Executive Senior Office Associate
We're hiring an Executive Office Senior Associate to be a force multiplier for our CEO and Executive Office team. This is an individual contributor position reporting to Ayla Smith (Deputy Chief of Staff) and working closely with Zach Robinson (CEO).
About CEA
The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) stewards the movement of people putting effective altruism principles into practice to solve the world's most pressing problems. We’re working to build a flourishing future by applying evidence, reason, and compassion to challenges like global poverty, animal suffering, and existential risks.
Our work centers on growing and supporting a global community of people who rigorously analyze where they can do the most good – and take action on those insights. Current strategic priorities include increasing understanding of effective altruism and its principles, growing the number of people who are motivated by EA principles to take significant action to address pressing problems, and diversifying funding sources for high-impact work.
We had significant success in 2025, building momentum within CEA. Our headcount grew from 42 to 66 core staff. Program participation (e.g., events, courses, groups) grew by 20-25% year over year. We merged with EA Funds and are rapidly scaling up our capacity for grantmaking and associated fundraising: our first Fund staffed with full-time employees (EA Animal Welfare Fund) raised almost as much as the previous three years combined.
In 2026, we’re maintaining ambitious momentum while building the foundations for a step-change in the wider EA ecosystem’s growth trajectory from 2027 onwards.
About the Executive Office
The Executive Office sits at the center of CEA's strategy and operations, supporting our CEO and coordinating critical functions across a fast-growing organization. We're a lean team of versatile generalists who operate in near-constant triage, ensuring that CEA's highest priorities get the attention and execution they need. Our work spans strategy development, organizational planning, fundraising, senior hiring, stakeholder management, internal and community communications, crisis response, and “keep-the-trains-running” work that makes everything else possible. The nature of our work is inherently unpredictable and requires constant adaptation as priorities shift.
About the role
We are hiring an Executive Office Senior Associate to increase the capacity of CEA's Executive Office. You will work closely with our CEO, Zach Robinson, and report to Ayla Smith, Deputy Chief of Staff, who was previously in this role and is taking on expanded responsibilities. In this position, you'll be a force multiplier for the Executive Office – keeping operations running smoothly, executing reliably, and ultimately helping CEA and effective altruism maximize our impact.
Joining the Executive Office is a rare opportunity to be in the room where it happens: you will have unusually high visibility into Zach’s decision making as CEO, how the organization operates, how priorities are set and revisited, and how decisions get made in the face of difficult tradeoffs. We are looking for someone who can contribute immediately, improve how we prioritize and follow through on work, and adapt as needs change, including when that means taking on unglamorous but important tasks.
We can imagine two different profiles for this role, and exceptional candidates with a wide range of experience could fit into either one. We will tailor the role to the profile of our successful candidate:
Stable Support Role: If you are excited about excelling in executive operations for an extended period of time, we expect you could unlock a huge amount of value by being a force multiplier for our CEO and Executive Office team, and therefore for CEA and the EA ecosystem as a whole. You would bring high caliber judgment to executive support work, building deep expertise in this function over time. We endorse this post about appreciating Stable Support Roles.
Leadership Development Role: We believe that as well as an opportunity to make an immediate impact, our team is an excellent training ground for future EA leaders. We would still be looking for someone motivated to excel in this role as scoped, including its administrative and execution-focused aspects, but with a view to accelerating your development towards leadership roles at CEA or within the EA ecosystem. You’ll develop through close proximity to executive decision-making, direct coaching from the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, and increasing project ownership as you demonstrate readiness. We'd increase the scope of the role over time as your capacity and skills allow. This could be a fit for someone with more professional experience looking to build context and a network by transitioning into EA work, or someone earlier in their career with more exposure to EA looking to build the experience and skills required in leadership roles. Our track record:
Oscar Howie, our Chief of Staff, was originally hired as an Executive Assistant with a decade of professional experience but little exposure to EA. He was then promoted to become part of our Leadership team with responsibility for multiple aspects of our strategy and operations.
Ayla Smith, our Deputy Chief of Staff, was hired as an Executive Office Senior Associate and within 8 months was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff with responsibility for project management, leadership team coordination, and strategic planning support (and is now hiring for this role).
What both tracks have in common: Regardless of which track you're on, you'll need to excel at the core execution responsibilities of this role for at least 12-24 months (you should not accept this role if you are not willing to stay in the role for at least 2 years). Both tracks require strategic thinking, strong judgment, the ability to work at high intensity when needed, and a commitment to being exceptional at unglamorous but critical work.
The difference is in where you want to go after proving yourself in the foundation role. For those on the Leadership Development track, after excelling in the foundation role, you'd help us hire a replacement and we'd help you find another high impact and/or high-growth-potential role at CEA or elsewhere in the ecosystem aligned with your strengths.
What makes someone successful in this role? You prefer progress over perfection and learn by doing. You're comfortable working in a fast-moving environment where priorities evolve and ambiguity is common. You bring leadership-caliber judgment to the work, whether you're managing the CEO's calendar or proposing a new process to fix a recurring coordination issue. You'll know you're succeeding when the CEO can focus on strategic priorities, when commitments and deadlines are tracked reliably across the Executive Office and potential issues are caught before they escalate, and when the Executive Office is operating more smoothly because of the systems and processes you've put in place.
Key responsibilities
Our Executive Office team does a mix of strategic and execution-focused work. This role is anchored in execution, but our work is often unpredictable – we can't anticipate everything you might do, so we're looking for someone willing to adapt to the team's needs as priorities shift.
Administration and follow-through
Manage the CEO's calendar, inbox, tasks, and logistics (e.g. travel), with potential to provide similar support to other Executive Office members as capacity allows
Take clear, actionable notes and ensure follow-through on decisions and commitments
Develop and maintain systems and processes that reduce friction and prevent things from falling through the cracks
Protecting priorities
Help prioritize and protect the CEO's time and attention in an environment of constant triage
Track commitments, deadlines, and follow-ups across the Executive Office, and surface conflicts early
Make clear tradeoffs between competing priorities, and support clear decision making, including pausing or dropping work when higher-priority needs emerge
Distinguish between work that would be nice to do and work that is genuinely time-sensitive and high-impact
Success in this role often involves saying "not now" to good ideas so that the most impactful work gets the attention it needs.
Communication and coordination
Communicate clearly and professionally with CEA staff on behalf of the Executive Office
Draft correspondence and materials, including content intended for external audiences (e.g. Forum posts, memos, talks)
Work with colleagues across teams to gather information, request input, and keep work moving forward
Problem solving and project management
Figure out how to make progress on open-ended or underspecified tasks
Break vague goals into concrete next steps and execute on them
Notice misalignments, bottlenecks, or recurring issues and propose lightweight, practical fixes
Make reasonable judgment calls about what to handle independently and when to escalate
For example, you might notice a recurring coordination issue, propose a simple process change, implement it within a week, and iterate based on feedback. We care deeply about thoughtful analysis — and we also care about things actually getting done.
Additional responsibilities over time (primarily for Leadership Development track)
As your capacity and skills allow, you will have opportunities to take on additional responsibilities such as:
Project ownership: Scope and deliver projects or workstreams independently, coordinating across teams as needed
Strategic problem solving: We do not expect to have all the answers about how best to achieve our goals, and you will sometimes be responsible for figuring this out and making actionable proposals
Special projects: Establish and execute on new workstreams
Communicating with external audiences: You may be responsible for researching, drafting and editing content intended for audiences inside and outside the EA community, such as Forum posts, EAG talks, and op-eds
What we're looking for
Strong candidates might have significant professional experience and be newer to EA, or be earlier in their careers with deeper EA context. We expect alignment with EA's core principles, but prior EA-specific work experience or deep familiarity with the ecosystem is not required—what matters most is your ability to execute reliably, solve problems independently, and bring strong judgment to your work.
You might be a great fit for this role if you are:
Someone who executes reliably and follows through on commitments. You're highly organized, detail-oriented, and can juggle multiple priorities without losing momentum. You have a strong bias toward action and results, and consistently deliver what you say you will.
An independent problem solver who doesn't need to wait for instructions. You identify what needs doing, propose a plan, and execute with minimal oversight. You're comfortable making progress amid ambiguity and focus on moving things forward rather than just diagnosing problems. We especially value a "get things done" mindset — the kind of ownership and follow-through described here.
Practical in your judgment and adaptable under pressure. You make sensible decisions with incomplete information, balancing speed, quality, and pragmatism. You adapt quickly as priorities shift and can work at high intensity when needed.
Collaborative and able to influence without formal authority. You work effectively with colleagues across teams, ask for things clearly, follow up consistently, and negotiate tradeoffs while building trust and goodwill. You demonstrate judgment and ownership in your work.
Highly professional and discreet with confidential information. You'll have access to sensitive organizational and leadership information, and you understand what should and shouldn't be shared, and with whom. You enable information to flow where it's needed while protecting what's sensitive.
A clear and concise communicator across contexts. You write effectively for different audiences, from quick Slack messages to polished external correspondence. You distill complex or ambiguous information into actionable next steps and adapt your style appropriately for different stakeholders.
Able to manage upwards. Your job will include telling the CEO how he can best spend his time and giving him feedback on his priorities and organization. You should be willing to be proactive and direct while still being professional.
Strong values alignment with effective altruism. You do not need to have high context on the community or CEA (we can provide that!), but you should be committed to EA principles and be excited about our organization’s mission.
Other information
This is a full-time, remote position. We prefer applicants who are able to work in time zones between the UK and US Pacific Time.
We have an office in Oxford, UK, that you would have access to.
Start date: We’d ideally have you start as soon as possible, but can be flexible for the right candidate.
Reports to: Ayla Smith, our Deputy Chief of Staff.
Compensation
US: total compensation package of $90,026, comprising a base salary of $81,842 and a 10% 401k contribution.
UK: total compensation package of £54,159 comprising a base salary of £49,235 and a 10% pension contribution.
Other locations: For candidates outside the US and UK, we base compensation on our UK salary structure and adjust for the cost of employment and fixed local benefit costs to create an equivalent package
Benefits in the US/UK include private health insurance, flexible work hours, a $6,000 / £5,000 annual professional development allowance, a $6,000 / £5,000 mental health support allowance, extended parental leave, ergonomic equipment, unconditional 10% pension / 401k contribution, 25 days of paid vacation, and more.
This role will involve travel. There are likely at least 5 trips annually to attend team retreats and other events, including several international trips.
We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from self-identified women and people of colour who are excited about contributing to our mission. The Centre for Effective Altruism is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
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Evaluation plan
We expect the interview process to include the following steps, subject to minor changes:
Application
Test task 1
Short interview
Test task 2
Final interviews (likely 3-4, non-sequential)
1-2 day work trial for finalists (may be possible to do parts asynchronously)
Reference checks