How to hire a senior staff assistant

How to hire a senior staff assistant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior staff assistant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior staff assistant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior staff assistant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior staff assistant do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior staff assistant you need to hire. Certain senior staff assistant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a senior staff assistant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a senior staff assistant that fits the bill.

   Here's a comparison of senior staff assistant salaries for various roles:

   Type of Senior Staff Assistant	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Staff Assistant	Secretaries and administrative assistants perform clerical and administrative duties. They organize files, prepare documents, schedule appointments, and support other staff.	$18-41

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Data Entry
   • Patient Care
   • Provides Administrative Support
   • Payroll
   • Meeting Minutes
   • Financial Statements
   • Purchase Orders
   • HR
   • Event Planning
   • Telephone Calls
   • PowerPoint
   • Routine Correspondence
   • Scheduling Appointments
   • Calendar Management

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage and coordinate complex internal and external meetings and/or events via videoconferencing, WebEx and teleconference calls.
   • Prepare bi-weekly timekeeping for payroll processing and maintain PTO tracking.
   • Serve as HIPAA liaison for office.
   • Ensure compliance of HIPAA regulations and confidentiality practices are being follow.
   • Provide technical oversight and AV/Teleconference support for meetings.
   • Operate audio visual equipment and PowerPoint presentations at meetings.

   More senior staff assistant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior staff assistant job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A senior staff assistant can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, senior staff assistants' average salary in nebraska is 57% less than in district of columbia.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior staff assistants 56% less than senior-level senior staff assistants.
   • Certifications. A senior staff assistant with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a senior staff assistant's salary.

   Average senior staff assistant salary

   $57,821yearly

   $27.80 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior staff assistant salary

   $38,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 22, 2025

   Average senior staff assistant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	District of Columbia	$83,166	$40
   2	California	$80,432	$39
   3	New York	$70,390	$34
   4	Massachusetts	$65,225	$31
   5	Texas	$63,368	$30
   6	Pennsylvania	$63,251	$30
   7	Michigan	$56,990	$27
   8	Florida	$52,652	$25
   9	Arizona	$52,631	$25
   10	Indiana	$48,499	$23
   11	North Carolina	$48,374	$23
   12	Oklahoma	$41,237	$20
   13	Nebraska	$35,820	$17

   Average senior staff assistant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$116,953	$56.23	66
   2	Deloitte	$79,614	$38.28	59
   3	Brigham and Women's Hospital	$76,420	$36.74	32
   4	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	$74,481	$35.81	8
   5	Wells Fargo	$73,973	$35.56	8
   6	U H Y Advisors	$71,836	$34.54	23
   7	Crowe	$69,239	$33.29	3
   8	University at Albany	$68,703	$33.03	1
   9	Gilbane Building Company	$67,863	$32.63	9
   10	Toyota Research Institute	$66,380	$31.91
   11	Hexagon Lincoln	$65,969	$31.72
   12	State University of New York College at Cortland	$65,382	$31.43	1
   13	Rochester Institute of Technology	$64,615	$31.06	4
   14	Washington State University	$63,340	$30.45
   15	DENTSPLY IH	$62,999	$30.29
   16	Children's National Medical Center	$61,762	$29.69	7
   17	Sodexo Management, Inc.	$60,857	$29.26	11
   18	NANA	$60,319	$29.00	4
   19	SUNY Empire State College	$59,239	$28.48
   20	Complete Staffing Solutions	$58,660	$28.20

4. Writing a senior staff assistant job description

   A senior staff assistant job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a senior staff assistant job description:

   Senior staff assistant job description example

   Minimum qualifications:
   
   + Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
   
   + 8 years of experience in software development, and with data structures/algorithms.
   
   + 5 years of experience with design and architecture; and testing/launching software products.
   
   + 7 years of experience with machine learning algorithms and tools (e.g., TensorFlow), artificial intelligence, deep learning and/or natural language processing.
   
   Preferred qualifications:
   
   + Master's degree or PhD in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
   
   + 5 years of experience in a technical leadership role leading project teams and setting technical direction.
   
   + 3 years of experience working in a complex, matrixed organization involving cross-functional, and/or cross-business projects.
   
   Google's software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one another. Our products need to handle information at massive scale, and extend well beyond web search. We're looking for engineers who bring fresh ideas from all areas, including information retrieval, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking and data storage, security, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, UI design and mobile; the list goes on and is growing every day. As a software engineer, you will work on a specific project critical to Google's needs with opportunities to switch teams and projects as you and our fast-paced business grow and evolve. We need our engineers to be versatile, display leadership qualities and be enthusiastic to take on new problems across the full-stack as we continue to push technology forward.
   
   With your technical expertise you will manage project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables. You will design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance software solutions.
   
   Google is an engineering company at heart. We hire people with a broad set of technical skills who are ready to take on some of technology's greatest challenges and make an impact on users around the world. At Google, engineers not only revolutionize search, they routinely work on scalability and storage solutions, large-scale applications and entirely new platforms for developers around the world. From Google Ads to Chrome, Android to YouTube, social to local, Google engineers are changing the world one technological achievement after another.
   
   + Provide technical leadership on high-impact projects.
   
   + Influence and coach a distributed team of engineers.
   
   + Facilitate alignment and clarity across teams on goals, outcomes, and timelines.
   
   + Manage project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables.
   
   + Design, develop, test, deploy, maintain, and enhance large scale software solutions.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior staff assistant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior staff assistants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior staff assistants who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior staff assistant job on Zippia to find and recruit senior staff assistant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit senior staff assistants, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior staff assistant

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior staff assistant candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new senior staff assistant. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a senior staff assistant?