operates as a trusted extension of the CEO/CPO — fluent in the organization’s work, clients, and priorities — and takes ownership of the administrative and operational infrastructure that allows leadership to focus on delivering results. The ideal candidate immerses themselves quickly in the business, learns its language and rhythms, and earns the ability to act and communicate on behalf of senior leadership with credibility. They handle complexity with calm, exercise sound judgment with discretion, and resolve issues before they escalate.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Proactive Support

• Anticipate the CEO/CPO’s needs by staying ahead of the calendar, deadlines, and organizational priorities — flagging conflicts, risks, or gaps before they become problems.
• Monitor ongoing projects, client deliverables, and team commitments on behalf of senior leadership; proactively surface status updates or bottlenecks without waiting to be asked.
• Research and prepare briefing materials, talking points, and background information ahead of meetings, calls, and decisions.
• Identify recurring operational pain points and independently recommend and implement process improvements.
• Track follow-up actions from meetings and communications; hold team members accountable for commitments and keep senior leadership informed of progress.

Executive Calendar & Communications

• Manage the CEO/CPO’s calendar including scheduling, rescheduling, and coordinating meetings — resolving conflicts proactively and protecting focused work time.
• Triage and manage the CEO/CPO’s inbox: organizing emails, flagging high-priority items, drafting responses when appropriate, and routing messages to the right team members.
• Manage the CEO/CPO’s Slack presence, including forwarding communications to relevant channels and flagging time-sensitive items.
• Serve as a gatekeeper and communications liaison — filtering access to the CEO/CPO’s time and attention as the primary priority, while providing scheduling and communications support to senior leadership as needed.

Operations & Administrative Support

• Coordinate travel arrangements and prepare associated expense reports.
• Implement and maintain administrative systems for data entry, time tracking, document handling, and project management.
• Procure and manage office and remote work supplies, including oversight of the company’s Amazon account and related expenses.
• Collect, organize, and submit expense receipts to the finance department accurately and on time.
• Maintain complex file systems within Egnyte; manage team permissions to ensure secure, efficient access.
• Coordinate technology needs and serve as a liaison to communicate issues and potential solutions; provide technical and logistical support for live events and webinars, including configuration, setup, and live management.
• Perform routine administrative tasks, including note-taking, Slack list management, Canvas management, document preparation, and invoice processing. Assist the Marketing Department with occasional social media posts, writing captions, and regularly scheduling approved content across platforms.
• Monitor social media channels and The Helpers’ Community Platform, provide timely responses and answer questions, and direct time-sensitive interactions to the appropriate team member. Proactively execute engagement strategies weekly, under the guidance of the marketing department, to boost brand awareness and foster connections.
• Support podcast operations end-to-end: scheduling guests, coordinating waiver forms, managing pre- and post-filming logistics and communications, handling outreach and guest correspondence, and coordinating with the content team on generating short- and long-form clips from recordings, including basic clipping and trimming for distribution.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to think ahead — recognizing what the CEO/CPO and senior leadership will need next and acting on it without being asked.
• Proven track record of independent problem-solving and evidence-based decision-making, reducing the need for senior leadership approvals on routine matters.
• Exceptional organizational skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft professional correspondence on behalf of leadership.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Calendar, Word, Excel) along with the ability to quickly master new tools and platforms.
• Ability to work independently with strong self-discipline, initiative, and follow-through.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment — adapting quickly to shifting priorities.
• A natural learner who quickly absorbs the language, context, and priorities of a new organization — able to represent senior leadership credibly within the first 60–90 days without needing to be taught every detail.
• High emotional intelligence — reads the room, navigates different personalities with ease, and communicates sensitively across diverse stakeholders including government partners, community organizations, and clients.
• Unwavering discretion and confidentiality — this role has deep access to the CEO/CPO’s inbox, senior leadership communications, financials, client relationships, and sensitive organizational matters. Trust is non-negotiable.

Required Education & Experience

• At least 5 years of experience in executive administration,

OR

• A bachelor’s degree plus relevant administrative experience.
• Experience coordinating complex travel logistics and multi-stakeholder scheduling.
• Demonstrated experience supporting a C-suite executive in a high-accountability, high-autonomy capacity.

Preferred Knowledge & Tools

• Slack (team communications)
• Moxie (project management)
• Egnyte (document storage)
• Familiarity with organizational development, consulting, or government services environments.
• Circle platform (this is the platform for The Helpers’ Community)
• Familiarity with content scheduling tools

What Success Looks Like in This Role

In the first 90 days, the right person will:

• Learn the CEO/CPO’s working style, priorities, and communication preferences, as well as the broader senior leadership team’s needs — and the firm’s clients, service lines, and industry language — well enough to draft emails, triage requests, and make judgment calls without asking for context every time.
• Proactively surface at least one process improvement and implement it with minimal direction.
• Manage the CEO/CPO’s calendar and inbox with zero dropped balls — no missed meetings, no unaddressed urgents — and establish a working relationship with senior leadership to understand and support their needs.
• Establish a reliable system for tracking and following up on senior leadership and team action items.

Work Culture

• Team-building activities and retreats
• Mental and physical health self-care leadership check-ins
• Promotes parenting-out-loud and work-life balance
• Incentives for professional and personal growth
• Work within your strengths (within role limitations)