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Chief of Staff job description

A strong Chief of Staff job description starts with the mandate: who the role supports, what it owns, which decisions it can make and what should be better six months in. Use that scope to make the responsibilities and expectations specific.

What a Chief of Staff job description should include

Who the role supports. The principal and the reporting line.
What the role owns. Responsibilities, intended outcomes and the authority needed to deliver them.
Decision rights. Where the Chief of Staff decides, recommends or prepares decisions for the principal.
Who they work through. The leadership team and any functions they coordinate.
First priorities. The work they will take on in the first months.
Outcomes at six months. What should be materially better, stated plainly.
Experience and working style. The backgrounds that fit the mandate, and how the principal works.
Location, pace and travel. Stated honestly, because they decide who can do the job.

A sample Chief of Staff job description

Adapt the bracketed sections to your mandate. Keep it specific: the more precisely you describe the work, the better the candidates who respond.

Chief of Staff to the [CEO / Founder / Managing Partner / Principal]

[Organization] is [one or two sentences on the business, its stage and what is changing]. We are hiring a Chief of Staff to extend the capacity of our [principal] and keep the organization’s most important priorities moving.

The role

The Chief of Staff reports directly to the [principal] and works across the leadership team. They own the operating cadence, drive cross-functional priorities and make decisions in defined areas when the [principal] is not in the room.

What you will own

The operating cadence: leadership meetings, planning cycles and follow-up on decisions.
Priority initiatives: [two or three named initiatives, such as an integration, a new office or a planning process].
Decision preparation: framing the issues that reach the [principal], with a clear recommendation.
Special projects: [work that spans functions and has no other natural owner].

Decision rights

You will decide [areas the Chief of Staff owns outright], recommend on [areas the principal decides] and represent the [principal] in [meetings or relationships].

What success looks like at six months

[One or two concrete outcomes, for example: leadership meetings end with decisions and owners; the integration plan is on schedule without the principal chasing it.]

Who you are

Experience: [business operations, strategy, consulting, finance or a prior Chief of Staff role, as the mandate requires].
Judgment: comfortable deciding with incomplete information and knowing what to escalate.
Range: able to shape a priority and then move it yourself.
Trust: discreet with information that is not broadly shared.
Working style: [how the principal works: pace, communication, how they like to receive disagreement].

Location and travel

[Office location, in-office expectations and travel].

If you post the role publicly, check the pay transparency rules where you are hiring. New York and California, among others, require a good-faith pay range in job postings.

Tailoring it to your environment

Founder-led companiesName the next operating challenge, such as growth, an integration or a new product. Make clear which founder decisions move to the Chief of Staff, and how they work with any co-founders.
Investment firmsSpecify the operating work around fundraising processes, portfolio-related initiatives and firm operations, and how the role works with the COO or operations team. Distinguish coordination and execution from investment decisions and specialist responsibilities.
Family officesDescribe the breadth honestly: family, investment, philanthropic and personal matters. Emphasize discretion, continuity and the office’s service providers.
Professional services firmsExplain how the role supports a managing partner who is still serving clients, and which firm operations and initiatives it owns.

More on these settings in Founder & Executive Search and Family Office Search.

What to leave out

Tasks without context. Explain the purpose, ownership and intended outcomes as well as the work involved.
“Other duties as assigned” as the main scope. It leaves candidates without a clear basis for understanding the role.
A required prior Chief of Staff title. It excludes operators who have done the work under other titles.
Generic adjectives. “Strategic thinker” and “self-starter” describe everyone. Describe the work instead.
A title that overstates or obscures the work. If the role is mostly calendar and travel, it is an Executive Assistant role. See Chief of Staff vs Executive Assistant.

Common questions

What are the main responsibilities of a Chief of Staff?

Running the operating cadence, driving cross-functional priorities, preparing decisions for the principal and making decisions in defined areas. The mix depends on the mandate, which is why the job description should start there.

Should a Chief of Staff job description include compensation?

If you post it publicly, often yes. New York, California and a growing number of other jurisdictions require a good-faith pay range in job postings. Check the rules where you are hiring.

What title should I use: Chief of Staff, Executive Business Partner or Head of Business Operations?

Use the title that matches the authority. A Chief of Staff works through the principal across the leadership team; an Executive Business Partner typically owns senior executive support and business coordination, with scope that varies by organization; a Head of Business Operations owns a defined operating remit. See Business Operations Search and Executive Operations Search.

Can WDA Careers help write the job description?

Yes. Every search begins by defining the mandate with the principal, and the job description comes from that conversation. See Chief of Staff Search.

Turn the job description into the right hire.

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We conduct searches across the New York Tri-State Area, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Southern California.