What are the responsibilities and job description for the Chief of Staff position at IEEE?
The Chief of Staff serves as a key partner to the IEEE Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer (ED), playing a central role in aligning priorities, enhancing organizational effectiveness, and ensuring coordinated execution across the enterprise. Operating at the center of a complex and mission-driven environment, this role is focused on improving how time, information, and decisions are managed to enable clear direction and effective outcomes.
As a member of the IEEE Management Council (MC), the Chief of Staff helps shape and implement staff and volunteer initiatives and deliver results within their area of responsibility, which may evolve with the needs of IEEE’s priorities. This includes supporting IEEE’s evolving global vision by developing focused plans to deliver KPIs, contributing to a high-performing business development environment, and maintaining the ongoing health of the broader organization.
The Chief of Staff shares collective responsibility with the MC for the management, performance, and evaluation of all IEEE functions and business units.
This position ensures that the business, operational, financial, cultural, and relational frameworks within IEEE are aligned with both current needs and future direction. It is especially vital in moments of growth, transition, or complexity, helping to maintain momentum, unity, and clarity across the organization.
Role
In daily practice, the Chief of Staff fulfills several essential functions that support the effective leadership and cohesion of the organization. The role operates:
Key Responsibilities Specific Duties Include But Not Limited To
Category: Category II - Mobile Positions
Physical/Mental Demands
Mobile positions at IEEE include meeting/event planning positions, tradeshow positions, sales positions, and other positions that require frequent mobility to locations outside IEEE’s facilities. Employees in these jobs frequently operate a computer, read, and write, and constantly interact with others in person, as well as over the phone, and via other devices. Employees in mobile positions require frequent business travel to local and/or international locations.
Persons in these positions frequently set up displays and presentations in both physical and electronic forms.
Persons in these positions frequently lift, carry, push and/or pull objects weighing up to 20 lbs., and occasionally, up to 50 lbs. Persons holding these positions must have strong communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills, and an ability to interact and work with others. They must be able to work independently and under time constraints and deadlines.
Work Environment
Mobile positions work in a number of different locations. Such locations are primarily indoor but may occasionally be outdoor. The work environments for mobile positions generally have the lighting, temperature, and noise of indoor working environments that range from those found in small meeting rooms to large, convention hall venues.
To ensure that individuals with disabilities have equal access to employment opportunities, the IEEE is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified employees and applicants with disabilities unless to do so would cause undue hardship.
IEEE HAS THE SOLE RIGHT TO MODIFY, INTERPRET, AND APPLY THESE STANDARDS. THESE STANDARDS ARE NOT THE ONLY DUTIES OR REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED OR DEEMED ESSENTIAL FOR THE POSITIONS TO WHICH THEY APPLY. THESE STANDARDS DO NOT CONSTITUTE A CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT OR OTHERWISE, AS ALL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS AT IEEE ARE “AT-WILL.”
We believe in building an inclusive and diverse team, and we strive to make our office a welcoming space for everyone. We encourage talented people from all backgrounds to apply. PLEASE NOTE: This position is not budgeted for employer-sponsored immigration support, this includes all persons in F (both CPT and OPT), J, H, L or O status.
EXE-B
Job
Min: $188,000.00
Primary Location
United States-New Jersey-Piscataway
Schedule
Full-time
Job Type
Regular
Job Posting
Aug 4, 2025, 1:16:54 PM
As a member of the IEEE Management Council (MC), the Chief of Staff helps shape and implement staff and volunteer initiatives and deliver results within their area of responsibility, which may evolve with the needs of IEEE’s priorities. This includes supporting IEEE’s evolving global vision by developing focused plans to deliver KPIs, contributing to a high-performing business development environment, and maintaining the ongoing health of the broader organization.
The Chief of Staff shares collective responsibility with the MC for the management, performance, and evaluation of all IEEE functions and business units.
This position ensures that the business, operational, financial, cultural, and relational frameworks within IEEE are aligned with both current needs and future direction. It is especially vital in moments of growth, transition, or complexity, helping to maintain momentum, unity, and clarity across the organization.
Role
In daily practice, the Chief of Staff fulfills several essential functions that support the effective leadership and cohesion of the organization. The role operates:
- As an air traffic controller for the ED, managing the flow of decisions, communications, and priorities to ensure focus and alignment.
- As an integrator, connecting initiatives and workstreams that might otherwise remain siloed, fostering cross-functional collaboration.
- As a communicator, serving as a link between the staff leadership team and IEEE’s global community of volunteers and professionals.
- As an honest broker, providing balanced, objective insight into complex issues and presenting multiple perspectives without bias.
- As a confidante, offering guidance and perspective to the ED, focused solely on the best interests of the enterprise.
Key Responsibilities Specific Duties Include But Not Limited To
- Serve as a thought partner to the ED, synthesizing key issues, surfacing emerging challenges, and ensuring the ED is equipped with the context, insight, and follow-through required for informed, high-impact decisions.
- Recognize and address political, cultural, and relational challenges among individuals, teams, or OUs that impede collaboration, slow progress, or resist change. Identify areas where silos or entrenched behaviors limit innovation or agility, and propose clear, constructive pathways to foster alignment, break down barriers and silos, and support more effective, future-ready ways of working.
- Foster a culture of shared accountability, commitment to deadlines, and collective ownership, where individuals across all levels work proactively and in alignment toward common goals, supported by strong leadership and collaboration.
- Act as an early warning system for operational, cultural, or relational tensions, ensuring emerging issues are surfaced promptly and addressed at the appropriate leadership level.
- Support the planning and implementation of change management initiatives, working closely with the ED and senior leaders to engage stakeholders, align efforts, and minimize organizational disruption
- Proactively identify challenges and navigate sensitive situations with sound judgment, discretion, and a high level of emotional intelligence.
- Enhance the ED’s effectiveness by ensuring the timely delivery of relevant information for decision-making and driving consistent follow-through on key actions without requiring ongoing oversight.
- Support the resolution of sensitive or complex issues involving volunteer-staff or staff-staff collaboration by offering insight, facilitating dialogue, and promoting mutual understanding across roles and responsibilities.
- Represent the ED, as appropriate, in meetings with volunteer and staff leadership, reinforcing shared objectives, clarifying staff roles, and ensuring continuity across key initiatives.
- Manage and improve business processes to support the successful implementation of system enhancements, overseeing initiative prioritization, requirements gathering, documentation, user acceptance testing, and effective communication with business stakeholders.
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience. Business Administration or related field.
- Master's or other advanced degree pref.
- Travel - 25 - 30% domestic and international travel (i.e., 13-16 weeks and includes weekends).
- 15-20 years related work experience.
- 7-10 management expertise, Executive/Senior Leader in a complex, diverse, global organization.
- Strong financial management experience; Experience must demonstrate a record of success in managing a complex budgetary and forecasting process pref.
- Must be culturally agile and possess a management style that has been successful in a global organization
- Must possess significant experience in leading, directing and managing people of diverse cultures and professional experience toward the achievement of shared business, operational, and revenue objectives; Experience must demonstrate a proven ability to work across an enterprise in a shared governance environment
- Style of organizational leadership must include collaboration and achieving consensus on, and support of, strategic projects and initiatives
- Must be able to speak to their record of innovation and creativity in attaining complex organizational goals
- Must have strategic business sense; Expected to be an agent of organizational change who will successfully apply strategic planning and leadership skills to the global enterprise.
- Must possess strong conceptual thinking skills.
- Must have a strong project and process orientation.
- Must be a master of influencing their peers because many IEEE functional areas not in their span of control may have a direct impact upon the achievement of strategic objectives.
- Must be a business management professional with strong foundation in personal integrity and business ethics.
- Must understand and promote the mission of IEEE and have an overall appreciation for the development and use of technology now and in the future.
- Must be able to resolve business challenges stemming from changing business models and financial, operational, and strategic goals/objectives.
- Must be an effective and confident communicator, capable of delivering clear, persuasive, and informative presentations to a range of internal and external stakeholders, while demonstrating strong active listening skills to foster engagement and understanding.
- Must communicate effectively and have strong human relations skills; Must work well with volunteers, existing and potential customers, and staff in a highly charged, highly political environment.
- Must be a technologically savvy knowledge worker who seeks out technology solutions to business challenges
- Domestic and international travel required up to 25 - 30% of the time;
- Must have valid travel credentials (e.g. passport, driver’s license, etc.)
- Navigate through uncertainty and risk on behalf of the ED and senior executives simplify complexity, strategic thinking and problem analysis
- Anticipate and avert problems.
- Grasp and add value to the ED’s vision.
- Demonstrate strong organizational awareness and political acumen, with the ability to navigate complex environments and build effective relationships across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Must be a skilled supervisor and developer of professional staff. Their background must demonstrate exceptional organizational, project execution, and communication skills.
- Possess knowledge of IEEE operations, procedures and practices, products and services preferred.Well-developed project-management skills, including, but not limited to, being organized and disciplined, showing attention to detail, and following up doggedly to ensure the right results.
- Ability to envision the culture that the ED wants to create and a sophisticated mix of emotional intelligence, judgment, discretion, and diplomacy, which enables the CoS to interact with direct reports to the ED and board members with confidence and poise.
Category: Category II - Mobile Positions
Physical/Mental Demands
Mobile positions at IEEE include meeting/event planning positions, tradeshow positions, sales positions, and other positions that require frequent mobility to locations outside IEEE’s facilities. Employees in these jobs frequently operate a computer, read, and write, and constantly interact with others in person, as well as over the phone, and via other devices. Employees in mobile positions require frequent business travel to local and/or international locations.
Persons in these positions frequently set up displays and presentations in both physical and electronic forms.
Persons in these positions frequently lift, carry, push and/or pull objects weighing up to 20 lbs., and occasionally, up to 50 lbs. Persons holding these positions must have strong communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills, and an ability to interact and work with others. They must be able to work independently and under time constraints and deadlines.
Work Environment
Mobile positions work in a number of different locations. Such locations are primarily indoor but may occasionally be outdoor. The work environments for mobile positions generally have the lighting, temperature, and noise of indoor working environments that range from those found in small meeting rooms to large, convention hall venues.
To ensure that individuals with disabilities have equal access to employment opportunities, the IEEE is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified employees and applicants with disabilities unless to do so would cause undue hardship.
IEEE HAS THE SOLE RIGHT TO MODIFY, INTERPRET, AND APPLY THESE STANDARDS. THESE STANDARDS ARE NOT THE ONLY DUTIES OR REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED OR DEEMED ESSENTIAL FOR THE POSITIONS TO WHICH THEY APPLY. THESE STANDARDS DO NOT CONSTITUTE A CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT OR OTHERWISE, AS ALL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS AT IEEE ARE “AT-WILL.”
We believe in building an inclusive and diverse team, and we strive to make our office a welcoming space for everyone. We encourage talented people from all backgrounds to apply. PLEASE NOTE: This position is not budgeted for employer-sponsored immigration support, this includes all persons in F (both CPT and OPT), J, H, L or O status.
EXE-B
Job
Min: $188,000.00
Primary Location
United States-New Jersey-Piscataway
Schedule
Full-time
Job Type
Regular
Job Posting
Aug 4, 2025, 1:16:54 PM
Salary : $188,000
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