Chief of staff vs executive assistant: what each takes off your plate, and which to hire first

If you've become the bottleneck in your own company, with a calendar you don't control, an inbox you can't clear and projects waiting on your decision, you've probably asked which of these two to hire.

Here's the short answer. An executive assistant runs your week: your inbox, your calendar, your travel and the follow-through on what you said you'd do. A chief of staff runs the space between you and your leadership team: the priorities, the projects that cross teams, and the decisions that would otherwise land on your desk.

In most growing companies, the executive assistant comes first. This guide shows what each one takes off your plate, a test you can run on your own week, when the answer changes, whether one person can do both, and what each costs.

The difference at a glance

	Executive assistant	Chief of staff
Works on	Your time, inbox, information and commitments	The company's priorities, cross-team projects and leadership meetings
Decides	Within limits you set: which meetings to take, what can wait	On your behalf across teams, within a remit you agree
Works with	You, and the people you deal with	You and your leadership team
Usual background	Several years supporting senior people	Operations, consulting, finance, or a senior executive assistant moving up
US pay	Median $76,590 a year, May 2025 (BLS)	Average $113,547 a year (Indeed; no government figure exists)
Can be remote	Mostly, yes	Rarely, because the job is inside your leadership team

Executive assistant duties: your inbox, calendar, travel and follow-ups

• Sorting your inbox, answering what can be answered in your name and drafting the rest
• Running your calendar: booking, moving and protecting time
• Travel, from flights to the agenda for each day
• Preparing you for meetings with a short brief
• Sending the follow-ups after a meeting, and chasing what others promised you
• Tracking the things you said you'd do, so they don't slip
• Expenses, invoices and the admin around your role

Senior executive assistants sometimes prepare board packs and investor updates as well. Our guide to executive assistant duties covers the full list.

Chief of staff duties: the plan, the leadership meeting and cross-team projects

• Running the weekly leadership meeting and making sure its actions happen
• Keeping the quarterly plan up to date and checking each team's progress against it
• Leading projects that cross teams, like a new market, a system change or a fundraise
• Settling questions between two function heads before they reach you
• Standing in for you in meetings you can't attend
• Finding where work is stuck between teams and fixing it, or bringing it to you

What a good chief of staff won't want to do is run your diary. If that's most of the job, they'll do it badly or leave.

A test you can run on your own week

Write down everything you'd hand over in the first month. Then sort the list.

If most items are about your own time, your information and your commitments, you need an executive assistant. If most are other people's problems that you're holding because nobody else can settle them, you need a chief of staff. If the second list is short or empty, that's your answer for now.

Which to hire first, and why

In a growing company, most of the waste in a founder's week is operational. Meetings that shouldn't be in the diary. Emails that could have gone out in your name. The investor who wanted ten minutes and got a week of back-and-forth. None of that needs a chief of staff.

A chief of staff also needs something to run. If you still know every decision being made, there are no cross-team problems to hand over yet, and the role has no content. That's how founders end up paying a senior salary for someone who becomes an expensive project manager.

When the answer changes

The answer changes once you have a leadership team and problems start falling between them. Watch for these signs:

• Two of your leaders are each waiting for you to settle something.
• The plan you set at the start of the year lives only in your head.
• Your week goes on running the business rather than on customers, product or fundraising.
• Your executive assistant keeps getting pulled into disagreements between your leaders.

At that point you add a chief of staff. You don't replace the executive assistant: one runs your week, the other runs the team's.

Can one person do both?

For a while, at small scale, sometimes. A senior executive assistant can take some chief-of-staff work, like taking the leadership meeting notes, tracking the actions and chasing them. What they can't do is settle disagreements between your leaders, because they don't have the standing. Combined roles tend to drift into one or the other: a diary manager with a big title, or a strategist with no time for the diary.

What to write in the job post

For an executive assistant, name the decisions they'll make without asking you, the people they'll deal with in your name, what a good first year looks like and the pay range. Our free executive assistant job description template gives you the structure.

For a chief of staff, list what they'll own across the company, who reports progress to them and which decisions they can make. If that list is short, an executive assistant may be the better first hire.

Then test before you offer. Give an executive assistant a real morning's inbox and a calendar clash to solve. Give a chief of staff a real cross-team problem and ask for a one-page plan.

What each costs

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median pay for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at $76,590 a year in May 2025. There's no government figure for chiefs of staff. Indeed's salary data puts the US average at $113,547 a year. Add payroll tax, benefits and any equity to either.

The executive assistant half can be remote. A dedicated assistant from us starts from around $8.80 an hour, billed monthly per assistant, which is up to 70% below a local hire. They work your hours, answer and make calls, and we recruit, employ, pay and equip them. A chief of staff is a senior hire who sits inside your leadership team, so that one you make yourself.

Questions founders ask

What is the difference between a chief of staff and an executive assistant?

An executive assistant manages the leader's time, communication and follow-through. A chief of staff manages priorities, projects and decisions across the leadership team.

Which should I hire first?

Usually the executive assistant. Hire a chief of staff first only if you already have strong admin support and your problems sit between your leaders.

Is a chief of staff higher than an executive assistant?

In most companies, yes. A chief of staff is part of the leadership team and paid like it. The two are better seen as different jobs than as rungs on one ladder, though some executive assistants do move up into the role.

Can an executive assistant become a chief of staff?

Yes. It's a common route, especially for senior executive assistants who already run the leadership meeting's notes and actions.

Can a remote executive assistant take on some chief of staff work?

Some of it: tracking the plan, running the notes and actions for your leadership meeting, and chasing deadlines. Settling decisions between your leaders needs someone inside the team.

Where are your assistants based?

In the Philippines and Malaysia, according to clause 1.1 of our Terms of Business. They're matched to your working hours, and you can ask for a replacement within the first two weeks (clause 7.2).

Talk it through with us

If the test came back "executive assistant", we place dedicated, managed virtual executive assistants from around $8.80 an hour billed monthly per assistant. Most clients are onboarded within two weeks.

Book a free consultation and bring your list from the test, or see pricing.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Secretaries and administrative assistants (median pay by type, May 2025), read 8 October 2026.
• Indeed Career Guide: Chief of staff vs. executive assistant (national average salaries), read 8 October 2026.
• Catalyst Terms of Business, clauses 1.1 and 7.2, read 8 October 2026.