Executive Assistant to Co-Founder & CTO

At Ello, our mission is to maximize the potential of all children. Our first product, Read with Ello, is an AI reading teacher that listens to a child read from real books. It uses evidence-based reading instruction to help them when they get stuck and behavioral psychology to motivate them to keep going.

We’re now building on the success of Read with Ello and putting together the pieces of the world’s first complete AI teacher for children. We’re a highly technical team building delightful, learner-centered experiences which leverage the massive recent advances in AI. Our products put children on a path of lifelong learning, creating the foundation for their future and ours. Together, we believe we can close literacy and educational gaps around the world. 

We are backed by world-class investors, just closed a Series A, and we’re ready to bring on new talent to help achieve our vision.

About the Role

You will be the executive assistant (EA) to Ello’s Co-Founder and CTO, Catalin Voss (see bio below), working in person in our San Francisco office in the Mission. As EA, you will manage Catalin’s email, calendar, and travel, as well as support the day-to-day operational needs of the SF office and our globally distributed engineering team.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable wearing many hats because we are looking for a strong administrator and operator who is flexible about supporting other business functions as needed given our small team. Another part of this role will be supporting our Head of People by managing payroll, insurance benefits, birthday & anniversary celebrations, and supporting our recruiting efforts. 

As an ideal candidate for this role, you will already have several years of experience either managing the administrative needs of an executive or equivalent experience in program management and coordination. You’re familiar with business practices and processes, and coordinating complicated schedules across multiple time zones isn’t a challenge for you. You have extensive experience using office software and modern administrative tools such as Google Suite, Notion, 1Password, and a task management tool.

You are a good writer and verbal communicator. You can draft concise emails, and you won’t hesitate to make or answer calls on Ello’s behalf. You’re comfortable representing Ello outwardly. We can expect you to respond to top executives and Ello’s customers alike with eloquence and empathy.

Other people describe you as enthusiastic, kind, and extremely trustworthy – you know how to work with great integrity. We can entrust you with passwords and people’s salary information.

You have an eye for detail and an intrinsic drive to create order out of chaos. You are resourceful and take ownership over tasks end-to-end. You rarely get stuck; if you do, you pick up the phone and figure out how to get unstuck. You give and take feedback well and prefer clear and honest communication.

Most importantly, you’re excited about working in a fast-paced environment with the chance to make an impact on child development at scale.

Required Qualifications

• 2+ years of administrative support experience covering all of the common tasks (scheduling, email drafting, logging legal paperwork, purchasing, coordinating vendors and quotes, tracking expenses, preparing briefing materials for meetings, etc.)

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills

• Very comfortable with web tools like Google Suite, Notion, 1Password, etc.

• Expert knowledge of word processing software (Microsoft Office Suite)

• Very fast at learning new technical tools without any training

• Eager to learn and excited about seeing the inner workings of a fast-growing startup

• Kind, trustworthy, and enthusiastic

Nice to Have

• Bachelor’s degree

• Experience supporting other business functions, including recruiting, sales, marketing, customer support, quality assurance, or accounting

• Experience using Apple’s word processing tools Keynote and Pages

• An interest in technical tools or software engineering 

• Basic design skills or some experience using basic design tools (e.g., Canva, Photoshop, Figma, or Sketch)

We look for candidates who

• Want to do work they are proud of and support products that create impact with delight

• Are self-starters with a strong sense of ownership, and are driven to improve and elevate business processes that empower other teams

• Thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and are adaptable to change

• Are highly organized and balance exceptional attention to detail with the courage to move fast

• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work with cross-functional, multicultural teams

• Value open and honest communication that is grounded in empathy

• Find urgency in our mission and want to build strong and meaningful relationships as part of a hard-working team

Here are some reasons to join us

• Be part of a growing but tight-knit team

• Work directly with the co-founders of a rapidly growing company

• Do meaningful work supporting child development

• Be part of an exceptional team doing exceptional work at the forefront of technological change.

About Catalin Voss (Co-Founder & CTO)

Before co-founding Ello, Catalin was a PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University where he led a project using natural language processing to identify racial disparities in the California criminal justice system and developed AI-based therapies for children with developmental conditions. He also earned an MS and BS in Computer Science from Stanford and previously co-founded two startups, machine learning companies DukaConnect and Sension (with CEO Tom Sayer), both acquired.

While still in high school, Catalin worked as an iPhone developer with Macintosh-father Steve Capps. He has won the Lemelson-MIT Graduate Student prize, Stanford's Kennedy Medal, Forbes’ 30 under 30, and Business Insider’s 40 under 40. Originally from Germany, Catalin moved to Silicon Valley at age 17 and now lives in San Francisco with his partner Ruby and dog Ed.