Executive Assistant to the CEO

Full-Time · Reports to Zach Resnick, Ascend co-founder and CEO · Lisbon (in person when Zach isn’t traveling) · Start: last week of November 2026 to first week of January 2027

I run a fast-growing travel company - Ascend - and I'm on the road ⅓-½ of every quarter. Each week brings around 15 external meetings to schedule, a dinner series across four cities, three or more trips a quarter on points, and a long tail of personal life admin: medical appointments, a landlord, taxes, errands, and even a wedding in 2027.

Your job is to

make my life run seamlessly so I can focus as much as possible on high leverage activities for the business. Your north star with the role: fewer day to day decisions for me, fewer things I have to own, and less stress.

This is intended as a 12 to 24 month tour of duty. Following directly supporting me, you will have the opportunity to graduate into another role at Ascend. I will personally mentor you on how to use AI along the way - you should only apply for this role if both deeply personal support AND finding leverage with AI excites you.

About Ascend

Ascend is a white-glove travel concierge for the world's most ambitious people, delivered entirely over WhatsApp. Members get a response in under 60 seconds from real humans, a bookable quote in under 60 minutes, and an average of 35% savings on business and first-class flights between North America and Europe.

Our Mission and Vision

$5M and growing fast in net ARR with 1,100+ UHNW clients and enterprises, 130% net revenue retention, and no voluntary churn in the last 2.5 years. Google Ventures, The Guardian, Charlotte Tilbury, Left Lane Capital, Muddy Waters, and Ramp

are customers. We're a team of 70, backed by Bessemer Venture Partners

, FJ Labs, a16z Explorer and Slow Ventures.

Besides our subscription, we only make money when we get our customers a better deal than they could find anywhere else.

What You'll Own

The work splits roughly half business, half personal. 

• My calendar, external scheduling, and emails (about 10% of your time).

  Propose times, reschedule, and keep every invite complete with links, addresses and QR codes. Clear the emails that only need a time or one extra sentence without involving me.

• Founders, Funders & Flyers dinners and events (about 10%).

  I host a dinner series in Lisbon, London, New York, San Francisco, and wherever in the world I’m traveling. You source venues and menus, run the guest list and same-day VIP adds, send invites, and handle follow-up.

• Travel and points (about 15%).

  15-25 trips a year. Flights on points, hotel perks and status, seat selection, fast track, refunds, packing lists, and itineraries you have checked for connections before I see them.

• Health and wellness logistics (about 10%).

  Book, confirm and follow up on appointments in Lisbon and abroad until they are on my calendar and done.

• Home, office and Portuguese bureaucracy (about 15%).

  Landlord, repairs, contractors, utilities, leases, Finanças and the rest. You are my local fixer: you call, you show up, and you keep going until it's solved.

• Personal finance and admin (about 10%).

  Requests from my accountant, statements, card issues, points and credit tracking, and two-factor codes, handled securely and on deadline.

• Errands, orders and household (about 15%).

  Online orders and returns in the right sizes, groceries, deliveries, packages, mail, and helping with our dog.

• Partner, wedding and gifts (about 15%).

  Logistics for my partner on joint trips, gifts, and vendor work as our 2027 wedding in Portugal gets closer.

• The Zach Second Brain.

  You own a context system that holds everything about how I live and work: preferences, sizes, vendors, routines, standing decisions, and how each recurring task gets done. Our AI tools read from it, so every task gets faster each month - I will support you in building this, and this should help everything above work smoothly.

How We Work

• One source of truth.

  Every open task lives in one system, updated before you sign off every day. I plan my week from it, without asking you.

• Every task closes in writing.

  Done, blocked (and on what), or next step with a date. I should never have to ask "did that happen?"

• Deadlines, not check-ins.

  You commit to a date and you hit it, or you tell me beforehand why we need to adjust.

• Call first, operate with urgency.

  If a phone call will solve it faster than an email to any external party, you call.

• A "no" is where the work starts.

  Fully booked, card declined, wrong department: you find another way and keep working until it's solved.

• AI first.

  Before you do a recurring digital task by hand a third time, you ask how AI could automate it, and then try and make that happen on your own.

What Success Looks Like

• By day 30:

  the task system that works well for both parties is live and current every day, the Second Brain has its first version, and I haven't asked "did you…?" in a week.

• By day 60:

  you own my external scheduling end to end, you have run one Founders, Funders & Flyers dinner from start to finish, and you have shipped your first AI workflow.

• Within 12 to 24 months:

  I feel confident you would thrive within another role within the company.

Who You Are

• You are equanimous. A last-minute change or a strange request doesn't rattle you, and you stay calm and kind when things go sideways.
• You have agency. You get a short brief and come back with results, not questions, and you keep working until you solve the problem.
• You close loops by instinct. Nothing you own waits for a reminder from me.
• You are organized. Your notes, lists and files are things other people can pick up and use.
• You are fired up about AI and already have it embedded in your personal and professional life. You check its work and push it further.
• You are discreet. You'll have access to my calendar, inbox, accounts and personal details, and you treat that with care.
• You have lived in or around Lisbon for at least three years, you speak fluent Portuguese and fluent English, and you know how to get things done here: the right people, the right office, the right phone number.
• You love to research, and you know where the best restaurants, hotels and hidden spots are just for the fun of knowing.

I can teach you points, our AI tools, and how Ascend runs, but you need to come in with agency and the habit of closing every loop.

Nice to have, not required:

• Love of travel
• Experience as an assistant to a founder, investor or executive
• Operations experience at a start-up
• Experience with miles, points and premium travel
• Experience building process docs or AI workflows
• Experience with dogs in a city

If you want a normal admin job don't apply. If you want to be working one of the world's fastest-growing travel companies, I'd love to hear from you.

Schedule

• Hours:

  10am to 6pm or 11am to 7pm, Monday to Friday. In person at my office or apartment most days when I'm in Lisbon, remote when I'm traveling, with flexibility on working hours while I'm in a different time zone.

• Evenings are yours.

  I value time with family and don't expect anyone to work all day. That being said, you should be happy to spend 5 to 15 minutes a night or two a week on a quick fix i.e. a booking that needs to be made in California.

• The workload moves with my travel.

  The days before and after a trip are typically busiest, and some weeks when I’m on the road are much quieter.

Why Join Us

• AI mentorship.

  A weekly session with me on how to use AI to get more done, plus paid AI tools. You'll leave this role far more capable with AI than when you started.

• Travel mentorship.

  My co-founder and I are huge miles and points optimizers in the world, so it'll be a learning curve, but you’ll be able to find amazing travel deals for yourself after just a few months of working together!

• A path into a multifaceted career at Ascend.

  This is a tour of duty with a clear path into operations or concierge at a company that has averaged more than doubling every year and is one of Portugal’s fastest growing companies

• Work directly with the CEO

  of a fast-growing, AI-native company, and see how it is built.

• Variety.

  Few days look the same.

Compensation

• €2,750 to €3,250 per month, depending on experience as an assistant, in start-up operations, and with AI.
• 22 paid days off a year. At least two weeks fall during my travel or holiday periods
• Paid AI tools - anything you want that will help the job with no explicit budget.
• Ascend is a US company - we try to only hire people that will work with us for the coming decades . You'll work as an independent contractor, paid at the end of each month. As is hopefully clear from the full post, this is not a short-term contract but hopefully the start of working together for many years.

How To Apply

Email [email protected] with:

• Your LinkedIn or CV, and a few sentences on why this role and why now.
• One thing you fixed or improved that nobody asked you to in the last 30 days.
• The actual prompt (or prompts) from the most in depth research you did with AI this past month, and what came of it.
• What's the best travel deal you've ever gotten yourself, and how?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Zach Resnick

Ascend co-founder and CEO

P.S. Make sure to use the subject line "Flores" so I know you read this far.

P.P.S. Using AI for emails and applications is great, AI slop is not. If your email is mostly written by AI, don't expect a reply.

Hiring Process

1. 25 minutes online with my current executive assistant.

   Real-time research and problem-solving questions.

2. One hour of paid work at €25 an hour.

   Triage a messy inbox, plan a short trip, and run one live AI research task on a screen share. You'll get feedback once and revise.

3. A 30 minute interview with me,

   in person in Lisbon, or if traveling, online

4. A 30 to 60 minute interview with my partner,

   in person in Lisbon, or if traveling, online