Job title
Executive Assistant to the Founder
Reports to
Founder & Director
Location
Hybrid — three days from home, two on site across the settings and head office
Contract
Permanent, employed
Hours
Full-time
Salary
£45,000-£52,000 depending on experience
Safer recruitment
Enhanced DBS and full pre-employment checks apply
Role purpose
Fountain Montessori is a group of four Montessori settings — Colindale, Edgware, St Albans and Colindale Nido — caring for around 80 children a day with a team of roughly 90 educators. The group runs on EOS/Traction, with quarterly goals tracked at a Monday leadership meeting, and is growing three ways at once: acquiring existing nurseries, building new settings, and franchising. There is a property arm alongside the nurseries. The ten-year goal is ten schools.
The Founder's time is the group's scarcest resource. This role exists to protect it.
The Executive Assistant provides high-level, proactive and confidential support to the Founder, so that she can stay on growth, acquisitions, relationships and the future of the business — and stop holding the detail of everything else in her head.
The single test of this role: things get done, tracked and closed without the Founder having to ask twice.
This is a role with real delegated authority. The postholder is expected to act inside a defined lane and report afterwards, rather than seek permission for work that is already theirs. The boundaries of that authority, the working rhythm and the milestones for the first six months are set out in a separate document, The First 90 Days, which is issued on day one.
Key responsibilities
This role is defined by outcomes. The postholder owns the result, not the instruction.
1. The Founder's diary and time
The outcome: the Founder arrives at the right place, at the right time, prepared, and never has to ask a follow-up question.
- Every commitment in the calendar with the time, location, travel time either side, joining link, who is attending, and what she needs to have read beforehand.
- Nothing stays as a verbal agreement. If it was agreed, it is in the diary the same day.
- Conflicts resolved before she sees them. She is shown a decision, not a problem.
- Travel across four settings planned as a route, not as separate appointments.
- Her most productive hours protected as the default, not filled by whoever asks first.
2. The inbox
The outcome: nothing important is missed, and nothing important goes unflagged.
- Triaged daily. Deal with what is yours, draft what needs her voice, escalate only what genuinely needs her judgement.
- Every reply to a campaign, mailshot, enquiry or introduction is seen, logged and routed in the same week it arrives. Warm replies do not sit unread.
- Anything needing the Founder is flagged in a short daily summary, with a recommendation attached.
- Nothing waits more than 24 hours without at least an acknowledgement.
- Nothing is missed because of absence. A handover is left; the backlog is cleared on return.
Inbox access is granted in stages across the first 90 days as the working relationship is established.
3. Tracking, follow-through and making the plan visible
This is the core of the role.
The outcome: the Founder can see the status of everything at a glance, and never has to chase for an update.
- Every open action, project and commitment sits in one shared tracker with a named owner, a next step and a date. Not in an inbox, and not in anyone's head.
- Take what the Founder describes verbally — the project, the intent, the next three steps — and turn it into a written, visible plan with the documents and deadlines attached.
- Chase actions across the leadership team and external advisers, at every level, politely and every time.
- Update the Founder before she asks: a written weekly summary of what has moved, what is stuck, and what needs her.
- Consistency matters more than brilliance here. The standard is the same in week forty as in week one.
4. Systems, technology and information
The outcome: the group's tools do the work they were bought to do, and the Founder is not paying for software nobody uses.
- Confident daily use of the CRM, the project tracker, shared drives, e-signature tools and the group dashboard.
- Digital and paper filing organised so anything can be found in under a minute — deal documents filed by type and by company, not left in an inbox.
- New systems learned in days, from the documentation, without being trained through them.
- Spot where a task is being done manually that the software could do, and fix it.
- Practical use of AI tools to work faster is welcomed and expected.
5. The team and the wider relationships
The outcome: the postholder is a known, trusted member of this team within the first month — not a name on an email.
This group runs on long relationships. Most of the leadership team have worked with the Founder for five to ten years. An assistant who only ever speaks to the Founder will not succeed here.
- Build working relationships with the Regional Director, the finance and marketing lead, the HR lead and the setting managers. Go to them directly for what is needed.
- When a problem arises, approach the person who can solve it. Do not route it back to the Founder.
- Coordinate the Monday leadership meeting and the quarterly cycle: agenda circulated in advance, papers collated, actions captured with an owner and a date, actions chased between meetings.
- Handle external correspondence and the Founder's sector and charity commitments to the same standard as internal work.
6. Growth projects — acquisitions, property and franchise
The outcome: every live project has a single source of truth, and nothing falls between advisers.
- Document control across solicitors, accountants, surveyors, lenders, architects and planners.
- A live tracker per project: what stage, who holds the next action, what it is waiting on.
- Deadlines surfaced before they become urgent.
- Support on marketing activity, exhibitions and events — including checking that everything going out carries the correct contact details, branding and links, and that every lead generated reaches the CRM and is followed up.
7. General business administration
Reports, correspondence, presentations, expenses, subscriptions, supplier administration, event coordination, and occasional personal diary support.
Person specificationEssential
- Proven experience as an Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant supporting a founder, director or senior executive.
- Experience in a business that was growing and changing, not one that was steady.
- Finishes things. A meeting is not booked until everyone knows where, when, and what to bring.
- Tracks things — able to demonstrate the system used to ensure nothing is dropped, and it is not memory.
- Genuinely confident with technology — not willing to learn, confident. Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace to an advanced standard, plus a CRM, a project tracker, shared drives, e-signature and video conferencing, used daily. Picks up new software from the documentation.
- Works independently. Would rather make a sensible decision and report it than wait to be told.
- Will approach anyone in the business, at any level, to get an answer or move something forward.
- Excellent written English, able to draft on someone else's behalf.
- Discretion is second nature. The postholder will see acquisition terms, financial information, and staffing and safeguarding matters.
Desirable
- Multi-site business experience.
- Exposure to acquisitions, property, or working alongside professional advisers.
- Experience of EOS/Traction or a similar operating system.
- Marketing, social media or events coordination experience.
- Practical use of AI tools in day-to-day work.
- Experience in education, childcare or a Montessori setting.
This role is not for you if
- You need to check before acting on things that are clearly yours.
- You would rather be given the task than given the outcome.
- Technology is something you get through rather than something you use.
- You would wait for the Founder to introduce you to a colleague rather than introducing yourself.
- A group in the middle of an acquisition programme sounds unsettling rather than interesting.
Safer recruitment and compliance
This role sits within a childcare and education environment and is subject to safer recruitment procedures. The successful candidate will complete all relevant pre-employment checks in line with statutory and organisational requirements, including:
- Enhanced DBS check, including the children's barred list where required
- Verification of identity and right to work in the UK
- Reference checks, including the most recent employer
- Verification of employment history, with an explanation of any gaps
- Verification of qualifications where relevant
- Any additional safeguarding or compliance checks required by the organisation
Assessment and selection
- Application — CV and a short note on the founder or executive supported, and what was owned for them.
- Screening call — 20 minutes.
- Two short trial tasks — 45 minutes in total. See below.
- Interview with the Founder — shortlist only.
- Kolbe assessment or similar role-fit assessment.
- Safer recruitment checks and references.
This job description outlines the main duties and responsibilities of the role. It is not exhaustive, and the postholder may be required to undertake other duties reasonably consistent with the level and nature of the post.
Pay: £38,000.00-£52,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Experience:
- EA/PA supporting a Founder, CEO, Director or C-suite: 3 years (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in London NW9 0BF
