Executive Assistant

Executive Assistant

The Executive Assistant provides high-level administrative, operational and financial support to coDesign’s executive team, acting as a trusted right hand who keeps leadership organized, informed, and focused on strategic priorities. Alongside traditional executive support, the role partners with leadership on day-to-day finance tasks, from expense and card reconciliation to budget tracking and month-end support. This role requires sound judgment, discretion with sensitive financial and business information, and the ability to anticipate needs before they arise. The ideal candidate has several years of experience supporting senior executives, ideally within a fast-paced, growing company, and is comfortable working with numbers.

Roles and Responsibilities

1.0 Executive Support

• Manage complex, overlapping calendars for multiple executives, proactively resolving scheduling conflicts and prioritizing time against each executive’s strategic goals, and against each other’s competing demands.
• Serve as a central point of coordination across the executive team, flagging when priorities conflict and helping executives (or their delegate) make trade-off decisions on time and attention.
• Coordinate domestic and international travel arrangements for multiple executives, including itineraries, accommodations, travel budgets, and expense reconciliation.
• Prepare, proofread, and format correspondence, presentations, board materials, and internal communications on behalf of the executive team, including financial summaries and reporting packs as required.
• Screen and prioritize incoming communications across executives, exercising discretion on what requires which executive’s attention versus delegation, including invoices, payment requests, and financial queries.
• Act as a liaison between the executive team and internal teams, clients, vendors, and external partners, representing the executive team professionally at all times.
• Leverage AI tools to streamline drafting, scheduling, research, reconciliation, and follow-up tasks, helping the executive team move faster without sacrificing quality or accuracy.

2.0 Meeting & Project Coordination

• Plan and coordinate leadership meetings, offsites, and board meetings, including agenda development, materials preparation (including financial and budget updates), and minute-taking.
• Track action items from executive meetings and follow up to ensure timely completion.
• Support cross-functional projects led by the executive team, helping keep initiatives on schedule, within budget, and stakeholders aligned.
• Manage and maintain executive tasks and cross-functional projects in ClickUp, ensuring action items, deadlines, and priorities stay visible and up to date.

3.0 Financial & Administrative Support

• Process executive expense reports and reconcile corporate card activity, matching transactions to receipts and coding them to the correct accounts and projects in line with company policy.
• Support accounts payable by collecting, reviewing, and coding vendor invoices, routing them for approval, and tracking payment status and due dates.
• Support accounts receivable and billing by preparing invoices, following up on outstanding balances, and flagging overdue items to the executive team.
• Assist with budget tracking for executive-led initiatives, monitoring actual spend against budget and flagging variances early.
• Assist with month-end close activities, including gathering supporting documentation, reconciling accounts, and preparing journal entry support for review.
• Prepare routine financial reports and summaries for the executive team, such as spend by project, expense summaries, and outstanding payables and receivables.
• Maintain accurate records of subscriptions, vendor agreements, and recurring costs, and flag upcoming renewals for review.
• Assist with audit, tax, and insurance preparation by organizing and retrieving financial documentation as requested.
• Maintain confidential financial files, contracts, and records with a high degree of accuracy and discretion, following internal controls and approval processes.

4.0 People and Performance

• Always comply with company policies and procedures, including financial controls and approval processes, and continually display company values.
• Actively participate in forums, training programs and education as directed by the company.
• Actively work towards achieving individual and business objectives.
• Continually work towards building and maintaining productive and sound working relationships with all internal and external stakeholders.

5.0 Office & Operational Support

• Partner with the broader operations team on office logistics, vendor coordination, and special projects as needed.
• Assist colleagues whenever there is an opportunity to do so.

Qualifications and Experience

• 5+ years’ experience as an Executive Assistant supporting C-suite or senior leadership.
• Hands-on experience with finance administration, such as expense reporting, accounts payable or receivable, card reconciliation, or budget tracking.
• Working knowledge of accounting or expense management software (for example QuickBooks, Xero, or similar); a bookkeeping or finance qualification is an advantage.
• Advanced Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365 skills (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint), including strong Excel skills for reconciliations, budget tracking, and reporting.
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder calendars and travel logistics.
• Demonstrated discretion in handling confidential and sensitive financial and business information.
• Comfortable adopting and using AI tools to increase efficiency in daily tasks.

Person Specification

• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.
• Sound judgment and the ability to make decisions independently on behalf of executives.
• Accuracy and attention to detail, especially with numbers, even under time pressure.
• Comfortable working with financial data and following internal controls, with the integrity to handle sensitive financial information responsibly.
• Sense of urgency, deadline driven (including month-end and reporting deadlines) with exceptional organizational and multi-tasking skills.
• Comfortable managing competing priorities across multiple executives without letting any one person’s urgency crowd out the others.
• Motivated individual with the ability to work both independently and within a team.

About coDesign

CoDesign is a workspace design and build start-up looking for awesome talent who want to unleash their potential and grow in their career/ life. We offer our clients in the San Francisco / Bay Area a new, far better, and simpler way to a workspace. This role offers an excellent platform for expansion of responsibility and valuable insight into all projects, including the financial side of the business; a young and energetic team to work with; and an exciting business model experiencing explosive growth! Our culture is built on collaboration and a passion for designing and building awesome workspaces.