Executive Assistant Job Description: A 2026 Template With Duties, Skills and Pay

What goes in an executive assistant job description?

Six parts: a summary, duties grouped by area, skills, tools, the work setup and the pay. The duties carry the most weight. The BLS describes the job as high-level support for top executives: "They often handle complex responsibilities, such as reviewing incoming documents, conducting research, and preparing reports." Your description should say which of those you actually need.

• ✓Summary. Who the business is, who the assistant supports, and what that frees the executive to do.
• ✓Duties by area. Calendar and inbox, travel, meetings, projects, office paperwork, gatekeeping and, if you want it, personal errands.
• ✓Skills. What's required on day one, and what's a bonus.
• ✓Tools. The software they'll live in, by name.
• ✓Work setup. On-site, hybrid or remote, the hours, and the time zone.
• ✓Pay and status. A range, and whether the role is exempt from overtime.

Write it before you post the ad. The Americans with Disabilities Act gives weight to a description written "before advertising or interviewing applicants for the job." It "shall be considered evidence of the essential functions of the job." That applies to employers with 15 or more employees, the statute's cutoff, but it's a good reason for any business to list real duties. An employment lawyer can check your final draft.

We wrote this for a US founder or small business owner hiring a first executive assistant. The templates we read while researching it were built for a corporate C-suite. A 12-person company needs the same core duties with less ceremony and more hands-on work. The assistant who books your flight may also chase the late invoice.

Executive assistant job description template (copy and edit)

Copy the table into your document, replace everything in brackets, and delete any line that doesn't fit your business. Each core duty is written in plain English from the Labor Department's O*NET task list for the job, which the next section quotes word for word. The skills lines follow the BLS. It also works as an executive administrative assistant job description: O*NET lists Executive Assistant and Executive Administrative Assistant as sample job titles for the same occupation.

Keep it to one page. You'll reuse it for the screening tasks and the 90-day review, so cut any duty you won't check at 90 days.

What are the core executive assistant duties and responsibilities?

Executive assistant responsibilities cover calendar and inbox, travel, meetings, projects and research, office paperwork and gatekeeping, with personal errands as an option. Of the core tasks on O*NET's list, managing executives' schedules rates highest (85) and making travel arrangements comes next (81). Put those two at the top of your list.

The personal line is where small-business descriptions differ most. No O*NET or BLS task covers personal errands, so it's your call. If you want it, write it in with a weekly cap. An assistant who learns in week three that they're also booking the dog groomer will feel misled, and fairly so.

Gatekeeping deserves its own line because it's where judgment shows. In a small business, it means deciding which calls, emails and meeting requests reach the owner at all. Write down who always gets through, such as your top customers, your family and your accountant. Everyone else waits for the assistant's call on whether it's urgent.

Executive assistant vs administrative assistant, personal assistant and virtual assistant

The difference is scope, and who the assistant works for. An administrative assistant supports an office or a team, and a personal assistant covers one person's life as much as their work. Virtual only describes where someone works. The executive assistant is the one with authority to act for a senior leader on routine matters, from replies to scheduling.

Executive assistant vs administrative assistant is the comparison most founders need. O*NET's general admin profile lists "drafting correspondence, scheduling appointments, organizing and maintaining paper and electronic files, or providing information to callers." The EA profile adds research, reports and document review. The pay gap follows the scope: the EA median is about $29,000 higher.

Don't rely on the job title to tell them apart. O*NET's sample of titles reported for the EA occupation includes Administrative Assistant and Office Assistant, next to Executive Assistant. Two postings with the same title can describe different jobs. Write the duties first. The level and the pay band follow from them.

Executive assistant vs personal assistant

It's a blurrier line than the admin one. A PA's work leans toward the home: errands, household bookings, the family calendar. An EA's leans toward the business. Small companies mix the two. Our own work sample does too: one of eight waiting items is the client's spouse asking for a Friday restaurant booking. Agree in writing which personal tasks are in scope.

Virtual executive assistant vs virtual assistant

A virtual assistant is a working arrangement rather than a level. A VA can be a general admin who gives a few hours a week to several clients. A virtual executive assistant works full time for one leader, remotely. Our guide to what a virtual assistant does covers the general version and the three ways to hire one.

What executive assistant skills and qualifications should you require?

Require judgment, clear writing, organization and several years of admin experience. Skip the degree unless the work truly needs one. The BLS says: "A bachelor's degree typically is not required to become a secretary or administrative assistant." It's firmer on experience. Executive assistants "typically need several years of work experience in other administrative positions, such as secretaries and general office clerks."

• ✓Judgment. The BLS puts it plainly: "Secretaries and administrative assistants often prioritize tasks and make decisions on their employers' behalf, so good judgment is essential."
• ✓Writing. Assistants write memos and emails to managers, employees and customers, so they "must have good grammar, ensure accuracy, and maintain a professional tone," per the BLS.
• ✓Organization. One system for tasks, deadlines and follow-ups that still works the week they're out sick.
• ✓People skills. They'll speak for you to customers, vendors and your own team, often before you've weighed in.
• ✓Discretion. They'll see your inbox, your calendar and sometimes your bank alerts.

The BLS Occupational Requirements Survey shows how employers actually hire. "In 2025, prior work experience was required for 87.2 percent of executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants and on-the-job training was required for 74.0 percent." More than basic people skills were required for 95.9%. So ask for experience, and plan to train anyway. Your systems are new to everyone. Our guide for new virtual assistants covers the same skills from the candidate's side.

Preferred qualifications

Use the preferred list for things that help but can be taught: your industry, your CRM, your accounting software. A credential can go here too. The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) calls its Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) "a credential designed specifically for the administrative professional." Candidates need four years of relevant work without a degree, or two years with a bachelor's.

Keep it preferred, never required. IAAP reports 4,500 actively certified CAP designees as of April 2026. The BLS counted 489,300 executive assistant jobs in 2025. Even if every CAP holder worked as an executive assistant, that's under 1% of the jobs. A must-have CAP would rule out nearly everyone.

Tools to name in the posting, and how to share access

Name your office suite, video tool, chat tool and expense software. O*NET flags Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Excel, Word, Zoom, SharePoint and SAP Concur as in-demand technology for this job. Naming yours tells a candidate whether they'd start on day one or spend week one learning.

Access is the part the templates we read skipped. Give the assistant their own login and delegate access to your email and calendar, which Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both support. Share passwords through a password manager and turn on two-factor authentication. Then write a spending limit into the job description, so anything above it needs your written yes.

AI belongs in the tools line now. The BLS notes that AI systems and digital tools let staff prepare their own documents "without the help of secretaries." We'd rather hire an assistant who drafts with AI and catches its mistakes than one who types fast. Our six-tool AI stack for small businesses lists what we'd start with.

How do you write the posting for a remote or virtual executive assistant?

Keep the duties and add the remote lines below, led by overlap hours in a named time zone, response times, equipment and security. Remote is still the minority. In the BLS Occupational Requirements Survey, telework was routinely allowed for 39.5% of executive assistant jobs in 2025. Write the remote rules down, because nobody picks them up by sitting near you.

The equipment line matters more than it looks. Our own application for a virtual executive assistant asks for an internet speed band and a speed test screenshot. It asks about a backup connection and power backup for outages. It also checks for a quiet workspace with a working camera and microphone. When an assistant's connection drops mid-call, your call drops with it.

Remote postings can also pull in state pay rules. California's Labor Commissioner says: "An employer with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale for a position in any job posting." Its FAQ applies that to any role that "may ever be filled in California, either in-person or remotely."

New York's pay transparency law reaches businesses with four or more employees and requires compensation ranges in postings for covered jobs. Per the state's FAQ, that covers a job done at least partly in New York. It also covers one that reports to a supervisor, office or work site in New York, and the FAQ says this "includes remote positions." So a remote role open to anyone in the US can fall under both states' rules when one of those links applies. Other states have posting rules of their own. This is a summary of official guidance, not legal advice, so check your posting with an employment lawyer.

What should the posting say about pay and overtime?

A pay range, and whether the job is exempt or non-exempt under federal overtime rules. The BLS reports a median annual wage of $76,590 for executive assistants in May 2025. That compares with $48,310 for all secretaries and administrative assistants. O*NET's BLS wage data puts the 10th percentile at $50,560 and the 90th at $109,850.

By the hour, O*NET's wage data shows $24.31 at the 10th percentile, $36.82 at the median and $52.81 at the 90th. Use the hourly figures when you compare a salaried hire with a contractor or an agency. Salary is only part of an employee's cost. Our virtual assistant salary guide adds payroll taxes and benefits to the comparison.

Exempt or non-exempt?

Decide before you post, and don't let the title decide for you. The Labor Department's Fact Sheet #17C is blunt: "Job titles do not determine exemption status." Pay level and duties both count. The pay test is the easy part: the DOL's standard salary level is $684 a week, or $35,568 a year. Every executive assistant figure in the chart clears it.

The duties test decides. Under 29 CFR 541.203, an assistant to "a business owner or senior executive of a large business" can qualify. The condition is working "without specific instructions or prescribed procedures" with "delegated authority regarding matters of significance." If your assistant will mostly follow instructions, plan on non-exempt and budget for overtime. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Whether a remote assistant can be a 1099 contractor instead is a separate question, with its own IRS and Labor Department tests. Our explainer on what a virtual assistant is links the IRS classification rule and compares the three ways to hire one.

How to screen candidates against your executive assistant job description

Turn each duty area into a task the candidate has to do, not a question they can rehearse. We do this in our own Virtual Executive Assistant application. The assistant we hire is employed by us and placed full time with one US business: "One client, not five." The form takes about 50 to 60 minutes and calls itself "deliberately demanding."

Video does a lot of the work. Answers are recorded live, in English, with the camera on, and the application says written answers are compared with the recordings. Candidates confirm up front that they won't use AI to write personal stories. One exercise asks for AI openly, with the working shown. The stated aim is someone who uses AI daily and catches its mistakes.

Proof comes near the end. Candidates upload one artifact they created and used in a real job, redacted but with real dates. Upload a downloaded template instead, and the application ends there. They add a 2 to 3 minute Loom of a system they kept. A final video of up to two minutes, in one take, retells the dropped-ball story and defends the first move of their 90-minute plan.

You can copy the method without the video setup. Take two real items from your own inbox, plus your worst vendor email, with private details removed. Give every finalist the same 30 minutes, then compare the exact words they'd send. Close with one reference call about one specific claim. If you're on the candidate's side, how to become a virtual assistant covers this application from that seat.

Does a small business need a full-time executive assistant?

Yes, when the owner's calendar and inbox are the bottleneck and there's a full week of that work. If not, we'd start smaller. If you need scheduling and data entry but few judgment calls, you're describing an administrative assistant. The BLS median for all secretaries and administrative assistants was $48,310 in May 2025, against $76,590 for executive assistants.

The BLS expects the job to hold steady. It counted 489,300 executive assistant jobs in 2025 and projects 489,200 in 2035, essentially no change. Its explanation matters for your description: "many executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants support more than one manager in an organization." Sharing one assistant between two leaders is common enough that the BLS names it.

Start the hire with the two core tasks O*NET rates highest, the calendar and travel. Add the inbox once trust is built, and money last, with a written limit. At 90 days, check the executive assistant job description against what the assistant actually does. Rewrite it then, because the posted version is the one your next candidate will read.