Executive Assistant, Campus Network

Vanderbilt University; Nashville (TN); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanderbilt University is seeking an Executive Assistant to support three senior leaders within the Division of Operations and the Campus Network. The role involves coordinating calendars, travel, materials, and communications across Nashville, San Francisco, and West Palm Beach.

The position requires a bachelor’s degree and at least five years of progressive administrative experience, with preference for higher education or multi-location experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible administrative experience.
• Experience directly supporting senior leaders is strongly preferred.
• Experience in higher education or multi-location organizations is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive support for three senior leaders across Nashville, San Francisco, and West Palm Beach.
• Manage calendars, travel, materials, and communications to protect leadership time.
• Coordinate campus network activities and cross-location meetings and events.
• Prepare reports, presentations, and correspondence with confidentiality and discretion.
• Support onboarding and launch activities for new campus locations.

Skills

Executive support

Calendar management

Communication

Time management

Discretion

Multitasking

Travel coordination

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Microsoft Office

Outlook

Teams

Zoom

Job description

The Executive Assistant – Campus Network provides high-level executive, administrative, and operational support to three senior leaders within Vanderbilt University’s Division of Operations and the Campus Network. The position supports a dynamic and evolving portfolio of work spanning Vanderbilt’s Nashville campus and its growing presence in San Francisco and West Palm Beach.

Vanderbilt is advancing a growing network of campuses designed to connect the university’s academic mission, students, faculty, staff, and partners with distinctive opportunities in key regions. Vanderbilt’s expansion includes a new academic presence in San Francisco focused on creativity, design, technology, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary education, as well as a planned graduate and professional campus in West Palm Beach focused on areas including business, technology, engineering, innovation, and executive education.

The Executive Assistant will serve as a critical connector across this network, helping senior leaders operate effectively across multiple locations, time zones, stakeholder groups, and institutional priorities. The role requires exceptional organization, judgment, adaptability, and initiative and will frequently coordinate work involving leaders and partners in Nashville, San Francisco, and West Palm Beach.

This individual will operate as a trusted partner to the leaders they support while also helping establish administrative practices and coordination mechanisms that enable Vanderbilt’s expanding campus network to operate as an integrated enterprise.

Key Functions and Expected Performance

Executive and Administrative Support

• Manage complex and frequently changing calendars for three senior leaders, balancing priorities across Nashville, San Francisco, West Palm Beach, and other university locations.
• Exercise independent judgment in prioritizing meetings, resolving scheduling conflicts, and protecting leadership time based on institutional and operational priorities.
• Coordinate meetings involving university executives, academic leaders, faculty, staff, external partners, community leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Coordinate complex domestic travel, including multi-city itineraries, accommodations, ground transportation, meeting logistics, briefing materials, and expense reconciliation.
• Prepare leaders for meetings and engagements by coordinating agendas, background materials, presentations, itineraries, and other relevant information.
• Draft, edit, proofread, and coordinate executive-level correspondence, reports, presentations, meeting materials, and other communications.
• Manage expense reports, purchasing, and other administrative transactions in accordance with university policies and procedures.
• Anticipate needs and proactively identify administrative or logistical issues that could affect the effectiveness of the leaders supported.

Campus Network Coordination

• Serve as an administrative and operational connector among leaders and teams working across Vanderbilt’s campus network.
• Support the establishment and ongoing development of administrative practices for emerging locations, particularly San Francisco and West Palm Beach.
• Facilitate coordination between local campus leadership and Nashville-based university functions and leadership.
• Help maintain consistent communication, meeting cadence, documentation, and follow-through across geographically distributed teams.
• Coordinate recurring network-wide leadership meetings, planning sessions, retreats, campus visits, and other cross-campus activities.
• Maintain awareness of major campus network initiatives, milestones, events, and leadership priorities to anticipate scheduling and coordination needs.
• Assist with onboarding and integration of new leaders and staff joining Vanderbilt’s emerging campus locations.
• Support campus-launch activities and special projects as San Francisco and West Palm Beach progress from planning and development into active operations.
• Identify opportunities to create scalable administrative practices, shared resources, templates, and processes that can support current and future campus locations.

Leadership Coordination and Communication

• Serve as a professional and responsive point of contact for the offices of the leaders supported, interacting with senior university leaders and internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop strong working relationships with executive assistants, administrative professionals, and operational partners across Vanderbilt to facilitate effective coordination.
• Participate in selected leadership meetings to document decisions, capture action items, and coordinate appropriate follow-up.
• Maintain and track leadership commitments, action items, deadlines, and key deliverables, proactively following up with responsible parties when appropriate.
• Coordinate leadership communications and ensure information is shared across relevant teams and locations.
• Assist leaders with preparation for campus visits, community engagements, external meetings, recruitment activities, events, and other strategic engagements.
• Represent the offices supported with professionalism, discretion, responsiveness, and a strong service orientation.

Campus Launch and Special Project Support

• Provide administrative and project coordination support for initiatives associated with the development and launch of Vanderbilt’s campus network.
• Support planning for leadership visits, stakeholder meetings, recruitment activities, community engagements, campus-opening activities, and special events in San Francisco and West Palm Beach.
• Coordinate across university departments to support completion of time-sensitive launch activities and leadership priorities.
• Maintain project trackers, timelines, contact lists, planning documents, and other shared resources supporting campus development activities.
• Adapt responsibilities as campus operations evolve from planning and launch into sustained operations.

Confidentiality and Independent Judgment

• Handle highly sensitive and confidential personnel, financial, strategic, legal, operational, and institutional matters with discretion and sound judgment.
• Exercise independent judgment regarding competing priorities, access to senior leaders, communications, and administrative matters.
• Recognize issues requiring leadership attention and appropriately elevate time-sensitive or sensitive matters.
• Maintain confidentiality across multiple leadership portfolios and ensure appropriate handling and distribution of sensitive information.

Supervisory Relationships

This position does not have direct supervisory responsibility.

Education and Certifications

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, work experience, and/or military experience is required.
• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible administrative experience is required.
• Experience directly supporting senior or executive-level leaders is strongly preferred.
• Experience in higher education, a multi-location organization, professional services environment, or similarly complex organization is preferred.

Experience And Skills

• Demonstrated ability to support multiple senior leaders with competing and rapidly changing priorities.
• Exceptional organizational, planning, and time-management skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to prepare polished executive-level communications.
• Exceptional attention to detail while maintaining awareness of broader organizational priorities.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment, discretion, diplomacy, and tact.
• Demonstrated ability to anticipate needs, identify potential issues, and independently develop solutions.
• Ability to build effective working relationships across organizational levels, functions, and geographic locations.
• Comfort operating in an entrepreneurial, evolving environment where processes and structures are still being developed.
• Ability to coordinate work effectively across multiple time zones and geographically distributed teams.
• Strong project coordination skills, including tracking multiple workstreams, deadlines, decisions, and deliverables.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Outlook, Teams, Zoom, and other collaboration and productivity platforms.
• Ability to occasionally adjust working hours to accommodate leadership needs and activities across Eastern, Central, and Pacific time zones.
• Ability to travel periodically to Vanderbilt campus network locations as business needs require.

Role Scope

The position is designed as a shared executive support role with meaningful campus network coordination responsibilities. While the balance will evolve with business needs, the anticipated scope is approximately 60–70% executive support and 30–40% campus network coordination and special projects. The role is intended to enable three senior leaders and their teams to operate effectively as part of one integrated campus network