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Executive Assistant

You run an executive's world so they can run the company — the calendar, the travel, the gatekeeping, the hundred details that can't drop. Done at the top level, it's a genuine strategic role that pays like one.

Median pay (US)

~$70k / yr

Typical range

$50k–$100k+

Degree required?

No — trust is the credential

Verified live right now

Real executive assistant listings a pirch hunt confirmed live in the last 72 hours — not scraped, verified. When a listing dies, it leaves this page.

Remote Virtual Executive Assistant

Zirtual · Chattanooga, Hamilton County

✓ verified 23h agoremote$500-3500

all verified jobs → · listings expire after 72 hours unless re-verified — that's the point.

What the job actually is

Executive assistants manage the operating system of a leader's work: calendar strategy (not just booking — deciding what deserves time), inbox triage, travel, meeting prep and follow-through, expenses, and often event planning and board-meeting logistics. Senior EAs function as chiefs-of-staff-lite: they know everything, represent the exec's judgment when the exec isn't in the room, and quietly keep whole leadership teams coherent.

Is it actually you?

You'll probably love it if

Anticipating needs before they're spoken is your talent
You're unflappable when plans explode at 5pm
Discretion is natural — you're a vault
Details land with you; nothing drops
You like power's proximity more than its spotlight

Maybe not, if

Your ego needs the credit (EAs make others look good)
Being reactive to someone else's priorities would grind you down
You struggle to hold boundaries with demanding personalities
Repetitive logistics with zero glamour sounds deadening

The real day-to-day (no hype)

You're only as good as your exec. A great principal makes the job a career; a chaotic or disrespectful one makes it misery. Interview them as hard as they interview you.
AI took the typing, not the judgment. Scheduling tools and AI drafts handle the mechanics now. What's left — and increasingly valued — is judgment: what matters, who's stalling, what the exec would want. That part got a raise.
The ceiling rose. Top EAs at tech companies and finance firms clear $100–150k, and chief-of-staff is now a real promotion path. This stopped being a dead-end job a decade ago.
Boundaries are a skill, not a luxury. The role can eat nights and weekends if you let it. The best EAs are structured about availability — and the best execs respect it.

How people break in — or switch in

Most EAs grow in from administrative assistant, office manager, or coordinator roles — the promotion is trust plus scope. To accelerate: attach yourself to complexity (support the busiest leader you can), document saves ("caught the double-booked board meeting," "cut travel spend 20%"), and get fluent in the modern stack — calendar tools, expense platforms, and AI assistants you can direct rather than compete with.

Hospitality, teaching, and event work all build the anticipate-and-handle muscle EAs run on. Your job history is full of proof — frame it that way.

Your application, already half-written

Here's a question every Executive Assistant application asks, answered the way pirch would — in a real voice, grounded in real experience:

“How do you decide what gets on your executive's calendar?”

I treat the calendar as the company's most expensive real estate. With my last principal we set three rules together: mornings protected for deep work, every meeting needs an owner and an outcome or I push back on it, and I hold veto power over "quick syncs" that could be an email — I convert about ten a week into two-line updates. When his priorities shifted each quarter, we re-audited: anything on the calendar that didn't map to his top three went to someone else or nowhere. He got roughly six hours a week back, and my favorite compliment was that he stopped dreading Mondays.

pirch's co-pilot writes answers like this for your background and the exact job — try it free →

pirch finds the EA roles that are actually you

Tell pirch who you are — the chaos you've tamed, the leaders you've supported, your discretion and range — and it hunts down real, still-open EA jobs that fit the whole you, with a tailored cover letter already written.

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first hunt free · we never auto-apply · you stay in control

Common questions

How much do executive assistants make?

US median around $70k, but the range is wide: $50k supporting mid-level leaders to $100k+ (sometimes $150k) supporting C-suite at tech and finance firms.

Do executive assistants need a degree?

No. Trust, judgment, and a track record of flawless execution are the credentials. Many top EAs came up through admin roles or hospitality.

Is the EA role dying because of AI?

The clerical layer is shrinking — AI schedules and drafts now. But that pushed the surviving role up the value chain: judgment, gatekeeping, and representing the exec. Senior EA and chief-of-staff demand remains strong.

What's the difference between an EA and a chief of staff?

EAs own the executive's logistics and flow; chiefs of staff own projects and decisions delegated by the exec. Senior EAs increasingly straddle the line, and EA → CoS is a growing promotion path.