Chief of Staff CV Example & Template
A complete chief of staff CV for a person supporting a scale-up CEO, covering the operating cadence, OKR process and board preparation the role is actually judged on, followed by what a hiring CEO checks first. Written for UK readers who send a CV and US readers who send the same document as a resume.
Last reviewed September 2026
Example Chief of Staff CV
Daniel Foster
Chief of Staff to the CEO — Scale-up Operations and Strategy
London, UK
Profile
Chief of staff to the CEO of a 220-person SaaS scale-up, owning the executive operating cadence, the company-wide OKR process and preparation for board and investor meetings. I run point on cross-functional projects that don't sit neatly inside one department, and I build the systems, from a weekly leadership metrics pack to a structured hiring process for the executive team, that let a fast-growing company keep making good decisions.
Experience
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Jan 2023 – Present
Bramwell Cloud Systems · London
- Redesigned the executive operating cadence, replacing three overlapping leadership meetings with one weekly sync and a monthly strategy review, freeing roughly four hours a week for each of six function heads.
- Run the company-wide OKR process across product, sales, marketing and operations, taking goal-setting from a two-week scramble each quarter down to three structured working sessions.
- Prepare board decks and investor updates for a Series C board, coordinating input from six functional leads into one coherent narrative delivered on schedule for eight consecutive quarters.
- Led the search and onboarding process for two VP-level hires reporting into the CEO, building a structured interview scorecard the executive team still uses.
- Own a rolling list of cross-functional special projects, from a pricing model change to an office relocation, each with a named owner, a deadline and a weekly written update to the CEO.
Strategy and Operations Manager
Jul 2019 – Dec 2022
Halden Partners · London
- Built the first company-wide weekly metrics pack for a 60-person consultancy, pulling data from finance, sales and delivery into a single dashboard the leadership team still uses.
- Managed a portfolio of internal improvement projects, including a new client-onboarding process that cut time-to-first-invoice from six weeks to nine days.
- Coordinated the annual planning offsite for the leadership team, from agenda design to pre-reads, and turned the outputs into a plan tracked and reviewed monthly.
- Acted as project lead for the firm's move to a new billing system, running training for 55 staff with no disruption to client billing.
Education
MBA
2017 – 2019
London Business School
BSc (Hons) Economics, First Class
2013 – 2016
University of Bristol
Skills
Executive operating cadence design · OKR facilitation · Board and investor reporting · Cross-functional project management · Special projects and zero-to-one initiatives · Hiring for the executive team · Stakeholder management · Budget oversight · Meeting and decision-cadence design · Internal communications · Competitive intelligence · Data-driven leadership reporting
Board exposure
- Series B and Series C board cycles
- Monthly investor updates, owned since January 2023
Why this Chief of Staff CV works: what shortlisters check first
Scope, not a job title
There is no single credential or standard career path into chief of staff work, so a shortlister reads the CV for scope: how many functions you touched, how close you sat to the CEO's real decisions, and how big the organisation was. Say the headcount and the funding stage of each company you worked at, because chief of staff at a 15-person startup and a 2,000-person enterprise are different jobs.
A concrete operating cadence
The strongest signal on a chief of staff CV is a described system: the meeting rhythm you built, the OKR process you ran, the reporting pack you introduced. A shortlister wants to see that you create structure rather than just attend meetings on the CEO's behalf, so name the cadence and say what it replaced.
Board and investor readiness
If the role includes board or investor exposure, say exactly what you owned: the deck, the data room, the narrative, or coordinating input from functional leads. Naming the funding stage, such as seed, Series A, B or C, tells a shortlister the level of investor sophistication you have already worked at.
Judgment on ambiguous, cross-functional work
Special projects are the core of the role: a pricing change, a reorg, an office move, a vendor renegotiation. Describe two or three you ran end to end, including who else was involved and what the CEO could not have delivered without you, since this is what separates a chief of staff from an executive assistant or a generalist project manager.
Discretion with sensitive information
Chief of staff work touches board papers, compensation decisions and confidential restructuring plans. A line about handling confidential executive or board material responsibly reassures a hiring CEO that you already understand the discretion the role requires, without needing to be told.
Key skills recruiters look for
How to write each section of a Chief of Staff CV
Profile
State the company stage, meaning headcount and funding round, and the executive you support, then one system you built and one measurable result. Skip generic phrases like trusted advisor and show the evidence instead.
Experience
Structure each bullet around a system or a project, not a duty: what the operating cadence, OKR process or reporting pack looked like before you touched it, and what changed. Name the board stage or team size behind any board or hiring bullet.
Skills
Group by operating rhythm, strategic planning, board and investor work, and organisational design. A reader scanning this section wants proof you can run more than one of these areas, since the role is defined by breadth.
Special projects
If your CV has room, list two or three named projects separately from your day-to-day bullets, each with a one-line outcome, since this is the section most chief of staff hires actually get judged on in interview.
More example bullet points
Strong Chief of Staff CVs lead with measurable impact. Here are examples of the kind of bullets that make recruiters stop scrolling:
Orchestrated company-wide OKR process for 300-person organization, aligning 12 department roadmaps to 5 company-level goals for the first time
Prepared CEO for Series C board meetings across 18 months, coordinating materials from 8 functional leads and ensuring strategic narrative coherence
Identified and resolved 6 cross-functional blockers per quarter on average, freeing CEO calendar for external fundraising and partnership conversations
Common Chief of Staff CV mistakes
- Describing the role only as supporting the CEO with no named system, project or outcome.
- Leaving out company size and funding stage, so a shortlister cannot judge the scope of the job.
- Copying language from an executive assistant CV, which reads the role as administrative rather than strategic.
- Listing every meeting attended instead of the two or three cross-functional projects that mattered most.
- Omitting board or investor exposure when it exists, because it is one of the few checkable signals in a role with no standard credential.
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How to tailor your Chief of Staff CV for each application
Every Chief of Staff job posting is different. The skills they prioritize, the seniority they expect, the setting — all of it shapes what your CV should emphasize. A CV that gets an interview at one employer can miss at another, even for the same job title.
The fastest way to tailor your CV is to paste the job description into NextCV. The AI reads the posting, maps it to your experience, and rewrites your bullets to match what the employer is scanning for. 1 free preview, no signup required — you only pay when you want a clean PDF download. Sign up free for 3 more.
Chief of Staff CV FAQ
Is a chief of staff CV called a resume or a CV?
In the UK, Ireland and most of Europe, send a CV. In the US and Canada, the same document is called a resume, and the content and length expectations are close enough that one well-written document can usually be adapted for either market with a title change and a trim to one page for a US audience.
What qualifications do you need to become a chief of staff?
There is no required qualification or licensing body for the role, unlike law or accountancy. Employers hire on demonstrated judgment and scope: prior experience in strategy, operations, consulting or a similar cross-functional role, and often an MBA or equivalent experience, though plenty of chief of staff hires have neither.
How long should a chief of staff CV or resume be?
Two pages for a UK CV, one page for a US resume unless your experience genuinely needs two. Prioritise the operating systems you built and the projects you ran over a full history of every meeting or committee you sat on.
What is the difference between a chief of staff and an executive assistant?
An executive assistant manages an executive's calendar, travel and correspondence. A chief of staff owns strategic and operational outcomes, such as the OKR process, board preparation, cross-functional projects and often organisational design, usually with more independent decision-making authority and sometimes a small team.
Should a chief of staff CV include company size or salary?
Company size or employee headcount is useful context and worth including, since it shows the scale you operated at. Salary does not belong on a CV or resume in the UK or US; save that for the application form or the recruiter conversation.