Executive Assistant to the CEO

About Oakland Promise

Oakland Promise is available to young learners, from newborns to college students, and their families who reside in Oakland. Oakland Promise offers financial resources, educational programming, mentorship, and a supportive community to help students and families seek out and thrive in higher education and the career of their choosing.

The mission of Oakland Promise is to engage the Oakland community to advance equity and economic mobility through cradle-to-college and career achievement. Oakland Promise supports children, students, and families from early childhood through K-12, college, career, and postsecondary success.

Oakland Promise’s work includes early learning supports, college savings accounts, K-12 college and career readiness, scholarships, mentoring, college persistence support, career exposure, and partnerships that help Oakland students and families access the resources, relationships, and opportunities they need to thrive.

About the Role

Oakland Promise seeks an experienced, highly organized, thoughtful, and proactive Executive Assistant to provide high-level support to the CEO. This role provides high-level administrative, scheduling, coordination, communication, and executive support to the CEO. The Executive Assistant helps the CEO stay organized, prepared, responsive, and focused by managing the flow of information, meetings, materials, follow-up, and day-to-day priorities.

The ideal candidate brings excellent judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and follow-through. They are calm under pressure, able to manage multiple priorities, and comfortable working with staff, board members, funders, partners, public officials, and community stakeholders. This role requires someone who can anticipate needs, organize information, prepare materials, track next steps, and help ensure that the CEO’s commitments and priorities move forward with clarity and professionalism.

Key Responsibilities

Executive Calendar and Scheduling

• Manage the CEO’s calendar, including scheduling, rescheduling, confirming, and prioritizing meetings.
• Coordinate internal and external meetings with staff, board members, funders, partners, public officials, and community stakeholders.
• Ensure calendar invitations include accurate locations, Zoom links, agendas, attendees, and relevant materials.
• Help protect the CEO’s time by identifying conflicts, overcommitments, preparation needs, and follow-up needs.
• Build in preparation time, travel time, transition time, and follow-up time when needed.
• Track major organizational deadlines, board meetings, donor meetings, public events, speaking engagements, and CEO commitments.
• Coordinate travel, lodging, registrations, reimbursements, and logistics for conferences, convening, partner meetings, and other CEO engagements.

Inbox, Communication, and Information Flow

• Support management of the CEO’s inbox, including flagging urgent items, organizing information, tracking follow-up, and identifying items that need the CEO’s attention.
• Draft routine emails, scheduling messages, acknowledgments, thank-you notes, and follow-up messages for the CEO’s review.
• Help the CEO respond in a timely and organized way to staff, board members, funders, partners, public officials, and other stakeholders.
• Maintain systems for tracking open items, pending responses, meeting follow-up, and commitments made by or to the CEO.
• Ensure the CEO has the information needed to make decisions, respond thoughtfully, and stay on top of key priorities.
• Handle sensitive and confidential information with care, professionalism, and discretion.

Meeting Preparation and Follow-Up

• Prepare briefing materials for CEO meetings, including agendas, background notes, attendee information, prior correspondence, key questions, and relevant documents.
• Organize and maintain meeting folders, reference materials, and preparation documents.
• Take notes in selected meetings and track decisions, next steps, and follow-up items.
• Send follow-up emails, reminders, and materials as requested by the CEO.
• Help ensure commitments made in meetings are captured and followed through.
• Coordinate with staff to gather materials, updates, or information needed for CEO preparation.

Board and Governance Support

• Provide administrative and logistical support for Board and committee meetings.
• Support scheduling, calendar holds, attendance tracking, materials, agendas, presentations, and follow-up for Board-related meetings.
• Coordinate with the CEO, Board Chair, CFOO, and relevant staff to prepare Board packets and meeting materials.
• Maintain organized records of Board materials, meeting dates, decisions, and follow-up items.
• Support logistics for Board retreats, committee meetings, donor meetings involving board members, and special board-related events.
• Help ensure the CEO and Board Chair have the information and materials they need to be prepared for meetings.

CEO Support and Coordination

• Maintain systems that help the CEO stay organized, including files, templates, contact lists, follow-up trackers, travel information, and recurring meeting rhythms.
• Support planning and logistics for CEO-led meetings, staff gatherings, retreats, donor meetings, and external engagements.
• Help organize materials for speeches, presentations, reports, public meetings, and donor or partner conversations.
• Coordinate across departments to gather information, schedule meetings, and support CEO preparation.
• Support clear and timely communication between the CEO and internal teams.
• Identify opportunities to improve organization, follow-up, document management, and information flow for the CEO.

Internal Coordination

• Work closely with staff across departments to support scheduling, meeting preparation, document collection, and follow-up.
• Follow up with staff on materials or updates requested by the CEO.
• Help the CEO stay organized around Executive Team meetings, staff meetings, board meetings, donor meetings, and external commitments.
• Support strong communication and coordination while maintaining appropriate role clarity.
• Escalate issues to the CEO when prioritization, judgment, or additional direction is needed.

External Engagement Support

• Help prepare the CEO for meetings with funders, public officials, partners, community leaders, and other external stakeholders.
• Organize briefing notes, background materials, agendas, relationship notes, and supporting documents.
• Draft thank-you notes, follow-up emails, and scheduling correspondence.
• Maintain accurate contact information and meeting notes where appropriate.
• Represent the CEO’s office with warmth, professionalism, discretion, and responsiveness.

Role Scope

The Executive Assistant works closely with the CEO and supports strong communication, coordination, preparation, and follow-through. This role is designed to strengthen the CEO’s organization, responsiveness, and effectiveness.

The role is not responsible for directing departments, managing organizational strategy, supervising senior leaders, or making decisions on behalf of the CEO without clear direction. The Executive Assistant supports the CEO’s leadership by helping ensure the right information, people, materials, and follow-up are in place.

Required Qualifications

• At least 5 years of experience supporting a senior executive, CEO, executive director, president, or senior leadership team.
• Exceptional calendar management, scheduling, and organizational skills.
• Strong written communication skills, especially for clear, concise, professional emails and follow-up messages.
• Excellent judgment, discretion, and ability to handle confidential information.
• Strong attention to detail and follow-through.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to anticipate needs and solve problems while knowing when to ask for direction.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a calm, professional presence.
• Comfort interacting with board members, funders, public officials, senior staff, and community partners.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace, Canva, Zoom, Microsoft Office, and common project or task management tools.
• Commitment to Oakland Promise’s mission and the students and families of Oakland.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience supporting a nonprofit CEO, executive director, school system leader, foundation leader, or public-sector executive.
• Experience supporting board meetings, board packets, governance logistics, or committee coordination.
• Experience with donor, funder, partner, or public official scheduling and correspondence.
• Familiarity with Oakland, education, college access, economic mobility, or community-based organizations.
• Experience organizing complex calendars, travel, retreats, events, and executive communications.
• Ability to create simple systems that improve organization, follow-up, and information flow.

Core Competencies

• Executive Organization: Keeps the CEO prepared, on schedule, and focused on the right priorities.
• Judgment and Discretion: Handles confidential information carefully and understands when to ask before acting.
• Follow-Through: Tracks details, closes loops, and ensures commitments do not fall through the cracks.
• Clear Communication: Writes clearly, professionally, and with attention to tone, audience, and purpose.
• Role Clarity: Supports the CEO with professionalism, responsiveness, and appropriate boundaries.
• Calm Under Pressure: Maintains focus and professionalism in a fast-moving environment with shifting priorities.
• Relationship Management: Interacts warmly and respectfully with staff, board
• members, funders, partners, public officials, and community stakeholders.

Compensation and Benefits

• Full-time role
• Hiring range for this role is $110k-$125k, based on skill sets and experience
• Competitive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision
• 401(k) with employer match
• Generous paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
• Hybrid work environment, with required in-person work in Oakland
• Occasional evening and weekend hours required for board meetings, events, and CEO commitments
• Opportunity to support a mission-driven organization focused on economic mobility and educational opportunity for Oakland students and families

To Apply:

Send a single PDF (NOT a Microsoft Word document) of a resume and thoughtful cover letter to apply@oaklandpromise.org with “Job Name – Your Name” in the subject line. Please use your last name and first initial (ex: Doe_J) as the filename of your PDF containing your resume and cover letter.

Failure to follow these instructions may delay the review of your application. Applications will be reviewed immediately and candidates with the best fit will be contacted for interviews. Unfortunately, the volume of applications will prevent us from responding to all applications received.

Oakland Promise is a place-based organization located in Oakland, California. Oakland Promise requires that employees work in person at various engagements. It is a requirement that all staff reside within commuting distance to the main office, located at 484 9th Street, Oakland, CA 94607. Please note that at any time, a full in-person work plan may be required, and it is of utmost importance that all staff are able to meet this requirement. Oakland Promise is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Oakland Promise is committed to providing a work environment free of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and disrespectful or other unprofessional conduct based on sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), sex stereotype, race, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), color, gender (including gender identity, gender expression, and transgender), national origin (including language use restrictions and possession of a driver's license issued under Vehicle Code section 12801.9), ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, sexual orientation, military, and veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law or ordinance or regulation. It also prohibits discrimination, harassment, disrespectful or unprofessional conduct based on the perception that anyone has any of those characteristics, or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics.

• Hiring range for this role is $110k-$125k, based on skill sets and experience
• Competitive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision
• 401(k) with employer match
• Generous paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays

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