Executive Assistant to the CEO

About us

Sparrow is the first high-tech, high-touch employee leave management solution. Our mission is to make it simple for companies to provide their employees with all kinds of leave (i.e. family, medical, etc.).

Currently, the leave management process is painful and inefficient for everyone. Company leaders struggle to keep up with regulations and processes that change frequently, and the employees going on leave are overwhelmed by bureaucracy at an exceptionally important juncture in their career. Sparrow transforms this ordinarily tedious, error-prone, complex to remain compliant, and time-consuming process into a 30-minute end-to-end experience saving teams time (20 - 40 hours per leave) and money (up to $30K per leave).

Sparrow is headquartered in San Francisco but all employees work remotely across the country. Sparrow is a diverse, highly talented, and supportive team. Together, we are hardworking, collaborative, smart, and humble—after all, we’re solving real problems.

About the role

We’re looking for an exceptional Executive Assistant / Personal Assistant to partner closely with Sparrow’s CEO during a critical phase of growth.

The CEO views her role as setting Sparrow’s vision and hiring and managing a high-performing executive team. Her time is extremely limited—and it’s essential that she spends that time only on the highest-impact work that requires her attention.

In this role, you will act as a force multiplier for the CEO and for Sparrow as a whole. You’ll help increase the velocity at which the CEO can meet, delegate, and make decisions, while ensuring strong follow-through and visibility across the executive team on CEO-dependent work.

This role is expected to be 90% Executive Assistant work and 10% Personal Assistant work, supporting both professional and limited personal logistics so the CEO can operate at her highest level. This is a fully remote role but may require up to 25% travel to the Bay Area, where the CEO is located. This is a role where accountability and ownership are extremely important, and at times it may require your schedule to flex with little notice. 

Here’s what you’ll do

Partner closely with the CEO on priorities and execution

• Work with the CEO to understand her highest-impact priorities and ensure her time is aligned accordingly

• Help keep Sparrow moving at high velocity by enabling faster decision-making and delegation

• Partner with the CEO to action-plan how key initiatives and tasks will be completed

Own inbox, calendar, and communication management

• Manage a complex and fast-moving calendar, ensuring meetings are purposeful, prioritized, and sequenced effectively

• Own inbox management, including tagging, drafting emails in the CEO’s voice, and independently handling communications such as event registrations or account setup

• Ensure written communication is clear, thoughtful, and tailored to the reader’s perspective

• Prepare context and materials so meetings are efficient and effective

Drive follow-through and executive visibility

• Track CEO-dependent projects, decisions, and action items across the executive team

• Provide visibility to relevant stakeholders on status, dependencies, and next steps

• Ensure nothing important stalls due to lack of follow-up or coordination

Operate with a high-ownership mindset

• Take initiative to directly tackle tasks when appropriate

• When you’re not the right person for a task, proactively leverage internal partners or external resources to get it done

• Approach problems with a solutions-oriented, “figure it out” mentality

Build and improve systems and processes

• Create and continuously improve processes that increase executive and organizational efficiency

• Stay up to date on tools and technology that improve administrative workflows

• Bring recommendations for how Sparrow’s executive operations can run more smoothly

Provide light personal assistance

• Maintain the CEO’s personal calendar and ensure it is coordinated with work commitments

• Schedule personal appointments while avoiding conflicts with professional priorities

• Partner with the CEO to build systems that make her personal life more efficient (e.g., meal planning, wardrobe management, recurring life admin)

About you

• 5+ years of experience supporting senior executives, ideally CEOs or founders in high-growth environments

• Exceptional written communication skills, including the ability to write clearly in another person’s voice

• Strong judgment and prioritization instincts. You know what matters most and why.

• A high-ownership mindset and comfort operating independently

• Experience creating, improving, and maintaining processes

• Professionalism and confidence working with senior leaders and external stakeholders

• High emotional intelligence, discretion, and attention to detail

• Comfort supporting both professional and limited personal logistics

What This Role Is Not

• This is not a passive, task-only administrative role.
  Success requires strong judgment, proactive ownership, and the ability to think critically about priorities—not just execute instructions.
  
  

• This is not a role with rigid boundaries between responsibilities.
  While the role is primarily Executive Assistant work, it includes Personal Assistant support. The goal is to enable the CEO to operate at her highest level—not to adhere to an inflexible job description.
  
  

• This is not a gatekeeping or power-centered role.
  The Executive Assistant is a facilitator and partner, not a blocker. The goal is to increase clarity, access, and momentum across the organization.
  
  

• This is not a role for someone who prefers highly structured, static environments.
  Priorities will evolve, and success requires comfort with ambiguity and change.
  
  

• This is not a stepping-stone role for someone uninterested in long-term partnership.
  This role is designed for someone who wants to build a trusted, enduring partnership with the CEO and grow alongside Sparrow.

Compensation

This is a full-time salaried position with compensation of $80,000–$140,000 depending on experience and location.

Why Sparrow?

Our work at Sparrow is impactful. We help People teams with one of the hardest parts of their job, and we support employees at a time when they need it most. We’re driven by our mission, much like a nonprofit, but with the resources and scale of a fast-growing venture-backed company.

Sparrow is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. While we are united by our excitement for the mission and product, the diversity of our experiences is one of our strengths. The Sparrow team is made up of people with all types of backgrounds, and we have teammates in 40 states and counting. To learn more about the Sparrow team and its benefits, check out our careers page.