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Codecademy: Chief of Staff
Why this is a great job
If you’ve been interested in tech at any point in the last few years, chances are you already know about Codecademy. This is a great chance for you to work alongside their talented founder/CEO and learn what it takes to scale a company.
The nitty gritty
Hello, World! Codecademy has helped over 45 million people from around the world upgrade their careers with engaging, accessible, and flexible education on programming and data skills. We provide over 200 hands-on interactive lessons ranging from Python to R to Javascript and everything in between. Our learners have gone on to start companies, new jobs, and new lives thanks to what they’ve learned with Codecademy, and we’re thrilled to be working to take that impact to the next level.
Codecademy was started in 2011 by two college students in a dorm room at Columbia that were frustrated by the huge gap between education and employment. A few years later, we are a rapidly growing, diverse team of 75+ in SoHo, NYC. We’ve raised over $40m in venture capital funding from top investors including Union Square Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Naspers, Y Combinator, and more.
If you want to help build a business that impacts tens of millions of people each year and helps them lead better lives, join us!
The Chief of Staff will report to the CEO and serve an instrumental role in helping Codecademy and its CEO achieve their goals. This role has a broad remit for a self-starter and natural problem solver who is an expert in organizational dynamics and is at ease in ambiguity. Successful candidates will meld their EQ, humility, business acumen, and structured strategic thinking to provide leverage to the CEO and executive team in order to grow the business. This job’s working habits mirror those of the CEO: you should expect to feel like an owner in the business and work closely with the CEO, oftentimes off-hours if required. We are excited to add to our excellent team with this strategic hire.
The Role Is Split Between Several Key Responsibilities
Team Alignment: work across the executive team and the CEO’s direct reports to ensure exemplary organizational communication and coordination. On a practical basis, this means running:
management team meetings and strategic offsites
prep for board meetings and other high-stakes meetings
follow-ups arising from the CEO’s meetings
team-wide communication about critical company decision
CEO Prioritization: work closely with CEO and CEO’s EA to prioritize, focus and prepare CEO for internal and external meetings, as well as helping with communications within the team. Help CEO hold management team and direct reports accountable for commitments.
Strategic Projects: build out new areas of the business before a team has been hired to do so. Own critical cross-functional decisions and help to prepare suggestions and decision documents. Do research on areas of potential expansionary interest to the company, including M&A, internationalization, and enterprise sales.
The Chief of Staff is expected to contribute strategic insight across multiple areas of the business. This role may be either a longer-term position, great for someone who aspires to be a CEO, or can be somewhat rotational in nature, with the ideal candidate spending two to three years in this role and then transitioning into an operating role somewhere in the company.
In order to be successful in this role, candidates should have the following qualities:
Strong Communication: much of this role will be communicating across teams and executives. Candidates should communicate in a crisp, structured manner in both written and verbal communications as a representative of the CEO. Candidates should be comfortable communicating with slides if necessary as well.
Deep Analytical Acumen: prior experience in banking, consulting, or a similarly rigorous analytical role is required. Candidates should be comfortable modeling with financial data and analysis.
Thrives in Ambiguity: candidates should be self-starters who are consistently re-evaluating their own responsibilities and reprioritizing based on their assessment of what the company needs most.
Strategic Systems Thinking: executing on strategy will require an informed strategic perspective informed by experience.
Detail Orientation with a Commitment to Follow-Through: candidates should own projects end-to-end and be responsible for all follow-through.
Impeccable People Skills, including Management and Hiring Experience: candidates have ideally managed and built teams of high performers previously.
Low Ego and High EQ: no job should be too small, nor any problem too big to work through, particularly through collaboration with the team
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