Special Assistant to the CEO

Position Overview
Title: Special Assistant to the CEO

Reports To: CEO

Location: Remote (Strong preference for candidates based in the Washington, D.C. metro area)

Travel: Less than 10%

Salary Range: $78,000 – $85,000 per year

About InnovateEDU

Our Mission: To eliminate the achievement gap by accelerating innovation in standards-aligned tools and practices, focusing on pedagogy-first and safe-by-design approaches to educational technology. We work to ensure data interoperability, AI literacy, and educator workforce development remain at the core of national conversations.

Our Vision: To transform the education sector by building uncommon alliances and a networked architecture that moves beyond technical fixes toward lasting, systemic change. Ultimately, we strive to build a learning ecosystem where every student is prepared for a global economy, centering the field's needs to create an equitable and inclusive future for all learners.

Position Summary:ry InnovateEDU is seeking a highly organized, adaptive, and execution-oriented Special Assistant to the CEO to provide direct strategic and operational support to our Chief Executive Officer. Serving as a dynamic force multiplier for the CEO, this role is critical to advancing high-impact projects, national policy task forces, and organizational initiatives.

Because the CEO frequently engages with federal policymakers, national partners, and philanthropic organizations in the capital, a Washington, D.C.-based candidate is highly preferred to provide on-the-ground support. The ideal candidate excels at "blocking and tackling"—mastering foundational execution, anticipating the CEO's needs, and remaining agile enough to provide critical surge capacity during high-stakes project cycles and congressional or national policy events.This is a unique opportunity to gain a bird's-eye view of executive leadership in a national education non-profit and contribute directly to high-visibility strategic priorities.

Key Responsibilities

Executive Support & Strategic Execution

• Drive High-Priority Initiatives: Own the end-to-end execution of fast-moving projects and initiatives directly overseen by the CEO, moving them from initial concept to completion with precision.
• Surge Capacity Support: Act as a flexible resource to provide rapid-response support for the CEO's most critical national initiatives, such as data interoperability frameworks and AI policy advocacy.
• Stakeholder Coordination: Act as a critical liaison between the CEO, internal departments, and external national partners. Maintain a broad understanding of the CEO's portfolio to provide rapid, in-depth support as needed.
• Process Improvement: Proactively identify workflow bottlenecks in the executive office and implement systems or tools to enhance the CEO's overall operational efficiency.

Research, Policy & Event Support

• National Event Execution: Support the CEO and Policy Portfolio in planning and executing high-profile events, national convenings, and capital-based stakeholder meetings.
• Research & Scoping: Gather data, analyze key metrics, and conduct landscape research to evaluate new strategic opportunities, education policy shifts, or federal guidance to brief the CEO.
• Executive Content Development: Author and edit high-level memos, congressional testimony drafts, stakeholder updates, and talking points, ensuring a consistent and authoritative voice for the CEO.
• External Representation: Support the CEO and Executive Team in external conversations. When asked, serve as the CEO's representative in first-round introductory meetings, synthesizing notes and elevating key action items.
• Data Synthesis: Translate quantitative and qualitative data into comprehensive reports and high-impact presentation decks for policy, government, and funder audiences.

Development & Fundraising Support

• Pipeline Management: Track and manage the CEO's fundraising pipeline, preparing briefings ahead of funder meetings and ensuring timely follow-up on prospective philanthropic opportunities.
• Funder Cultivation & Stewardship: Draft personalized communications, follow-up notes, and strategic outreach materials for high-level donors and foundation program officers to advance ongoing funding conversations.
• Support Grant Writing: Collaborate with the CEO to draft, edit, and organize components of major grant proposals, budget narratives, and follow-up funder reports for large-scale philanthropic partners.
• Initiative Funding Support: Provide strategic and administrative support for specialized grant funds, task forces, and national initiatives, helping to structure proposals and track funding deliverables.
• Funder Materials: Create tailored collateral and impact summaries to support the CEO's development efforts and national ecosystem initiatives.

Qualifications & Competencies

• Foundational Execution: Exceptional organizational skills with a proven track record of managing multiple moving parts for an executive without dropping the ball.
• Resilience & Receptivity to Feedback: Thrives in a fast-paced, high-velocity environment and embraces a culture of radical candor. Demonstrates the emotional intelligence to receive, process, and immediately act on direct, constructive feedback with a continuous-improvement mindset.
• Agility & Professional Judgment: Ability to thrive in an environment that requires rapid redirection; comfortable with ambiguity, maintaining confidentiality, and high-stakes problem-solving.
• Technical Proficiency: Strong command of project management and design tools, specifically Asana, HubSpot, and Canva, as well as other relevant software and presentation platforms.
• Communication Excellence: Superb written and verbal communication skills, with a sharp eye for visual design and layout in presentation decks intended for national audiences.
• Collaborative Spirit: A low-ego, high-accountability team player who is eager to support the executive office in a behind-the-scenes capacity.
• Experience: 4 years of professional experience in management consulting, education policy, non-profit development, or a relevant fast-paced environment supporting executive leadership.

This position is open only to candidates in the United States, and InnovateEDU will not sponsor H-1 B visas due to the nature of the position.

Compensation

Consistent with our core values, we strive to address systemic gaps in pay often present in our larger society as a result of gender, identity, or sexual orientation. All candidates are pay-scaled by an independent third-party service or application that calculates the market rate for the applicant based on their skills and qualifications, job duties, market conditions in their location, education, and experience. The compensation range for this position is $78,000 – $85,000 per year. InnovateEDU full-time employees receive paid vacation and sick leave, medical/dental insurance, retirement, and other standard benefits.

Application Instructions

Please upload your resume and answer the required questions. Applications will be accepted, reviewed, and interviewed on a rolling basis for 10 days from the job posting date To ensure you receive communications, please mark BambooHR as a safe sender.