Executive Assistant

Our team is at an exciting juncture in the organization’s history. We’ve doubled our staff capacity over the last year, allowing us to run more effective programs, build a larger network of future Native candidates, and strengthen connections with more Native and Indigenous communities and organizations across the country. From an administrative and operations perspective, this means our Co-Founding Executive Director is being called upon for more external engagements and an increasingly complex docket of fast moving priorities and commitments. This position is critical and we’re looking for an experienced administrative support person to serve as the Executive Director’s partner, ensuring she is focusing on the right things at the right time to drive the mission forward.

Qualifications for the position:

To be successful in this role, we believe the right candidate will have most of the qualifications below. Some candidates may feel discouraged from applying if they don’t match every job requirement - we encourage you to apply anyway.

• 3-5 years of relevant experience supporting a senior level executive, preferably in a public sector or nonprofit setting.
• Ability to independently determine which meetings are the top priorities for the executive and assemble a schedule accordingly.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including experience composing correspondence on behalf of a senior executive.
• Track record of effectively utilizing Google Workspace products (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Drive).
• Demonstrated ability to identify creative solutions even on projects you’ve never worked on before.
• Demonstrated awareness of one’s own cultural identity, respect for differences, and the ability to learn and build on varying cultural and community norms.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve results; think strategically, proactively and creatively.
• Track record of proposing solutions, communicating with colleagues proactively when challenges or opportunities arise, and being willing to ask questions.
• Track record of balancing competing priorities against dynamic deadlines.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, follow through on job responsibilities, and agility to work quickly and accurately.
• Flexibility with work schedule as this position can extend into evening and weekend work.
• Ability to juggle multiple projects and cross-department work simultaneously and with professional grace.
• Commitment to equity and inclusion as organizational practice and culture.
• Comfort working remotely or in person, and prior experience collaborating with teams and supervisors remotely.
• Preference for candidates in Eastern or Central U.S. time zones.

About the role:

Advance is looking for an Executive Assistant to join our growing team. The Executive Assistant reports directly to the Executive Director and is responsible for providing high-level administrative and organizational support. This role is responsible for scheduling and managing calendars, reimbursements, expense reports, arranging travel, preparing reports, managing communication in a fast-paced environment, and handling confidential information. They will serve as a scheduling liaison between the Executive Director and our staff, advisors, funders, and other stakeholders. This position requires excellent professional communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills. Ideal candidates will have a high level of discretion and judgment with previous experience working with executives. The right candidate will also be able to work independently with autonomy to successfully complete tasks and proactively communicate priorities and pivots to crucial stakeholders.

A typical day in the life could include tasks ranging from:

• Daily standup meeting with the Executive Director to go over the day’s schedule, ensuring they have what they need for each meeting, including any helpful information or context about the stakeholders and meeting objectives.
• Booking conference travel for an out of state multi-day convening and coordinating all logistics (e.g. rideshare or rental car, hotel, airfare, dinner and lunch meetings).
• Responding to scheduling inquiries from key partners, checking in internally where there may be potential conflicts, and exercising discretion over which scheduling commitments may be moveable and which are non-negotiable.
• Attending internal or external meetings on occasion, as a proxy, to collect and relay relevant information back to the Executive Director with recommendations for next steps.
• Formatting and updating materials, in collaboration with other internal staff, to disseminate in advance of key stakeholder meetings (e.g. Advisory Board meetings, all team meeting agendas, prospective and current donor meetings).

Job requirements

Roles & Responsibilities:

These responsibilities are an estimation of the role. The role may change based on the applicant's skill sets, interests, and evolving needs of the organization.

Executive Support

• Proactively manage the Executive Director’s dynamic calendar (surfacing questions, getting aligned on tradeoffs, ensuring enough space/travel time between meetings, holding space for review blocks, etc).
• Manage and draft correspondence on behalf of the Executive Director prioritizing upcoming deadlines, awareness of staff involvement, and suggesting strategic opportunities for stakeholder engagement and efficiency.
• Provide timely administrative support for the Executive Director (e.g. completing and submitting credit card expense reports, reimbursement requests, and other accounting-related paperwork).
• Oversee all aspects of travel arrangements and itinerary planning that align with the Executive Director’s preferences (e.g. flights, accommodations, ground and public transportation, offsite meetings that take place during travel). Support Executive Director in consolidating travel notes and tracking follow up tasks after travel. On certain occasions, this can include accompanying the Executive Director on travel engagements and on-site meetings as needed.
• Manage sensitive information with discretion, ensuring secure distribution and storage of confidential documents.
• Willingness to work non-standard hours, including weekends and travel when required. Occasional travel to advisor meetings, retreats, and other on-site meetings as needed.

Advisory Board Liaison

• Manage scheduling with Advisory Board, meeting materials, and provide support as needed.
• Serve as the primary liaison and administrative manager to the Advisory Board and Executive Director.
• Schedule quarterly Advisory Board meetings and manage coordination and delivery of all moving parts in advance of meetings, including materials (agenda, packets, etc), confirmations, and follow up.
• Take Advisory Board meeting notes, draft minutes, and track post meeting coordination and communication ensuring any necessary follow up takes place.
• Support additional committee formations as needed, including scheduling meetings, sending meeting reminders, taking notes, and providing general project management.

General Administrative Management

• Manage staff and leadership team meeting and retreat schedules.
• Manage additional virtual office operations as needed, such as file system organization and data management, drafting correspondence, triaging requests, updating data across multiple documents or platforms.
• Provide support to the operations team on organizational projects and initiatives when needed (onboarding and offboarding administration, staff retreats, note taking on weekly staff and leadership team calls, etc).
• Hold a high-level awareness of the workflow of the Native Leadership Institute and other programs and support collaboration and administrative needs across the teams (fiscal sponsor requests, support cross-team communication, and maintaining an overview of big-picture priorities).
• Provide administrative support for the expanding programmatic work of the organization, including scheduling with elected officials, Tribal leaders, allies, coalitions, support for program logistics as needed, and managing contacts and grantmaking data in our Salesforce database.
• Special projects or event support as needed, including scheduling, logistical or project coordination.
• Other duties as assigned.

$75,000-95,000 annually