Executive Assistant to the CTO
Oxenham Group | Job Description
Location: Austin, Texas
Employment Type: Full-time
Reports To: Chief Technology Officer
Security Clearance: Not required; an active or previously held clearance is a plus
Compensation: Salary with full benefits
About the Company
Our client is a startup building proprietary targeting software for unmanned systems. Manufacturers integrate this software directly onto UAVs, USVs, UUVs, and other unmanned vehicles, where it runs on the vehicle's onboard computer.
This software detects, classifies, and tracks targets from onboard cameras, maintains persistent target identity when video degrades or breaks up, and can execute terminal guidance through to impact. It is built to keep operating in contested environments: when GPS is denied and communications links are jammed.
Our client has previously held Department of War (DoW) contracts, including work with Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
Position Summary
Our client is hiring an Executive Assistant for their CTO. They are a small company that is growing fast, and the CTO often has more information coming at him than he has time to manage. They are looking for someone he can delegate a variety of tasks, responsibilities and assignments to, streamlining and driving his work forward.
Our client wants an EA who is excited to embrace AI for routine EA tasks, so you can focus on work that requires a person or physical presence. Some technical sophistication is required, but formal engineering experience is not (though it is encouraged).
You will be the first EA hired at the company. You will help shape expectations for the role for future EAs and will have a significant opportunity to teach the company how best to use EAs.
Key Responsibilities
- Organize the CTO's calendar and manage his time, protecting focus time for engineering and design work, along with other traditional EA activities.
- Attend meetings the CTO cannot, capture what happened, and brief him afterward. You will not represent him or make decisions in his place.
- Prepare the CTO, and possibly other executives, before meetings.
- Check in on the engineering team while the CTO is busy or away.
- Take notes in technical meetings, capturing decisions and follow-ups.
- Provide periodic written updates to the CTO throughout the day.
- Build strong working relationships across the company, especially with the engineering organization and the other executives.
- Use AI tools to take routine work off your plate.
Requirements
- 3+ years supporting a senior leader as an executive assistant, or equivalent experience in a coordination-heavy role.
- Enough technical comprehension to sit in an engineering meeting and follow it: you should be able to tell "blocked on review " from "blocked on hardware " and relay a problem accurately without needing to solve it. You will not be asked to write code.
- Strong written communication. A large part of this job is meeting preps and short written updates that need to be accurate and quick to read.
- Fluency with AI tools, and enthusiasm for using them to take the routine parts of this job off your plate.
- Discretion. You will regularly see personnel, financial, customer, and export-controlled information.
- On-site in Austin, Texas.
- Must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)). This role sits in meetings covering export-controlled technology.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting engineering or technical leadership.
- Experience at a startup or other small, fast-moving company.
- Fluency with Google's office suite (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides).
- Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, or GitLab, or a demonstrated ability to pick up tools like them quickly.
- A background in program or project coordination: scrum master, program coordinator, technical recruiting coordinator, or similar.
- Experience owning travel booking and expense management for an executive.
Nice to Have
- Prior defense industry experience.
- An active or previously held security clearance.
- Military administrative experience, particularly in a technical role.
- Experience supporting more than one executive at once.
What Success Looks Like
- The CTO has protected focus time and walks into every meeting prepared.
- Accurate, concise briefs and updates that let the CTO stay on top of meetings he could not attend.
- Trusted relationships with engineering and the executive team, and a clear model for how future EAs will work.