Director, Chief of Staff

Malbon•Santa Monica, CA

15h•$170,000 - $190,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Malbon is looking for a Director, Chief of Staff to partner directly with our CEO and help run the business at the center of the Office of the CEO. This role sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and execution. You'll act as a thought partner and proxy for the CEO, own the company's internal operating rhythm, drive high-priority initiatives that cut across teams, and manage our board and investor engagement end to end. The ideal candidate combines top-tier strategic and analytical training with real operating instincts. You're equally comfortable pressure-testing a strategic decision in the morning and handling offsite logistics in the afternoon, and you lead through influence, trust, and credibility rather than authority.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree required, with a strong academic record; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred
5–6 years of professional experience, including 2–3 years at a management consulting firm or investment bank with exposure to C-suite or board-level audiences
Experience leading a change or transformation effort through to adoption
Strong financial literacy, with the ability to build models and KPI frameworks from scratch, work comfortably with sell-through, margin, and channel performance data, and turn complex data into a clear narrative
High emotional intelligence: you read people and rooms accurately, adjust to your audience, and know when to speak and when to listen
A proven ability to lead through influence, navigate competing agendas among senior stakeholders, and build consensus without flattening real disagreement
Exceptional written and verbal communication, from board-ready documents to difficult conversations with peers
Strong structuring instincts: you take a vague request and return a scoped plan without being walked through it
The ability to move between strategic work and hands-on execution in the same day, including the logistics and detail work that senior moments require
Fluency with AI tools and a habit of integrating them into daily work to accelerate research, analysis, drafting, and synthesis
Absolute discretion with confidential business, financial, and personnel information

Nice To Haves

Operating experience at a consumer, retail, or apparel business is a plus

Responsibilities

Partner with the CEO on Strategy and Execution: Serve as a thought partner to the CEO, pressure-test thinking, surface what's being missed, and bring a recommendation to open questions.
Own and actively manage the CEO's priorities, deciding what gets attention, what gets delegated, and what gets dropped, and protect focus against lower-value demands.
Act as the CEO's proxy with function and channel leads, carrying decisions and priorities forward and knowing when a question needs to go back to the CEO.
Run alignment meetings across department heads, reading the room and moving a group with competing interests to a decision.
Track decisions made in the Office of the CEO through to execution, holding owners accountable in a way that preserves the relationship.
Own the Company's Operating Rhythm: Own the weekly leadership meeting, including agenda, pre-reads, facilitation support, and decision capture.
Plan and run company all-staff meetings, from content development and run of show to speaker prep.
Design and execute executive offsites, covering objectives, agenda, materials, logistics, and follow-through.
Maintain the annual operating calendar so planning cycles, reviews, and company moments are sequenced rather than colliding.
Run the quarterly goal-setting and review cycle: collect inputs, close gaps, consolidate into a single source of truth, and flag off-track items early.
Draft internal communications on behalf of the CEO, including company updates and organizational announcements.
Drive Cross-Functional Initiatives and Organizational Change: Take ownership of high-priority initiatives that span functions and lack a natural owner, driving them from kickoff to implementation.
Lead organizational change efforts, including new operating processes, systems rollouts, and structural shifts, owning the plan, the communication, and the adoption.
Build project scaffolding (scope, milestones, owners, and status reporting) and hold cross-functional partners to it without direct authority.
Make the call on what gets deprioritized when everything is urgent, and communicate those trade-offs clearly.
Escalate blockers to the CEO with a recommendation attached, not just a problem.
Run post-mortems on major initiatives and turn the findings into repeatable processes.
Lead Board and Investor Engagement: Own the board meeting cycle end to end, including calendar, materials timeline, content development, and quality control on the final deck.
Build board materials in partnership with Finance and functional leaders, translating operating detail into a clear narrative.
Produce ad hoc analyses and responses to investor and board requests, using judgment about what warrants CEO involvement.
Partner day to day with operating partners, coordinating their access to the business and following through on their asks.
Maintain board logistics and records, including schedules, consents, minutes coordination, and the materials archive.