About

Ktisis Capital is growing its team! Based in Michigan, we serve as a strategic advisor to a mix of progressive individual donors, families, foundations and philanthropic collaboratives across the United States and internationally from Europe to Australia. 

Are you driven by a commitment to justice and a desire to support social change? Are you an organizer of details and people? Are you unafraid of contradictions and complexity? Can you be both passion-driven and pragmatic? Do you enjoy shifting from details and minutiae to thinking big picture? Do you want to work across many projects and get a front row seat to the changing dynamics of social movements and philanthropy? If so, you might be the perfect person to join the Ktisis team!

We’re looking for an Executive Assistant/Junior Associate, a newly created position that will provide critical support to our team and range of clients in many capacities, primarily focused on supporting our Founder & Principal both in his work through Ktisis and in the rest of his volunteer, business and personal work. Ideally this position is full time (or close to) and based in Grand Rapids, MI, but we’re open to part-time and/or a remote position for the right person.

Required Competencies:

• Friendly, but persistent organizer of all of the details of a group/meeting/team - As a team, we run fast. We need someone who can help the team catch loose ends and keep our priority lists updated. We need someone that is not afraid of interrupting when necessary and can hold their own in an intellectually fast paced environment.
• Ability to implement conceptual ideas and projects - You’ll regularly be distilling simplicity and organization out of complexity, turning ideas into clear to-do lists or capturing key points from wide ranging conversations
• Comfort & excitement to support a fast-moving executive - Your primary charge will be to assist our Founder & Principal, to help keep him organized and track priorities and deadlines and enable him and Ktisis to operate at peak performance. We’re looking for someone who is ready and excited to step in as his right-hand support
• Strong personal dedication to social justice - The work we do at Ktisis Capital is connected by a throughline of justice - political, social, environmental, racial, etc
• Self directed, flexible, and comfortable with change/ambiguity - We are often creating new systems, programs, services as projects evolve. You must be comfortable “building the ship while we are sailing it.”
• Ability to achieve high levels of productivity remotely - Much of our work is remote, even in non-COVID-times. That being said, we do value in-person and synchronous team work time, both for workflow efficiency and cultural/interpersonal importance
• Extremely organized & detail oriented - Holy crap, you had better LOVE to keep a lot of balls in the air. Full stop.
• Excellent verbal & written communication skills - Duh. But also, must have the gift of nuance and graceful communication, both verbal and written. We often work in spaces with complicated and nuanced power dynamics and with a wide range of personalities. The ability to communicate with clarity and charisma is critical.
• Solution-oriented collaborative abilities - As previously mentioned, we are often tasked with creating solutions and thinking outside the box. This requires a high degree of creativity, intellectual flexibility, humility (best results over ego/credit), and freaking amazing pivoting skills.

 Sample Tasks:

• Calendar & deadline management & tracking
• Email & communications triage
• Research support
• Drafting emails, reports, communications, etc
• Agenda creation
• Client & collaborator follow-up
• Event/meeting/travel coordination & logistics (virtual & eventually in-person)

Educational/Experiential Requirements & the Application Process:

As a firm, we believe that a person’s skills and professional competencies are the combined result of their collective life experience. This includes, but is not limited to, formal and informal education, personal/familial management, professional/job/work experience, nerdy internet-black-holes that you regularly explore, committed hobbies, etc. We don’t say X degree and Y number of years required, instead we want to understand if you’re ready for the role from the mix of experience you’ve had in life so far.

To apply, please submit your resume including all relevant professional, educational, and personal experience to [email protected]

In addition, rather than a traditional cover letter (aka...I’m interested and narrative recap of your resume) we ask that you submit a cover letter that responds to the following questions. We know that you could write about each one of these extensively but we’re just looking for a paragraph or two that will allow us to understand you better and give us a starting point

1. Everyone has superpowers - places where you are particularly skilled or especially proficient. Sometimes these are professional skills, sometimes not. Tell us about your superpowers. What are they? How did you discover/develop them? How have they served you personally & professionally.
2. Often in job applications the topic of politics and personal values are taboo; however, our work specifically focuses on these issues. Tell us about what is important to you. What values guide your life? What are your thoughts about our current political climate? What political issues most impact your personal life or get you fired up? 
3. Tell us about a time in your life when you have made a major pivot. What did that look like for you? Give a specific example of how you applied a skill from pre to post pivot. 

Note: We know this position could be right for a seasoned operations person who is looking for a stable position in that lane working with great colleagues on great projects. It also could be a fantastic opportunity for a highly skilled and intellectually hungry individual early in their career willing to start with a deep dive in a support role even as they’re looking for a growth opportunity with ways to stretch their capacity and develop new skills. We’re open to amazing candidates in either lane. 

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for this position runs from $45,000-55,000 depending on experience. Additionally, Ktisis pays 100% of the premiums for baseline medical (silver-equivalent high deductible), dental, and vision coverage for each employee and new employees begin with 10 days of PTO, 6 sick/personal days, and we are closed for all federal holidays.