Strategic Executive Assistant (Creative, Organized & High Ownership)

Who We Are:
We are CL Financial (CLFIN . ca), a Toronto-based financial services firm serving families across Ontario and Alberta, with a strong presence in the Filipino community in Canada. We've been around since 2012 and are now in an exciting stage of growth: building new technology, training programs, internal systems, and infrastructure to support where the company is going next.

We're a lean team with ambitious plans, and we care about doing things well: clean systems, clear communication, strong design, and thoughtful execution.

We're not trying to become a huge corporate machine. We want to stay lean, move quickly, and have really capable people doing meaningful work.

About the Role:
We're looking for a Strategic Executive Assistant to work closely with our COO across creative, operational, and strategic projects.

This isn't a traditional VA role where you'll simply be handed a checklist every morning and told what to do. Sometimes you'll get a clear assignment. Other times, you'll get a rough idea, a voice note, or a half-formed concept and need to help turn it into something useful, organized, and polished. That's a big part of the job.

This will start as a part-time role, with the opportunity to transition into a full-time position after the first few months if it's a strong mutual fit. Ideally, we're looking for someone who wants to grow with us long-term.

One other thing, you don't need to come from finance, although you should be interested in learning it. This is an industry where expertise matters, and the better you understand our business, our advisors, and our clients, the better you'll become at this role. We'll help you learn, but you should genuinely want to.

What You'll Do:
Project Support:
- Organize projects, priorities, meetings, and follow-ups
- Coordinate with team members, contractors, and developers
- Help make sure things don't quietly fall through the cracks

Creative & Communication:
- Create beautifully designed presentations, one-pagers, training materials, internal communications, and visual assets
- Turn rough notes or concepts into polished outputs
- Help maintain consistency across our brand and internal tools
- Look at something we've created and tell us, honestly, "this could be better"

Systems & Operations:
- Maintain daily spreadsheets, trackers, dashboards, and project pipelines
- Test new internal tools and identify improvements
- Find ways to simplify or automate repetitive work

AI & Technology:
- Use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Canva, and Google Workspace to research, create, and improve work
- Experiment with new tools and figure things out quickly
- Help us find smarter ways to work as new technology becomes available

You don't need to know every tool already. Being resourceful and learning quickly matters much more.

Who We're Looking For:
You'll probably thrive here if you:
- Have excellent written English
- Are highly organized and dependable
- Have strong visual/design taste (this is more important than I'm probably letting on in this posting)
- Can work independently without needing constant direction
- Learn new tools quickly
- Can manage multiple projects without losing the details
- Are comfortable receiving direct feedback
- Naturally look for better ways to do things
- Have high integrity and are comfortable being transparent (this is also more important than I’m probably letting on in this posting)

Above everything else, we're looking for judgment, initiative, and ownership. We don't expect you to know everything. We do expect you to think, ask good questions, and care about getting to the right outcome.

Why Work With Us?
- Direct exposure to company leadership and decision-making
- Meaningful projects alongside the more traditional VA work
- Creative freedom; good ideas are genuinely encouraged
- Opportunity to learn AI, technology, operations, and business
- Increasing responsibility as your capabilities grow
- A real pathway from part-time into a full-time role
- A stable company with ambitious long-term growth plans
- A predominantly Filipino team and client community (99% of the company and clients come from a Filipino background)
- The chance to actually see your work shape how a company operates (for real)

How to Apply:
If you've made it this far, include the word "builder" somewhere in the first sentence of your application so we know you actually read the posting.

Please include:
1. A short introduction about yourself
2. Why this role caught your attention
3. Your answer to this question: What does the best boss you've ever worked with do that brings out your best work? And what does a manager do that makes it harder for you to perform?

We're not necessarily looking for the person with the longest resume. We're looking for someone smart, creative, trustworthy, and hungry to become exceptionally good at what they do. If that sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you.