Chief of Staff

Key Responsibilities

What You Will Do

At L4, you lead through influence rather than line authority. Department heads remain accountable for their results, Finance for the numbers and the CEO for strategy. You make execution visible, disciplined and fast across the six areas below.

01  Run the CEO's office

Good looks like: the CEO walks into every important meeting prepared, and nothing the CEO commits to is forgotten.

• Manage the CEO's priorities and calendar strategy so time follows strategy.

• Prepare briefing notes, pre-reads and decision memos for key internal, Board and external meetings.

• Track and close every CEO commitment; lead special projects on the CEO's behalf.

02  Install the company operating rhythm

Good looks like: leadership meetings are shorter, better prepared and always end with clear owners and deadlines.

• Design and run the cadence: weekly Executive meeting, monthly business review and quarterly OKR and planning sessions.

• Set standard agendas, pre-read deadlines, minutes and action trackers — and hold the line on them.

• Review the meeting landscape regularly and remove forums that no longer earn their time.

03  Make decisions visible and durable

Good looks like: anyone at Zeraki can find what was decided, when and why — without relying on informal channels.

• Run the Decision Register and Meeting Hub; record every company-level decision with rationale and owner.

• Make sure unresolved issues escalate cleanly to the right forum instead of being re-opened elsewhere.

• Publish short post-meeting digests so teams share the same context as leadership.

04  Keep OKRs and strategic initiatives on track

Good looks like: slippage is spotted early and recovered, not discovered at quarter-end.

• Coordinate the quarterly OKR process and keep status, owners and milestones current.

• Run a light-touch PMO for cross-functional initiatives: ownership, milestones, risks and reporting.

• Escalate slipping priorities early and help owners recover them.

05  Turn data into decision-ready insight

Good looks like: leadership decisions are informed by one trusted view of performance.

• Build and maintain the CEO / Executive dashboard of company KPIs, OKRs and SLA performance.

• Turn data into short, clear insights and recommendations — not just charts.

• Prepare first drafts of Board and investor materials with Finance.

06  Remove cross-functional friction

Good looks like: problems that sit between departments get an owner and a fix.

• Map priority cross-functional workflows — for example, client onboarding or invoicing follow-up — and find the bottlenecks.

• Recommend workflow and SLA improvements and help department leads implement them.

• Contribute to the company operational playbook.
  

What Success Looks Like

First 90 days

• One-to-one time with every Executive member and department lead, and agreed working norms with the CEO

• All recurring leadership meetings, decision forums and reports mapped

• A standard Executive agenda, minutes and action tracker in use

• The Decision Register and Meeting Hub live

• The first CEO / Executive dashboard published and OKR status baselined

• One priority cross-functional workflow mapped, with fixes agreed with owners

• Two or three CEO special projects delivered

First six months

• The operating rhythm running reliably, with pre-reads and minutes as standard

• Every company-level decision logged with rationale and owner

• Two full quarterly OKR cycles run, with early escalation of slipping priorities

• A monthly business review in place with Finance

• Measurable reduction in re-opened decisions and overdue actions

First 12 months

• Leadership meetings that are shorter, better prepared and decision-focused

• At least 80% of priority initiatives delivered on time

• A clear, measurable shift in CEO time toward growth, partners and strategy

• Board and investor material drafts produced on time and to standard

• Demonstrated readiness to take on operational ownership as Chief of Staff & Head of Operations (L5)

How you will be measured

Objectives and targets are agreed every quarter through the company plan and reviewed in April, July, October and December, in line with Zeraki's Chief of Staff Role Performance Guide. You are assessed on results and on how you achieve them, against our eight values.

• Executive cadence — meetings held on schedule with pre-reads, minutes and actions; Executive satisfaction with the rhythm

• Decision discipline — decisions logged with rationale and owner; fewer re-opened decisions

• Strategy execution — OKRs current and owned; priority initiatives delivered on time

• CEO leverage — CEO commitments closed; CEO time focused on agreed priorities

• Insight — accuracy, timeliness and usefulness of dashboards and briefings

• Our values — all eight, from Integrity to Have Backbone; Disagree & Commit

What You Bring

Experience

• 6–8 years of progressive experience in strategy consulting, business operations, programme management or a CEO-office role, ideally in EdTech, SaaS or another high-growth business.

• A track record of driving cross-functional initiatives to delivery without direct authority.

• Strong analytical skills: comfortable building dashboards and turning data into recommendations.

• Excellent writing — able to produce a crisp CEO brief, decision memo or Board pre-read.

• Experience working closely with senior executives on sensitive, high-stakes matters.

• A Bachelor's degree is required; an MBA or equivalent is preferred but is not a substitute for demonstrated ability.

Skills and Attributes

• Discreet — trusted with sensitive information, and never uses proximity to the CEO as power.

• Structured — brings order to ambiguity and makes complex work simple to follow.

• Influential without authority — gets senior leaders to act because the work is clear and fair.

• Organised under pressure — keeps many priorities moving without dropping any.

• A clear writer — says more with less.

• Low ego — takes satisfaction in others succeeding.

• Backbone — will tell the CEO and senior leaders what they need to hear.

Where you might be coming from

We are not looking for an executive assistant or a pure project manager. Strong candidates have usually worked in strategy consulting, business operations, a PMO leadership role or a CEO office at a scaling company, and are ready to grow into a much larger operating mandate.

EXPERIENCE THAT WILL HELP

Strategy consulting · Business operations · CEO office or Chief of Staff roles · OKRs and planning · PMO leadership · KPI dashboards · Board and investor reporting · High-growth technology companies · African markets

What This Role is Not

• Not an executive assistant — Administrative support exists; this role is about execution and decisions.

• Not a gatekeeper — The role opens access to the CEO with better preparation; it does not block it.

• Not a shadow CEO — You act on the CEO's priorities, not your own agenda.

• Not a PMO bureaucracy — Process exists only where it speeds up delivery.

• Not the owner of other leaders' results — Every leader remains accountable for their own delivery.