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Virtual Executive Assistant Recruitment for Employers
Alliance sources, screens and places a permanent virtual executive assistant who joins your payroll and works only for you. Not a shared assistant, not an hourly service, not a rotating pool. Recruited from India, the Philippines and other markets, working your hours.
Our recruitment team screens candidates for executive support experience, communication, organisation, discretion, and time-zone fit. You receive a dedicated virtual executive assistant selected around your working style, responsibilities, and long-term business requirements.
16+ Years Of Experience
550,000+ Placements Delivered
36+ Countries Served
350+ Expert Teams
50+ Top Level Positions
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What Is a Virtual Executive Assistant?
A virtual executive assistant (also called an executive virtual assistant or remote EA) is a full executive assistant who works remotely rather than from your office, handling calendar and inbox management, travel, meeting preparation, expenses, board and stakeholder coordination, and the confidential work an EA does that a general administrator does not.
There are two ways to get one, and the difference matters more than most buyers realise.
An outsourced or managed EA service employs the assistant, bills you monthly for a block of their time, and often shares them across several clients. Alliance does not provide this.
Executive assistant recruitment, which is what we do, means we find, screen and place a person who becomes your employee, works only for you, and stays. You set the hours, the tools, the access and the pay.
Which one you want depends on a single question: is this a job, or is it a task list? Under roughly fifteen hours a week of routine admin, a managed service is genuinely cheaper and we will say so. Above that, and particularly where the work is confidential, you want an employee.
For the wider practice, see our executive assistant search firms and executive assistant headhunters pages.
What Does a Virtual Executive Assistant Do?
A virtual executive assistant takes on the work that keeps a senior leader’s week running, from a different location. Typical responsibilities include:
- Calendar management: scheduling across timezones, protecting focus time and resolving conflicts.
- Inbox and communications: triaging email, drafting replies and following up on actions.
- Travel and events: booking travel, building itineraries and handling changes on the day.
- Meeting preparation: agendas, briefing notes, minutes and action tracking.
- Board and stakeholder coordination: board packs and scheduling with investors, clients and directors.
- Expenses and documents: expense reports, filing and document preparation.
- Projects and research: tracking deadlines, pulling reports and researching topics before decisions.
A Permanent EA, Not a Shared One
Most virtual executive assistant offers are a subscription to somebody else’s employee. The predictable failure is continuity: the assistant who learned your board’s preferences over six months gets reassigned, and you start again. Alliance recruits an EA who joins your organisation permanently, which is slower to set up and the only version where institutional memory accumulates.
How Long Does It Take to Hire a Remote Executive Assistant?
- Brief and shortlist: first shortlist within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief.
Client interviews and a paid practical task: week 2 to 3.
Offer, notice and onboarding: week 3 to 6, depending on the candidate’s notice period. Realistic total is 3 to 6 weeks from brief to start date.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Virtual Executive Assistant?
Two costs, and they are separate. Our recruitment fee is set out in your quote. The salary is yours and ongoing, and varies sharply by source market and seniority. This is the arithmetic that decides between recruitment and a managed service, so we will run it with you before you commit.
What We Offer in Virtual Executive Assistant Recruitment
A permanent hire onto your payroll
Your employee, your hours, your tools, your confidentiality agreement. Not a shared resource and not billed by the hour.
A paid practical task before you decide
Every shortlisted candidate completes real work: a complex multi-timezone calendar conflict, an inbox triage, a travel itinerary with a disruption in it.
Screening built around confidentiality and security
Background verification, reference checks with previous principals where permitted, and assessment of how the candidate has handled sensitive information before. The EA will see your calendar, your inbox and your board papers.
Communication and written English assessed directly
not inferred from a CV, because most of the job is written and most of it is on your behalf.
Timezone overlap agreed before sourcing
We source against the hours you actually need covered rather than presenting candidates who cannot work them.
A replacement guarantee if the hire does not work out
A 90-day replacement guarantee applies to permanent placements.
Our Remote EA Recruitment Process
Requirement and Reality Check (Week 1)
The actual workload, the hours needing cover, the tools, the access level and the salary band. This is also where we tell you if recruitment is the wrong answer. Under roughly fifteen hours a week of routine admin, a managed service costs less and we will say so rather than take the fee.
Sourcing and Screening (Weeks 1 to 2)
Sourcing in the target market, screening for written communication, calendar and travel competence, tool fluency and confidentiality track record. You receive assessed profiles, not CVs.
Paid Practical Task (Week 2)
Shortlisted candidates complete real work you set. Expect this stage to eliminate candidates who interviewed well, which is the point of it.
Client Interviews (Weeks 2 to 3)
Usually two rounds, one of them with the executive the EA will actually support. An EA appointed without meeting their principal rarely lasts a year.
Offer, Notice and Onboarding (Weeks 3 to 6)
Offer, notice-period navigation, and a structured first-thirty-days plan covering tool access, calendar handover and escalation rules. The most common cause of a failed EA hire is not the candidate. It is week one with no handover.
Post-Placement Follow-Up
We check in after the EA starts to review workload, communication, tool access, and role alignment. Early issues are addressed quickly to support a productive and lasting working relationship.
Need a Virtual EA?
Not sure whether hiring or an outsourced service makes more sense? Share your workload and we’ll recommend the most cost-effective option.
Skills to Look For in a Virtual Executive Assistant
The strongest remote EAs share a few skills that matter more than where they are based:
- Written communication: most of the role is written, and much of it goes out in your name.
- Judgement and prioritisation: deciding what reaches you, what waits and what they handle themselves.
- Discretion: a track record of handling confidential information.
- Tool fluency: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, video calls, and project and travel tools.
- Timezone discipline: reliable overlap with your working day.
Roles We Place and Markets We Recruit From
Executive Assistant to CEO or Founder
Calendar ownership, gatekeeping, board coordination and the judgement calls that come with speaking on someone’s behalf.
Executive Assistant to a C-suite team
Supporting two to four executives, where prioritisation between competing principals is the core skill.
Personal and private EA
Blended business and private support for founders and principals, with a higher confidentiality bar. See our virtual personal assistant page.
Board and governance support
Board pack preparation, minute-taking and director coordination.
Executive Assistant with operations scope
Where the role extends into project coordination, vendor management or light bookkeeping.
Remote administrative and virtual assistant roles
Where the requirement is administrative rather than executive. These are a different hire at a different salary and we will tell you which one you actually need. See our home based virtual assistant hiring page, or read how the roles differ in our executive assistant vs administrative assistant guide.
Source markets
India and the Philippines primarily, with recruitment also into and across the UK, Europe, North America, the Gulf and Australasia.
Employer markets
We recruit for employers in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, the Gulf, India and Asia-Pacific, matching timezone coverage to the executive being supported.
Executive Project Support
Supporting senior leaders with project coordination, research, reporting, meeting preparation, and follow-up across multiple priorities.
Who We Serve
Founders spending eight hours a week on their own calendar
where the cost of not hiring is now clearly higher than the cost of hiring.
Startups scaling past a hundred people
where white-glove executive support and strict access control both become necessary at the same time, and a shared assistant satisfies neither.
Executives who have used a managed VA service and want continuity
usually after a third reassignment, wanting someone who stays and learns.
Companies with confidentiality requirements a shared assistant cannot meet
legal, financial services, healthcare, or any business where the EA sees material non-public information.
Employers supporting executives across timezones
where the requirement is genuine overlap with a specific working day rather than “remote”.
Businesses replacing an in-office EA with a remote one
often after a relocation or an office closure, needing the same role filled without the geography.
The Alliance Advantage
Permanent placement onto your payroll. Your employee. We do not employ assistants and bill you for their time, and if that is what you want we are the wrong provider.
A paid practical task in every process. Real work, set by you, before you decide.
Confidentiality assessed explicitly, not assumed from a CV.
We tell you when not to hire. Under roughly fifteen hours a week of routine admin, a managed service is cheaper. Saying so costs us placements and it is the reason the ones we do make stick.
Timezone overlap agreed before sourcing, not discovered at offer stage.
A clear quote before you commit. After placement the ongoing cost is the salary, which is yours to manage.
16+ years, 9,000+ organisations served across 36+ countries, with the same screening discipline applied to an EA hire as to a senior appointment.
Onboarding structure included. A thirty-day plan, because the most common failure is week one, not the candidate.
Why Choose Alliance to Hire Your Virtual Executive Assistant?
The virtual assistant market has an honesty problem about what it is selling. A great deal of what is marketed as “hiring a virtual executive assistant” is actually a subscription to a provider’s employee, shared across several clients, cancellable monthly. That is a real and useful product. It is not a hire, and the difference only becomes visible about six months in, when the person who learned how your board works is reassigned.
Alliance sells the other thing. We find you a person, they join your organisation, and they stay. Slower to arrange, and the only version where the assistant accumulates the institutional knowledge that makes a good EA valuable.
We will also tell you when the subscription is the right answer. Under roughly fifteen hours a week of routine, non-confidential admin, a managed service will cost you less and we will point you at one. If you need cover starting Monday, recruitment cannot do that and a service can.
Alliance Recruitment Agency has 16+ years of recruitment experience and has served 9,000+ organisations across 36+ countries, with 95% repeat business and a 4.8 average client rating. Our search methodology is ISO 9001-certified, and permanent placements carry a 90-day replacement guarantee.
For agency-side comparison, see virtual assistant recruiter agencies. For broader remote hiring, see our virtual employment agency page.
Our Client Reviews
Our virtual executive assistant quickly became an extension of our leadership team. Alliance handled the sourcing and screening well, and we found someone who was organised, responsive and able to manage priorities independently.
Alliance helped us find a reliable virtual executive assistant who could manage scheduling, communication and administrative tasks across time zones. The quality of the shortlist made the hiring decision much easier.
We needed executive support without adding another full-time office role. Alliance connected us with a highly capable virtual assistant who now handles day-to-day coordination and gives our leadership team more time to focus on strategic work.
Awards
Meet Our Leadership Team
Molly Anderson
Franchise Lead | Recruitment Franchise
Alex George
General Manager | RPO & Enterprise Recruitment
Nikki Miller
Head of Recruitment | Recruitment & Staffing
Frequently Asked Questions
A virtual executive assistant is a full executive assistant who works remotely rather than from your office, handling calendar and inbox management, travel, meeting preparation, expenses and confidential stakeholder coordination.
A virtual executive assistant manages a senior leader’s calendar, inbox, travel, meeting preparation, expenses and stakeholder coordination remotely, and often supports board work and projects. It is executive support, so judgement, discretion and written communication matter as much as speed on admin.
A virtual assistant usually handles routine administrative tasks, often for several people. A virtual executive assistant supports a specific senior leader, owns their calendar and communications, and handles confidential work. The skills, access level and salary differ, so they are separate hires.
No. Alliance recruits and places a permanent executive assistant who becomes your employee. We do not employ assistants and bill you monthly for their time.
A managed service employs the assistant, bills you for a block of their time, and often shares them across clients. Recruitment places a person who joins your payroll, works only for you, and stays.
Under roughly fifteen hours a week of routine, non-confidential admin, a managed service usually costs less. Above that, or where the work is confidential, an employed EA is the better economics.
The first shortlist follows within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief. The start date then depends on interview rounds and the candidate’s notice period.
Two separate costs: our recruitment fee, set out in your quote, and the assistant’s salary, which varies by source market and seniority.
Primarily India and the Philippines, with recruitment also into and across the UK, Europe, North America, the Gulf and Australasia.
Written communication, calendar and travel competence, tool fluency and confidentiality track record, plus a paid practical task using real work you set before you decide.
Background verification, reference checks with previous principals where permitted, and direct assessment of how the candidate has handled sensitive information. Your confidentiality agreement applies because the EA is your employee.
Yes. Timezone overlap is agreed before sourcing begins rather than negotiated at offer stage.
Yes. Permanent placements carry a 90-day replacement guarantee.
Send us the workload, the hours needing cover and the access level. We will confirm whether recruitment is the right route before quoting.
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