Senior Executive Administrator to the CEO

About SYPartners

SYPartners is a consulting firm that focuses on the transformation of leadership, organizations, and culture.

We work alongside CEOs, leaders, and their executive teams to design a better future for their organizations–particularly in times of great change. We help them align on a vision for the future, their purpose, and the strategy and culture needed to realize it. The animating idea that drives us is our belief that organizations designed for both humanity and performance create unprecedented impact. We partner with leaders in organizations that have the courage and rigor to pursue both as equally essential and mutually reinforcing. And we seek to design our own organization in alignment with this idea, as well.

SYPartners was founded in 1994. The company is headquartered in New York City with locations in San Francisco and Abu Dhabi, and is a founding member of kyu, a collective of best-in-class creative firms.

The Opportunity

The Senior Executive Administrator (SEA) to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) holds a pivotal role in supporting the CEO and her executive team’s performance and functionality. By maintaining organizational efficiency, supporting the CEO’s initiatives, and understanding SYPartners’ business, strategy, and values, the SEA plays a crucial role in enabling the CEO to focus on leadership and business growth objectives.

Acting as a representative of the CEO and her office in interactions with key stakeholders, including clients, staff, firm Founders, and the firm’s parent company, kyu, you understand the CEO’s values and style of communication. You are accountable in organizing and facilitating smooth communications and a timely flow of information.

As SEA, you will be responsible for managing the CEO's calendar, ensuring efficient scheduling of meetings, coordinating travel arrangements, and doing core administrative functions (e.g., expenses, data entry, catering and ordering meals, meeting room setup, etc.). You handle confidential information with discretion to maximize the CEO's productivity. With input from the Chief of Staff and others, the SEA also prepares and reviews documents, presentations, and reports, ensuring accuracy and appropriateness.

Candidate Profile

Skills

The ideal candidate for this role demonstrates operational excellence, strategic thinking, and the ability to see the bigger picture, while managing details with precision, and excellent written and oral communication skills. You should have fluency in using technology to manage and streamline administrative activities, and bring empathy, poise, discretion, and a willingness to collaborate in all aspects of the role. Some specific characteristics are:

• You think and operate strategically. You are responsible for decision-making and planning as it relates to the CEO’s administrative needs. You are three steps ahead of the CEO, constantly anticipating challenges and correcting them before they occur—then adapting and adjusting in the moment of change. You are also resourceful and comfortable operating with limited information or without step-by-step guidance–you are proactive in getting the context you need to identify what’s most important to tackle, in what order, and are prepared to make informed, independent decisions.
• You’re curious and passionate about our business—the rhythms and dynamics that make SYP work, and are creative in finding ways to enable the CEO and our business. You seek a deep understanding of the context of the CEO's work, and use that understanding to prioritize and balance trade-offs.
• You bring a fusion of systems thinking and creativity in your ability to see the whole system, understand the complexity of our business, and use excellent judgment in finding innovative ways to get the work done.
• You demonstrate confidence, optimism, and resilience. You adopt a can-do attitude, and assume positive intent on the parts of others. You are unfazed and assertive, using your excellent communication skills to navigate relationships and execute tasks.
• You take pride in accuracy and professionalism. You show great attention to detail, thoroughness, and follow-through. You represent SYP with graciousness and poise, minimizing and managing any ripple effects on your teams, should they arise.
• You love collaborating in teams of diverse talents and skills, taking on work in a collegial, collaborative, open and friendly way. You approach problem-solving with an open mind, and are willing to take a leadership position with your peers to ensure best practices become standard for the Admin team.
• You are a flawless multi-tasker, able to seamlessly shift between people, competing tasks, modes of communication, and technology platforms.
• You’re a voracious learner, using your time at SYP to build mastery around the skills you need in both your work and life.
• You are comfortable asking for help, and giving and receiving feedback. You see ongoing feedback–both giving and receiving–as essential to developing strong working relationships with the CEO and others. And you ask for others’ perspectives and help when needed, and offer yours to others, when invited.
• You show up with empathy, humanity, and generosity. Your intent with all your work is to create a positive impact—for leaders, your team members, SYPartners, and beyond. You will operate with agility, flexing across a fluid environment; rolling with a dynamic calendar and leader, unflappable in the face of change, and creatively solving daily challenges.
  
  

How You'll Drive Impact

• Schedule highly sensitive and urgent meetings, while managing complex calendars for the CEO (who owns entire bodies of work and/or business units, and manages multiple projects, client relationships, and numerous SYP teams at all times).
• Proactively manage and book the CEO’s travel and her extended team’s travel in accordance with firm guidelines and the CEO’s preferences.
• Communicate regularly with the CEO and her team, when they are in the office and working remotely, to ensure they are apprised of changes to their calendars or to the work of their teams. Provide an organized end-of-day and end-of-week summary of priorities, things in progress, time-sensitive questions, etc.
• Track and submit timesheets and expense reports for the CEO and her team.
• Keep the CEO and her team organized with meeting materials and immediate priorities (who needs what by when); this will include inbox management and communication/response strategies.
• Provide strategic partnership and support to ensure the CEO and/or team has the time, resources, and materials needed to accomplish their goals and those of SYP.
• Collaborate and coordinate with other internal teams and drive initiatives that further the growth and development of the Admin team.
• Support the management of the relationship network of the CEO, ensuring she is prepared to meet with external high-profile and sensitive relationships that drive and grow the business.
• Offers seamless in-office and virtual meeting support producing and hosting the CEO, and executive-level meetings and offsites, including catering, room preparation, and production materials.
• Manage events and communication for SYPartners with efficiency and on behalf of Team CEO.
• Function as a key member of the SYP Admin team, reporting directly to the head of the team.
• Collaborate with Admin team members to develop best practices and enhance operational efficiency.
• Actively participate in meetings, and special projects, and provide back-up support when other Admin team members are out of the office or are overloaded.
• Run CEO-team or project-related errands, meal orders, and mailings.
  
  

Qualifications

• 5 to 7 years of executive assistant experience (including at least 2 to 3 years of formal executive-level support) in a fast-paced executive office—ideally within a management consulting or creative agency
• Proven ability to collaborate in an administrative team environment
• Deeply collaborative: the need to build trust with Team CEO and peers across SYP will be critical for success
• Exceptional judgment and discernment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Expert knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook), Mac OS, Slack, and Google Suite applications; proficient with technology overall
• Knowledge of Certify and Trip Actions or similar systems
• Comfortable working out of our NYC office when the CEO is in NYC, and when needed
• Exceptional track record with responsiveness to emails or texts after hours, if needed
  
  

SYPartners’ Core Commitments

• Working time: The intensity of our work flexes up and down, and requires some flexibility in when and where we show up. Some days will be more than 9 hours. Sometimes we will need to take early or late meetings or work on weekends. Our work also requires in-person collaboration. This role is in-office based, as needed (with some flexibility when the CEO is not in NYC), and occasionally requires after-hours communications.
• Golden time: Since our work is demanding and sometimes unpredictable, it can be difficult to plan for our needs (e.g., appointments, special dinners, one-off events, etc). Yet, we all must take care of ourselves. That’s why we created the practices of Golden Time and Pause Days. Golden Time is intended to help individuals protect and communicate specific windows of time they need for themselves while helping to balance out the intensity of our work. Pause Days are created to help our entire community recharge at the same time.
• Communication and accessibility: Our work is highly collaborative. The collective impact we’re able to achieve relies on balancing individual needs with those of our broader team and client. This deep collaboration means we’re highly dependent on each other and must each support the whole, making sure that when others need us, we can show up for them. This requires constant and clear communication and accessibility. This need for communication is only amplified by our hybrid model. This demands discussing—and aligning on—what “done” or “great” looks like.
  
  

Compensation

The salary for this role starts at $95,000 (with increased salary steps as you learn and master the role). Our offer takes into consideration the skills and experience you bring, pay equity across similar roles within SYPartners, and the market rate for similar roles outside of SYPartners. You can be confident that your offer will be in line with the compensation as other colleagues who are in the same role with comparable skills and experiences. Our offers are guided by and a result of our compensation philosophy, anchored in four guiding principles: Informed, Equitable, Consistent, and Transparent. Read more about our Compensation Philosophy here.

Taking Care of Our People

Taking care of people isn’t just something we strive for through our business, it is who we are, and part of what we do each and every single day. We want to ensure talent at SYPartners feels this is a place where, no matter who you are, you feel safe, included, and that you have the opportunity to bring your unique self into the space to do the best work of your life.

Benefits

Additionally, benefits are an essential part of taking care of our people. Whether you’re single, in a growing family, or nearing retirement, we offer a variety of comprehensive and competitive benefit programs to meet your needs including:

• Competitive base compensation (75th percentile in NYC market regardless of work location)
• Discretionary company performance-based cash bonuses (dependent on company performance and personal performance)
• Open vacation policy in accordance with firm guidelines
• Coverage of 95-100% of health, dental, and vision insurance costs for you + dependents
• Paid parental leave (12-weeks)
• Up to a 3% match on your 401k contributions
• Firm-wide Pause Days (a collective day off for all employees)
• Planned Work From Anywhere program
  
  

SYPartners Commitment to Diversity

At SYPartners, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our own organization and for the leaders and clients we partner with. Our vision of the future—one in which organizations are designed to create conditions for human flourishing—demands that we continually work to become a more diverse and inclusive organization ourselves.

We are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize this commitment requires continual learning, reflection, and imagination.