Executive Assistant to CEO (Stealth Mode) - Founding Team Member

About the Role

We're looking for an exceptional Executive Assistant to serve as a true right hand to the CEO. This is not a traditional admin role. You'll be a founding team member and a high-performance operator helping bring structure, clarity, and execution discipline to a company scaling from 0 to 1.

Your job is simple to describe and hard to do: own outcomes, follow through, and leave nothing unfinished. You'll keep the CEO focused, on time, and moving toward the highest-value work. You'll enforce priorities, push back on distraction and scope creep, and ensure nothing slips.

The tasks themselves are often straightforward. Executing them with consistency, precision, and follow-through is what makes this role rare and valuable. If you are someone who takes pride in mastering fundamentals and doing them repeatedly at a high level, this role was built for you.

This is an onsite role in San Mateo, CA five days a week. If you want a front-row seat to building alongside an entrepreneur who has started and sold five companies, come join us.

About the Company

We are building a company with a mission to help protect human potential in a world where AI may erode what makes us human. We are looking for founding team operators who truly believe in the mission.

We are a small, high-trust team of A-level operators. We hold ourselves to high standards, support each other, and take the work seriously.

You will sit in on strategic meetings, observe pitch meetings to Tier I VCs, learn sales best practices, and watch how a seasoned operator makes decisions under pressure. Whether you grow within this company into a larger leadership role or carry the operator toolkit you build here into your next chapter, this role will accelerate your development faster than almost any other path available early in a career.

What You'll Do

Daily Planning and Operating Rhythm

• Send a morning message each day with clear goals and tasks to be completed
• Translate long conversations (3+ hours) into prioritized, actionable next steps; separate signal from noise
• Send an end-of-day summary covering what was completed, what is pending, and any key risks or blockers
• Maintain strict follow-through on every open loop until it is fully closed

Calendar and Time Management

• Maintain clean scheduling. No missed meetings, conflicts, or dropped commitments
• Proactively align the calendar to the highest-leverage priorities each week
• Time-box meetings and keep discussions on track
• Step in when needed to redirect focus and keep momentum moving

Focus and Priority Enforcement

• Be comfortable saying "This is not the priority right now" or "This needs more clarity before we proceed"
• Respectfully redirect attention when the CEO is too deep in the wrong thing
• Act as a calm, steady guardrail against distraction, tunnel vision, and misalignment
• Help regulate pace, energy, and attention — including helping the CEO reset and regain clarity when needed

Systems and Operations

• Build and maintain operating systems using tools like Asana or equivalent
• Leverage AI tools and automation to drive consistency and reduce manual overhead
• Ensure core operational infrastructure is functioning — payroll, banking, HR, vendor setup, and beyond
• Maintain a well-organized, clean working environment including office supplies and logistics

Communication and Preparation

• Prepare briefing materials, agendas, and follow-up communications
• Draft and send correspondence on behalf of the CEO when needed
• Ensure the CEO enters every meeting prepared and on time

Hiring and Team Support (Phase Two)

• Assist in recruiting, scheduling, and organizing interview processes
• Ensure interviews are documented and follow-up is handled
• Help build scalable systems as the team grows

Who You Are

• Extremely reliable — you do what you say, every time, without exception
• Naturally organized and systems-driven; you create order out of chaos
• Disciplined with time and timelines; you live by your calendar and think in structured increments
• Comfortable with repetition and fundamentals; mastering the basics at a high level is something you respect, not something you avoid
• Direct and confident — you give honest, respectful pushback and are comfortable being persistent with strong-willed people
• No ego about the work — you own outcomes regardless of whether the task is strategic or logistical
• You operate with complete trust and confidentiality
• 0 to 15+ years of experience

Background and Skills

• Experience in early-stage startup environments strongly preferred
• Background in science, engineering, mathematics, or similarly rigorous disciplines is a strong plus
• High comfort with AI tools and productivity platforms
• A demonstrated track record of discipline, endurance, and follow-through in work, academics, athletics, or other high-commitment pursuits.

You'll Likely Thrive Here If

• You have operated in fast-moving, chaotic environments and consistently brought structure where none existed
• You are extremely disciplined with time
• You have a track record of sustained high performance under pressure — and you actually enjoy that environment
• A willingness to stay engaged and push things across the finish line
• You want to learn about company building

Compensation

• Base salary: approximately $105,000, adjusted for experience and expected impact
• Significant variable cash upside tied to performance

Next Steps

As part of our hiring process, we ask candidates to complete a short work-sample assessment. It gives you a chance to show us what you can actually do. https://www.meritfirst.us/candidate/tests/ee29162d-efe6-4316-a5c2-fec1b3eb13ce

https://www.meritfirst.us/candidate/tests/ee29162d-efe6-4316-a5c2-fec1b3eb13ce