Chief of Staff, CEO

Chief Of Staff To The CEOWe believe in bold ideas, diverse perspectives, and the drive to transform knowledge into impact. Here, your curiosity fuels progress, your voice shapes innovation, and your ambition helps redefine what's possible within science and learning. We are a culture that obsesses over impact, challenges, and drives what's next to power infinite possibilities for our customers, colleagues and society at large.The Chief of Staff to the CEO is one of the most consequential and demanding roles in the organization and one of the most distinct. This is not a traditional leadership role with a defined team, a clear mandate, or visible deliverables. It is a role built on influence without authority, on making others more effective rather than being visibly effective yourself, and on operating with the full trust of the CEO in a highly matrixed, fast-moving environment. The ideal candidate is a high-potential leader who is intellectually curious, politically astute, and genuinely energized by the challenge of working through others to drive outcomes that matter at the enterprise level.Key ResponsibilitiesCoordination and AdministrationAssist in managing the CEO's agenda, ensuring focus on highest-priority areas.Develop agendas for CEO-led meetings: ELT meetings, quarterly meetings, off-sites, etc. Work with CEO to identify key themes and topics and solicit input as needed from key stakeholders. Disseminate information to participants and coordinate follow-up.Coordinate other CEO-led events and activities. Assist in developing content and agenda.Coordinate board preparation; develop and disseminate materials; involve key stakeholders (among the ELT and others) as needed.Ensure all materials shared with the CEO are synthesized, accurate, and current — always go to the source owners to verify information before distributing. Avoid relying on prior or undated materials.Strategic Project ManagementLead and manage high-priority strategic initiatives on behalf of the CEO and executive leadership team, serving as project sponsor or direct project lead as appropriate.Drive cross-functional strategic projects that span multiple business units, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and timely delivery of outcomes.Support the ELT in annual and multi-year strategic planning processes, including facilitating planning sessions, coordinating input from business units, and synthesizing strategic recommendations.Identify and address critical organizational challenges that require CEO-level attention, developing action plans and mobilizing resources to drive resolution.Track progress on enterprise-wide strategic initiatives; create executive dashboards and provide regular updates to the CEO and ELT on milestone achievements and risk mitigation.Partner with business unit leaders to accelerate transformation initiatives, remove roadblocks, and ensure strategic alignment across the organization.Conduct deep-dive analyses on strategic opportunities — including market entry, partnerships, M&A targets, or new business models — preparing executive-ready recommendations.Serve as the CEO's representative on select strategic workstreams, committees, or task forces, ensuring CEO priorities are reflected and progress is maintained.A note on operating mode:The Chief of Staff role is most powerful when it works – and wins – through others. Unlike a project owner with direct authority, this role operates through influence, facilitation, and relationship. The instinct to drive and own outcomes must be balanced with the discipline to let others lead — surfacing their thinking, giving them credit, and sequencing decisions so they land at the right moment, through the right voice.ResearchCoordinate background material and arrange briefings with CEO on important external meetings (investors, strategic hires, industry figures, etc.), working with Investor Relations, Business Heads, HR, and Corporate Communications.Identify internal and external trends and events the CEO should be aware of, and prepare or coordinate background material as appropriate.Ensure all information provided to the CEO is synthesized and summarized in a way that is accurate, reliable, and easy to consume — go directly to source owners to verify currency and correctness.Relationship-BuildingMaintain ongoing, positive relationships with all ELT members and other important stakeholders.Ensure that the chief of staff role is apolitical — exercise judgment and discretion in disseminating information. Exercise confidentiality regarding privileged information.Be seen as helpful and collaborative at all times; avoid assuming an unhelpful gatekeeper role.Invest heavily in building relationship capital before it is needed. Early time spent in genuine, non-transactional engagement with ELT members pays dividends when influence is required later. Logic without relationship gets nowhere in a peer-influence environment.Be explicit and disciplined about which mode you are operating in when engaging with senior executives: acting on the CEO's behalf, offering your own perspective, or facilitating. Conflating these modes creates confusion and erodes trust.Practice active listening as a core competency. When receiving feedback that differs from your perspective, pause, ask clarifying questions, and seek to understand before responding. Curiosity and openness are professional strengths in this role.AdvisoryProvide counsel to the CEO on critical business decisions and organizational challenges.Feed organizational intelligence back to the CEO as appropriate.Develop strong judgment about what to escalate vs. what to handle or redirect. Calibrate this explicitly and continuously with the CEO. Escalating too much reduces your value-add; escalating too little risks overstepping authority. Ask regularly: "Would you have wanted to know about X?"Internalize that the "right" answer delivered at the wrong time, through the wrong messenger, or in the wrong room often produces a worse outcome than a less-optimal answer delivered well. Timing and sequencing are part of the answer.What Success Looks Like in This RoleMany of the Chief of Staff's most important contributions are invisible by design. A meeting that runs well because it was set up properly, a brewing conflict that dissolves before it reaches the CEO, a stalled decision that moves forward — these are the real deliverables. Success in this role is often measured by what didn't happen, not by artifacts produced or decisions owned.Indicators of strong performance:Executives feel better prepared, aligned, and supported — and attribute that to themselves and their teams, not to the CoS.The CEO's time is protected and consistently applied to the highest-priority areas.Information reaching the CEO is accurate, synthesized, and timely.Cross-functional initiatives move forward without bottlenecks; the CoS is seen as a connector and enabler, not a checkpoint.Trust with the ELT is high; the CoS is sought out, not worked around.QualificationsAbility to work closely with C-level executives; demonstrated professionalism, integrity, sense of urgency, discretion, and superior organizational skills.Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment with appropriate technology fluency.Outstanding communication skills, both written and verbal.High emotional intelligence and ability to navigate sensitive situations with discretion.Capacity to listen deeply and learn continuously — this role rewards pattern recognition developed through observation more than frameworks delivered through presentation.Resilient and composed under pressure; able to stay grounded during an extended adjustment period (the transition into this role typically takes six to nine months before someone feels fully competent).Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with the ability to structure ambiguous problems and drive to actionable solutions.Experience with project management methodologies and tools; ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives.Strategic thinking capability with the ability to connect tactical activities to broader organizational objectives.Genuine commitment to professional networking — internally and externally — as a core working discipline, not an afterthought. Peer CoS relationships (within and outside the company) are a professional asset and a necessary sounding board for navigating this uniquely demanding role.Additional NotesThe role requires flexibility, including occasional evening and weekend work. Some travel will be required.We power infinite possibilities.For more than 200 years, we've transformed knowledge into discoveries that shape the world. Today, our global team of innovators, creators, and experts is driving what's next in science, education, and publishing—creating impact that reaches everywhere.We're not just observers of progress. We're the ones accelerating scientific breakthroughs, advancing learning, and sparking innovation that redefines entire fields and