Executive Assistant

About RDI At RDI Trials, we’re building a different kind of CRO. We are an IVD-focused contract research organization. Since 2008 we’ve run 300+ diagnostic trials for the largest test makers in the world. Our clinical operations team is sharp, motivated, and runs its own workload well — what they need now is someone to raise the ceiling on monitoring craft.

This is not a traditional, process-heavy environment. We are a small team that moves fast and expects people to take real ownership. There’s no passing things along or waiting for direction. If something needs to get done, you step in and figure it out.

The pace is high. The expectations are higher. But for the right person, it’s a place where you can learn quickly and have real impact.

Those Who Thrive At RDI

• Take ownership and actually follow things through
• Can think for themselves and make decisions without a playbook
• Are comfortable when things are not perfectly defined
• Understand their work at a deeper level, not just surface
• Communicate clearly and directly
• Have a strong foundation in their field but are willing to step outside of it

This is a place for people who want to build, not just maintain.

The Culture We punch above our weight class — a 30-person company running the workload of a CRO twice our size. That happens because of how we work, not how big we are.

We move with speed and discipline. We own outcomes, not tasks. Precision is non-negotiable in our work, so it’s non-negotiable internally. Grit matters here — but we’d rather build the systems that scale.

The CEO sets the pace. The COO runs the operation. Leadership is accessible — you’ll be in the room. Feedback is fast and unvarnished, and the worst thing you can do is hide a problem.

We just signed the largest contract in company history. The next 18 months will stretch every function, including this one.

Requirements The Role The CEO’s time is the company’s most constrained resource. This role exists to protect it.

You’ll own his calendar, his inbox, and the follow-through on every conversation he walks out of. You’ll project-manage other people’s commitments back to closure. You’ll write on his behalf in a voice that sounds like him. We need someone senior enough to land running — not someone who needs ramp time to learn the principal.

You will not be building org-wide systems. You will be running the ones that already exist, and running them better than he does today.

Think: the best event planner you know. Two steps ahead. Owns the timeline. Handles the friction before the principal sees it.

The Work

• Own the CEO’s calendar — protect focus time, sequence the day, defend the gates
• Triage his inbox; respond directly where you can, escalate what actually needs him
• Draft emails, memos, and client/sponsor comms in his voice
• Track every commitment that leaves his mouth and chase it to closure
• Run logistics for sponsor meetings, client visits, travel, leadership offsites
• Coordinate across the leadership team (COO, Lab Director, Site Partnerships) on shared timelines
• Prep him for meetings — agenda, background, the question he should be asking
• Handle personal logistics as needed (travel, expenses, occasional errands)

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years as the primary EA to a CEO, founder, or managing partner
• Demonstrated history of running a single principal’s calendar, inbox, and follow-through end-to-end — not splitting an exec team across multiple EAs
• PM instincts. You track things to closure without being reminded
• Strong writing. You can ghostwrite a three-sentence client email that sounds like the principal, not like you
• Calendar management is second nature, including managing competing high-priority asks
• Judgment about what rises to the principal and what doesn’t
• Comfort working in ambiguity and shifting priorities on short notice
• Discretion with confidential business, client, and personal information
• LA-based; in-office cadence required (this role doesn’t work remote)

What we’re not looking for

• A Chief of Staff in disguise. This is executive support, not strategy
• A system-builder. We have separate plans for org infrastructure
• A first-time EA-to-CEO. We’re not the company you grow into this role at
• Someone who treats direct feedback as a personality conflict
• A career stepping-stone seeker. We want someone who wants …