Chief of Staff to the CEO

Chief of Staff to the CEO (Remote, Philippines-based)

OPA is a group of healthcare companies in Atlanta, Georgia: home care, skilled nursing, and healthcare staffing. We are a small team and we are growing quickly. I am the founder and majority owner. I am hiring a chief of staff to be my right-hand person. I have founded and built several successful companies, and you will work with me on building this one and the others that follow. There will be opportunities for promotion for the right person.

THE JOB
A company cannot see its own problems. Somebody has to look at the work, compare it to the standard, and say plainly what they found. As my chief of staff, you do that for me across every part of the business.

You will:

• Track every commitment my managers make to me and follow each one until it is done or I drop it.
• Read the weekly financial and operating reports before I do and tell me what is wrong with them.
• Tell a manager, in writing, when a report or plan does not meet the standard, and why.
• Tell me when I am wrong, in writing, with the facts, before I d ---------- .
• Prepare my meetings and close them out with who owns each item and the date it is due.
• Draft memos, policies, and correspondence for my review.

WHO SUCCEEDS IN THIS JOB
You are an exceptional communicator. You are diligent about your work. And you are a bulldog: once you are given something, you do not let go of it until it is finished and finished right.
You love coaching and growing people, and you know what that takes. Coaching means telling someone exactly where their work falls short of the standard, showing them what meeting it looks like, and checking the next piece of work, as many times as it takes. It is hard and often harsh. Growing people takes constant attention to that coaching.

WHO FAILS IN THIS JOB
Most of this job is conversations other people would rather not have. If you prefer to wait for a better moment, soften a finding until it stops saying anything, reply "noted" when you disagree, or report a missed deadline after it is missed, this job will be miserable for you.

I am also not looking for someone who enjoys arguing. The disagreements here are about whether work meets a standard and what something costs the company. Nothing else is worth my time or yours.

HOW WE WORK
I make the final decision. Your job is to make sure every material fact is in front of me when I make it, especially the ones nobody wanted to bring me. Once I d ---------- , you carry it out. If new facts appear, you bring them back.
If you are behind, you tell me before the deadline.
If you raised something and nothing happened, you raise it again.
Most of your working day falls in US Eastern business hours. Some weeks run well past forty hours.

WHAT YOU NEED

• An MBA, a JD, or a comparable graduate degree.
• Excellent written English. Most of this job happens in writing.
• An operational understanding of sales and accounting, the two essential disciplines in business. You can read a profit and loss statement and a payroll report and find the line that does not belong.
• Experience reporting problems to people senior to you and getting them fixed: operations, audit, consulting, finance, legal, or project management.
• US healthcare, payroll, or billing experience helps but is not required.

PAY
USD 2,500 per month. Full-time and long-term.

HOW TO APPLY
No cover letter. Answer these three questions in writing, in under 600 words total. Applications that skip a question will not be read.
1. Describe a time you told someone senior to you that their work or decision was wrong. What did you say, what did they do, and what happened next? If they overruled you, what did you do after that?
2. A manager tells you a project is on track. The numbers you have show it will miss its date by three weeks. The manager has been with the company eight years and is well liked. You report to the CEO. Write the exact message you would send, and say who receives it.
3. Which part of this job post is weakest, and why?

Shortlisted applicants will complete a paid work sample and a live interview.