Administrative Assistant

*This is a hybrid position based in our Chicago/O'Hare Area office. Preference is for candidates who live within a 100-mile radius of this office, but we are additionally open to candidates outside this region who offer the right skill set and experience.

About the Role

The Administrative Assistant is a high-impact role that blends executive support, operational execution, and technology-enabled transformation. This person manages day-to-day executive priorities while also building and improving systems that reduce manual effort, leverage AI, and scale effectiveness across the team. The right candidate is equally comfortable booking travel and building workflows that eventually eliminate the need to book travel manually.

This role is about owning outcomes, knowing what "good" looks like, and building smart, service-oriented solutions that deliver those outcomes faster and better, while serving as a key liaison between leadership and stakeholders to ensure seamless operations, clear communication, and steady progress toward organizational goals.

Key ResponsibilitiesTechnology & AI Oversight

• Leverage AI and technology to analyze repetitive tasks and implement systems that reduce manual work.
• Train and refine AI assistants (email, scheduling, research, etc.) using a human-in-the-loop approach to ensure accuracy, clarity, and organizational tone. If an email seems like AI wrote it, you haven't done your job.
• Create and maintain playbooks, workflows, and dashboards that increase efficiency and scalability over time.
• Pilot and recommend new tools selectively, ensuring adoption is cost-effective, consolidated, and aligned with organizational needs.
• Provide first-line troubleshooting for AI, meeting room, and administrative tools before escalating to IT support.

Executive Support 

• Manage executive calendars, travel, inboxes, and to-do lists with foresight and precision, ensuring priorities are met and time is maximized for strategic impact.
• Prepare executives for meetings and conferences with materials, agendas, bios, and proactive recommendations that strengthen relationships and outcomes.
• Draft and screen communications, maintain daily zero inbox, and act as gatekeeper to the executive's time with sound judgment and discretion.
• Serve as delegate in HR, finance, and expense systems, preparing and reconciling reports while maintaining confidentiality and accuracy.
• Continuously recommend and implement improvements to scheduling, email, and task management practices to optimize executive effectiveness.

Operations Management 

• Drive cross-enterprise projects by owning timelines, tracking deliverables, coordinating stakeholders, and removing blockers.
• Build dashboards, KPIs, and reports (Excel, PowerPoint, Salesforce, SharePoint/Teams) to monitor progress and outcomes, and develop high-quality decks and documents for internal and external meetings.
• Establish and manage executive data integrity across contact databases, agendas, notes, and project materials to ensure accuracy and accessibility, while proactively recommending ways to strengthen relationships, improve projects, and make others' work easier.
• Serve as executive delegate for approvals, budgets, and spend tracking, partnering with Finance to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Identify operational inefficiencies, recommend improvements, and implement approved process changes to increase organizational effectiveness.

Team Coordination and Culture

• Actively coordinate and energize team meetings end-to-end - own agendas, materials, scheduling, and logistics while also shaping ideas, structure, and content, capturing decisions and owners, and driving follow-through so meetings are productive and impactful.
• Plan and run team events and culture moments, managing logistics, contracts, presenters, food, budget, entertainment, and coordinating team outings, social gatherings, and milestone celebrations.
• Organize pacing of daily operations by aligning meetings to task needs, transit, and productivity windows so work flows smoothly.
• Own execution quality for stakeholder and cross-functional meetings by preparing agendas and materials, taking high-quality notes, documenting responsibilities, and tracking deliverables to ensure accountability and momentum.
• Submit and shepherd contracts through the contract tool and approval chains, with proactive follow-up to ensure on-time execution.
• Support team HR efforts by supporting interview scheduling, coordinating feedback for consistency, communicating HR logistics and start dates, and preparing onboarding materials and welcoming logistics.
• Support SOA-wide administrative projects by coordinating org calendar updates, Job Description assessments, and systems changes. Cross-train with other EAs for absence coverage and serve as the team's ears on project, policy, and process updates to validate and communicate changes.

Preferred Qualifications and Competencies

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience) and 2+ years in administrative support, project coordination, or operations.
• Proven ability to take initiative, anticipate needs, solve problems independently, and drive work forward with ownership, follow-through, and discretion.
• Strong communication skills, high emotional intelligence, and the ability to thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous, and high-accountability environments.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and demonstrated learning agility with new software; experience with systems like Salesforce, SharePoint, Concur, and AI platforms preferred.

The SOA will provide equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment regardless of actual or perceived race, color, religion, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, disability (mental or physical), genetic information, military or veteran status, marital status, order of protection status, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other category protected by applicable law. Such action shall include but is not limited to: initial consideration for employment; job placement and assignment of responsibilities; performance evaluation; promotion and advancement; compensation and fringe benefits; training and professional development opportunities; formulation and application of human resource policies and rules; facility and service accessibility; and discipline and termination.

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