Executive Operations Associate, Office of the CEO

Alation, Inc.; California; Hybrid; USD 97,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Alation, Inc. is seeking an Executive Assistant to support the CEO and COO with calendar management, travel bookings, and meeting prep. This role also helps plan executive offsites and cross‑functional events while handling expense processes in Navan/NetSuite and building AI‑driven workflows.

The position is hybrid, based in California, with two in‑office days weekly and flexible remote work. Ideal candidates bring strong written communication and comfort with evolving AI tools.

Qualifications

• 0–2 years of professional experience.
• Recent graduates encouraged.
• Strong critical thinking and written communication.
• Able to write on behalf of senior leaders.
• Familiar with Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom and AI tools.

Responsibilities

• Executive scheduling and travel management across time zones.
• Organize executive offsites and events with cross‑functional teams.
• Handle finance and administration tasks, including expenses and invoices.
• Develop lightweight AI‑driven workflows and tooling.

Skills

Ambiguity tolerance

Written communication

AI tools

Event planning

Tools

Google Workspace

Slack

Zoom

AI Tools

Job description

Alation is pioneering the next era of data intelligence — powered by AI agents and trusted data. Organizations around the world rely on Alation to drive self-service analytics, cloud transformation, data governance, and AI innovation. Our technology helps enterprises connect people and data to make faster, smarter, and more confident decisions. With more than $340M in funding – valued at over $1.7 billion and more than 650 customers, including 40% of the Fortune 100. As data becomes the foundation of every business, Alation is leading the way in helping organizations unlock their full potential. By bringing intelligence, automation, and trust to every interaction, we empower customers to scale data-driven innovation with confidence and speed. Joining Alation means being part of a winning team shaping the future of AI-powered data intelligence. We move fast, think big, and deliver results together.

What You’ll Do

Executive scheduling and travel (50%)

• Own the calendars for the CEO and COO. Schedule customer, partner, board, and internal meetings across time zones. Make judgment calls on calendar conflicts. Decide what moves, what holds, and what needs a conversation first.
• Book and rebook flights, hotels, cars, and visas. Handle last minute disruption and rebuild the calendar around it.
• Prepare pre-reads and briefs for external meetings: who we are meeting, relationship history, open threads, desired outcome. Track relationship cadence.
• Maintain one source of truth for who we have met, when, and who is overdue for a touch.
• Be responsive on Slack and email during business hours, with occasional evening coverage when executives are traveling.

Corporate events and offsites (25%)

• Assist in organizing executive offsites, leadership dinners, in-office events, and team gatherings.
• Source and manage vendors.
• Research venues, submit purchase orders, coordinate logistics and swag.
• Partner with Marketing, Engineering, Product, Finance, People, and Sales on events that span functions.

Finance and administration (15%)

• Submit, manage, and reconcile executive expenses in Navan.
• Work with Accounting on purchase orders, vendor onboarding, and invoice processing in NetSuite.
• Maintain clean records and hit close deadlines without being chased.

AI systems and tooling (10%)

• Automate the repetitive parts of this job. Expense categorization, meeting brief assembly, cadence reminders, inbox triage, travel option research.
• Build and maintain lightweight workflows using AI tools, and document them so others can use them.
• Bring new tools to the team.

We expect you to be ahead of us on this. We’re a hybrid team. You’ll join us in our Redwood Shores office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work remotely the rest of the week. Your schedule will generally follow Pacific business hours, though there will be occasional early or late coverage when executives are traveling.

What You’ll Get

• Direct exposure to executive decision-making.
• A structured development plan.
• A named manager, weekly coaching, and defined skill milestones at 30, 60, and 90 days.
• Cross-functional reach.
• Working relationships across Marketing, Engineering, Product, Finance, People, and Sales from day one.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-MS1

What You Bring

Required 0 to 2 years of professional experience. Recent graduates encouraged. Strong critical thinking. You can be given an ambiguous situation and reason to a defensible answer. Comfortable with change. Plans change late and often. You adapt without losing the thread. Exceptional written communication. You will write on behalf of senior leaders. Genuinely AI-native. You use AI daily to accomplish real work and you can show us what you have built with it. Helpful Internship or campus experience in operations, events, consulting, or a startup. Familiarity with Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, AI Tools. Any experience with expense or finance systems. Event planning experience of any kind, including student organizations. The strongest candidates are often people who've already been the person who makes things run, whether that's organizing an event, running logistics for a student org, or being the 'let me handle it' person in their friend group.

Compensation Pay Range: $96,559.00 - $130,354.00

Salary Information The base salary range is specific to the United States. The salary of the final candidate selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to internal equity, experience, education, work location, specialty and training. If the final candidate has a different level of experience, the base salary target range may be lower or higher than what is published. Alation, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to that individual’s race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. The Company will strive to provide reasonable accommodations to permit qualified applicants who have a need for an accommodation to participate in the hiring process (e.g., accommodations for a job interview) if so requested. This company participates in E-Verify.

Why Alation?

• Market-Leading Data Catalog Provider
• High-growth, collaborative environment with diverse and inclusive teams
• Continuous learning, enrichment and development opportunities
• Competitive pay and health offerings including commuter benefits
• Flexible time off to relax and recharge