Sr Executive Assistant to the CEO - 21756

Somewhere; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 995,000 - 1,492,000; Full time

Job summary

Somewhere is seeking a Senior Executive Assistant to the President & CEO to protect the CEO's time and focus. This remote role is the first dedicated executive support hire and aims to shape delegation and workflows for long-term impact.

You will manage inboxes, calendars, and key tasks, while building simple SOPs and processes. Occasional light support for another senior leader may occur as capacity allows, aligned to US Eastern hours.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years as an executive assistant supporting a U.S.-based executive
• Exceptional written and spoken English — executive-grade communication
• Demonstrated proactivity and sound judgment; operates independently
• Discretion and trustworthiness with sensitive business and personal information
• Brings order and structure to an unstructured environment
• Full availability during U.S. Eastern business hours
• Strong command of email, calendar, and task/productivity tools

Responsibilities

• Inbox & communication management for the CEO
• Calendar & schedule management across regions
• Proactive support and SOPs to build routines and systems
• Cross-functional support for a second executive when possible

Skills

EA experience

English proficiency

Proactivity

Discretion

Organizational skills

US Eastern hours

Cross-functional support

Tools

Email

Calendar

Task management

Job description

Senior Executive Assistant to the President & CEO

Location & Employment Details

• Location: Fully remote
• Employment: Full-time preferred
• Working hours: Full overlap with U.S. Eastern business hours
• Reports to: President & CEO (may also provide support to a second senior executive as capacity allows)

About The Company

We are a long-established, family-owned U.S. mechanical contracting company based in South Carolina, serving clients across the Southeast. For more than a century we have delivered commercial HVAC, plumbing, and mechanical construction — spanning design/build, large-scale construction, and ongoing proactive maintenance and service — for healthcare, manufacturing, commercial, education, government, and cultural facilities. We are led by a family leadership team and built on long-term client relationships, craftsmanship, and a strong internal culture where people tend to stay and grow. As we expand across multiple regions, we are investing in modernizing how we operate day to day.

About The Role

This role exists to protect the time and focus of our CEO. As the business grows across multiple regions and the CEO shifts toward driving service-side business development, his calendar and inbox have become the bottleneck that holds back higher-value work. We are looking for a seasoned executive assistant who takes ownership of the day-to-day — someone who anticipates needs rather than waiting for tasks, brings order and follow-through, and builds the routines and systems that don't exist yet. This is our first dedicated executive support hire, so the right person is experienced enough to help shape how the CEO delegates and works with an assistant over time. In practice, this is closer to a chief-of-staff-lite seat than a task-taker: a true right hand who makes the executive's day run better and frees him to focus on the business.

Key Responsibilities

Inbox & Communication Management

• Own and triage the CEO's email — surface what needs attention, draft and send responses, and keep the inbox under control
• Manage follow-ups so nothing falls through the cracks
• Serve as a professional point of contact on the CEO's behalf

Calendar & Schedule Management

• Own the CEO's calendar: schedule and protect his time, resolve conflicts, and prepare him for what's ahead each day
• Coordinate meetings, travel, and logistics across multiple regions
• Keep him on schedule and ahead of commitments and deadlines

Proactive Support & Systems Building

• Identify recurring tasks to take off the CEO's plate — often before being asked
• Build and document simple systems, SOPs, and routines where none exist today
• Recommend better ways to delegate and prioritize, helping the CEO work more effectively with executive support
• Track priorities and projects and keep them moving

Cross-Functional Support (as capacity allows)

• Provide light support to a second executive (e.g., the CFO) where helpful
• Light research, information gathering, and prep to support business development
• Route and coordinate communications to the right people internally

Required Qualifications

• 3-5+ years as an executive assistant supporting a U.S.-based executive, founder, or business owner
• Exceptional written and spoken English — executive-grade communication
• Demonstrated proactivity and sound judgment; operates independently with minimal direction
• Discretion and trustworthiness with sensitive business and personal information
• A track record of bringing order and structure to an unstructured environment
• Full availability during U.S. Eastern business hours
• Strong command of email, calendar, and task/productivity tools

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting an executive in construction, mechanical/MEP, HVAC, engineering, or another operations-heavy or field-based business
• Experience building SOPs and processes from scratch
• Experience supporting more than one executive at a time
• Comfort providing light business-development or research support

Ideal Candidate Profile

You Are

• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with a strong bias toward follow-through
• Proactive by nature — you spot what needs doing and handle it before being asked
• Calm and steady in a fast-moving, sometimes unstructured environment
• A clear, confident communicator who can represent an executive well
• Comfortable managing up — you'll help a first-time delegator learn to delegate
• Discreet, dependable, and genuinely invested in making your executive's day run better

Why Join Us

This is a high-trust, high-impact seat working directly with the CEO of an established, respected company. You'll have real ownership, the chance to build the role and the systems around it from the ground up, and a long runway to grow as the business grows.