Hire a Remote Executive Assistant

What an executive assistant does

An executive assistant (EA) protects an executive’s time and keeps their priorities moving. Where a general virtual assistant handles a mix of tasks, an EA works closely with one person or a small leadership team and is trusted with sensitive information, judgment calls and follow-through.

The best EAs don’t wait for instructions. They notice the conflict on next Tuesday’s calendar, draft the reply, and flag the decision that only you can make.

Typical responsibilities

• Managing a calendar across time zones, including protecting focus time and rescheduling around conflicts

• Triaging email, drafting replies in your voice and flagging what needs your attention

• Preparing meeting agendas, taking notes and tracking action items to completion

• Booking travel, managing expenses and coordinating events or offsites

• Keeping CRM, project and contact records current

• Preparing board, investor or team updates from data you already have

Skills to look for

• Written English that is clear, concise and appropriately professional

• Sound judgment about what to escalate and what to handle alone

• Discretion with confidential information

• Strong prioritization when several requests arrive at once

• Comfort with proactive follow-up, including chasing people who are slow to respond

Software and tools

• Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (calendar, email, documents, spreadsheets)

• Calendly, Reclaim or similar scheduling tools

• Slack, Teams and Zoom

• Asana, Trello, Notion or ClickUp for task tracking

• Expensify, Ramp or similar for expenses

• 1Password or another password manager for shared credentials

Experience to look for

Look for candidates who have supported a founder, CEO or senior leader directly, not only handled generic admin. Ask about the size of the team they supported, the volume of email and meetings they managed, and a specific example of a mistake they caught before it reached the executive.

Experience in your industry helps, but it matters less than demonstrated judgment and a track record of long tenure with previous employers.

Interview questions

1. Walk me through how you would handle a calendar that is double-booked three days out.

2. Tell me about a time you pushed back on an executive. What happened?

3. How do you decide which emails to answer yourself and which to escalate?

4. What is your process for keeping track of open action items after a meeting?

5. How do you handle confidential information, such as compensation or legal matters?

6. What would you need from me in your first two weeks to be effective?

When to hire an executive assistant

Consider an EA when you are spending more than a few hours a week on scheduling and inbox work, when you regularly miss follow-ups, or when you are making slower decisions because you lack a clear view of your own commitments.

• You are the bottleneck for approvals and introductions

• Your calendar is full of meetings that don’t need you

• You travel often and coordination is eating into your day

Hiring an executive assistant internationally

Executive assistants in Latin America can often overlap almost fully with U.S. working hours, which matters for calendar-heavy roles. Candidates in the Philippines and South Africa also work U.S.-aligned schedules, though the overlap is usually a shift rather than a natural fit. Decide up front which hours you need live coverage, then recruit against that.

Because this is a trust-heavy role, we place extra weight on reference checks, tenure history and a practical assessment such as drafting a reply to a difficult email.