Private & Family Office Jobs & Careers

Oplu recruits executive and administrative support for Private and Family Offices. These are high-trust hires where judgement, boundaries, and calm delivery under pressure matter more than job titles. A single misrouted email, a loose conversation, or unclear diary authority creates exposure. We run discreet, controlled searches. Often these are replacement hires, so confidentiality and staged disclosure are built into the process, not treated as a courtesy. In private offices, CVs converge quickly. What decides outcomes is operating style and how the person behaves when three things collide at once.

Executive & administrative support recruitment agency

Oplu places Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants, Family Office Assistants, and Chiefs of Staff who safeguard time, information flow, and decision cadence in high-trust private settings. We scope by decision flow and privacy exposure, not job titles.

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Roles in this category

• Chief of Staff
• Executive Assistant
• Personal Assistant
• Family Office Assistant
• Private PA for Founders

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EA vs PA vs Chief of Staff vs Family Office Assistant: which hire is right?

This is not a seniority ladder. It is a choice between four centres of gravity.

Executive Assistant (EA)

Hire an EA when the priority is executive workflow, diary control, senior stakeholders, and controlled communication. The EA protects the principal's time and information flow.
See: Executive Assistant recruitment

Personal Assistant (PA)

Hire a PA when the priority is lifestyle logistics, travel, personal administration, and household coordination. The PA protects continuity across the principal's private life.
See: Personal Assistant recruitment

Family Office Assistant

Hire a Family Office Assistant when the priority is admin cadence, documentation hygiene, meeting packs, renewals, and coordination across advisers and entities.
See: Family Office Assistant recruitment

Chief of Staff

Hire a Chief of Staff when priorities, advisers, and workstreams need coordination through one operating lead with real access and defined authority.
See: Chief of Staff recruitment

Private PA for Founders & Entrepreneurs

Hire a Private PA when the principal is building at speed, has no family office or household team, and needs personal support from scratch. The candidate must thrive with ambiguity and build systems alongside daily logistics.
See: Private PA for Founders recruitment

Role	Focus	Typical mandate	Key difference
Executive Assistant	Executive workflow, diary, stakeholders	Principal's professional rhythm	Gatekeeps time and information
Personal Assistant	Lifestyle, travel, household coordination	Principal's personal continuity	Manages the private sphere
Family Office Assistant	Admin cadence, documentation, coordination	Office-wide follow-through	Serves the office, not one person
Chief of Staff	Delivery, decision cadence, cross-stakeholder	Operating rhythm across workstreams	Needs authority to close decisions
Private PA for Founders	Personal logistics, travel, admin, vendors	Founder's private continuity	Builds infrastructure from scratch

Splitting EA and PA responsibilities often improves boundaries, but adds handovers and increases the cost of coverage. In a family office, the diary often becomes the information gate, so scope is a privacy decision as much as an admin one. A PA or EA who has grown with a principal from the early days often ends up in a Chief of Staff seat by default. They are loyal, trusted, and know everything. But a seasoned EA is not a Chief of Staff. The skills are different. When the office outgrows informal coordination, the gap becomes visible fast. Senior support staff salaries in UHNW environments decouple from market rates over time. A PA who has spent five years with a principal, knows every preference, holds every relationship, and manages a complex private life is worth far more to that employer than the open market would pay. This creates a dislocation: the candidate earns well above market but knows a move would likely mean a significant drop until they prove their value again. Unlike corporate career paths, there is no predictable ladder. Salary follows contribution, proximity, and trust, not tenure or title.

Who we support

• UHNW principals and family members hiring executive support
• Family Office Directors and Managers building or restructuring support teams
• Chiefs of Staff and COOs adding capacity without widening disclosure
• Heads of operations and administration replacing or upgrading key roles
• Trusted advisers coordinating the hire on behalf of the principal

How to scope the hire

Before briefing, define:

• Responsibilities: diary and inbox, travel, expenses, meeting preparation, document handling, supplier coordination, project support
• Coverage: locations and residences, travel cadence, time zones, weekend expectations, backup cover
• Authority: who can instruct, what can be actioned without approval, spend limits, access to sensitive information
• Reporting line: who sets weekly priorities, who reviews performance, who resolves conflicts
• Boundaries: what is office-only, household-only, and shared, including how information moves between circles

If two people can instruct without coordinating, the hire will fail. It is never the candidate's fault.

What great looks like

• Discretion under pressure: handling sensitive content without over-sharing
• Triage instincts: what gets escalated, what gets solved quietly, what can wait
• Stakeholder handling: calm with advisers and family matters, respectful with staff and vendors
• Writing and clarity: concise emails, accurate notes, clean briefing documents
• Process hygiene: reliable records, clean handovers, controlled access

The best hires we have placed are the ones the principal stopped thinking about. Not because they disappeared, but because nothing fell through.

How Oplu works

We scope these hires by separating office execution, household operations, and lifestyle support. Then we define authority, coverage, and confidentiality in each lane. We assess behaviour in practical scenarios, not just credentials. We test diary and inbox triage under conflicting demands, travel disruption response, sensitive information handling, and vendor pressure. Referencing is handled discreetly and in the right sequence, validating judgement calls and boundary handling, not just tasks performed.

Next steps

• Explore roles by category: Executive & Administrative Support, Private & Family Office Management, Investment Roles
• Hiring now: start a confidential search with a scoped brief and a discreet process
• Candidates: explore current opportunities and submit your CV on our job board
• Back to: Family Office Recruitment, Family Office Hire Hub

Further reading

• What Does a Personal Assistant Do?
• Chief of Staff Responsibilities: How to Excel in the Role
• What Exactly Is a Personal or Executive Assistant?

Oplu recruits private office operational leaders for UHNW families when the issue is governance, standards, and accountability, not capacity. This is where a mis-hire creates noise, delays, and privacy risk. Family office management recruitment is the right lever when you need one operator to run the rhythm, hold standards, and protect the principal's time, without widening disclosure. You are usually ready to hire private family office management roles when the principal becomes the default escalation point for routine decisions, you are expanding across locations and standards start to drift, there is friction between office and household on authority and access, multiple stakeholders pull in different directions with no clear owner, or the office is scaling, restructuring, or inheriting complexity and needs tighter governance. In high-trust environments, hires fail less from capability and more from unclear mandate. If nobody can explain who owns what, the best person you hire will spend their first six months in meetings that should have happened before they arrived.

Private & Family Office Management Recruitment Agency

We recruit private office operational leaders for UHNW families when the issue is governance, standards, and accountability. This is a small world, and visibility creates risk. We keep searches tight and processes discreet, often handling replacement hires where confidentiality and staged disclosure are essential.

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Role links

• Family Office Director/Manager - Accountable operator for operating rhythm, stakeholder governance and cross-functional oversight.
• Director of Operations - Delivery across projects, vendors, residences and multi-jurisdiction coordination.
• Director of Administration - Tighter documentation, controls and continuity across team changes.
• Chief of Staff - Priorities into execution and office operations as complexity rises.

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Family Office Director/Manager vs Director of Operations vs Director of Administration: which hire is right?

Family Office Director/Manager

The top operating seat when delegated authority is real. Owns operating rhythm, stakeholder governance and cross-functional oversight across entities, advisers and residences. Reports directly to principal or board. Typically ranges from £90,000-£160,000+ in the UK.

Director of Operations

Delivery is the focus. Turns decisions into outcomes and enforces standards under time pressure. Own supplier performance, budget discipline, multi-stream project delivery and escalation. Works under the Director or Principal. Typically ranges from £80,000-£140,000 in the UK.

Director of Administration

Controls and continuity through clean workflows. Makes confidentiality workable at speed through disciplined access, documentation standards and vendor management. Supports the Director or Principal. Typically ranges from £70,000-£120,000 in the UK.

Role	Focus	Key mandate	Reports to
Family Office Director/Manager	Governance, standards, principal protection	Operating system, adviser coordination, entity controls	Principal/board
Director of Operations	Delivery and outcomes	Supplier performance, budget discipline, multi-site execution	Director/Principal
Director of Administration	Controls and continuity	Documentation, access discipline, workflow standards	Director/Principal

What to use to decide: Family Office Director/Manager owns the whole operating system and sits closest to the principal. Director of Operations owns delivery and vendor management when scope is clear. Director of Administration owns documentation and access when the focus is confidentiality and workflow structure. The strongest operators we have placed barely register in the first week. By week four, everyone wonders how the office ran without them.

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Who we support

• Families with multiple entities, advisers and residences needing tighter governance.
• Offices restructuring or transitioning to new leadership.
• Principals scaling operations and needing cleaner decision trails.
• Trustees managing complexity across geographies and stakeholders.
• Family offices where confidentiality or privacy risk is elevated.

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How to scope the hire

Before briefing:

• Outcomes: What should the office look like in 90 and 180 days?
• Authority: What can they decide? Approve? Escalate? With what thresholds?
• Interfaces: Who reports to them? Who do they answer to? How do they interface with advisers, household and finance?
• Scope boundaries: What sits within the role? What sits outside?
• Standards: What does good look like in approvals, documentation and service consistency across locations?

Most privacy failures we see are process failures. They happen because access was never locked down properly, not because someone intended to leak. Informal delegation and loose access habits create avoidable exposure.

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What great looks like

• A light governance cadence with real follow-through.
• Stakeholder handling across principal, family and advisers without noise.
• Consistent standards across locations, vendors and sensitive communications.
• Tight information handling and clean access discipline.
• Cultural alignment that fits your home and your reputation.

Most adviser friction we see starts with unclear authority. If the adviser does not know who can instruct them, every conversation becomes political.

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How Oplu works

We begin by pressure-testing the mandate, authority map and reporting lines. This is where ambiguity hides. Once the brief is locked, we run a controlled search with direct outreach to candidates who fit your governance model and disclosure risk. We keep shortlists deliberately small. We stage referencing to protect privacy. And we support the transition with clear onboarding and early-stage performance coaching to reduce churn. This hire often replaces someone in role, so we manage timeline and disclosure carefully.

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Next steps

• Hiring now: share a scoped brief covering authority, reporting line, entities in scope and success measures for 90 days.
• Shortlist: expect a small, decision-ready shortlist with role-fit and expectations aligned.
• Related roles: explore Chief of Staff recruitment or Executive & Administrative Support roles if you are also building admin leadership.
• Candidates: explore current opportunities and submit your CV on our job board
• Back to: Family Office Recruitment, Family Office Hire Hub

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Further reading

• Family Office Recruitment: Process, Roles & Hiring Trends
• Family Office Services Explained: What is a Family Office?

Oplu recruits investment talent for Private and Family Offices. We hire for mandate clarity, delegated authority, and decision discipline, not "more ideas". In high-trust environments, investment decisions sit beside family dynamics, liquidity events, reputational risk, and adviser politics. We have seen excellent investment professionals fail because the family never agreed what "risk" meant. The mandate conversation is harder than the hire. Do it first. We pressure-test scope and decision rights before approaching the market.

Private & Family Office Investment Recruitment Agency

We run controlled, private recruitment for families and trustees who need one accountable owner for investment decisions, implementation, or decision support. Shortlists stay deliberately tight to protect confidentiality and accelerate decisions. You are usually ready for an investment hire when:

• Decisions recur across public markets, private markets, or direct deals and consistency matters.
• Delegated authority is needed to move at pace without constant principal involvement.
• Governance needs to mature: risk limits, a decision log, and a predictable cadence.
• Advisers provide inputs, but nobody internally owns the full picture end-to-end.

Which investment hire is right

We separate options by accountability, not seniority. The right choice depends on whether you need mandate ownership and governance, day-to-day execution and monitoring, or research, pack quality and decision support.

Role	Focus	Typical mandate	Key difference
Chief Investment Officer	Governance, mandate, risk limits, reporting narrative	End-to-end investment system, stakeholder alignment	Owns the whole picture
Investment / Portfolio Manager	Implementation, monitoring, rebalancing, reporting	Portfolio rhythm and control between meetings	Owns execution and rhythm
Investment Analyst	Pack quality, evidence, reconciliation, decision support	Research, committee materials, data integrity	Owns pack integrity, not decisions
Outsourced advisory	External input and framework	Breadth without internal headcount	Advice, not accountability

A simple selection rule:

• Choose a CIO for mandate ownership, governance cadence, risk posture, and stakeholder alignment.
• Choose an Investment / Portfolio Manager for implementation rhythm, monitoring, liquidity planning, and decision-ready reporting.
• Add an Analyst when decision-makers exist but capacity is thin, and pack quality is becoming a risk.
• Use outsourced advisory when headcount is unrealistic, but be explicit about where accountability sits internally.

Chief Investment Officer (CIO)

A CIO owns the investment system end-to-end: mandate, portfolio construction, manager oversight, risk management, reporting cadence, and stakeholder alignment. See: Chief Investment Officer (CIO)

Investment / Portfolio Manager

This role owns the portfolio between meetings: implementation, monitoring, rebalancing, liquidity rhythm, and exception handling within delegated limits. See: Investment / Portfolio Manager

Analyst

This role owns pack integrity and decision support: version discipline, reconciled numbers, evidence tracking, and clear written materials that make decisions easier. See: Family Office Analyst

Related roles

• Chief of Staff
• Family Office Director/Manager

What to include in the brief

Most families write a job description before they write the mandate. The mandate is what keeps stakeholders aligned when markets move. Include, at minimum:

• Objectives, time horizon, and liquidity needs, including known future cash calls.
• Current asset mix, concentration risks, and any legacy positions that are politically sensitive.
• Operating model: in-house, external managers, banks, OCIO, direct deals, or hybrid.
• Stakeholders and reporting: principal, trustees, board, CFO, and advisers.
• Delegated authority, sign-offs, escalation triggers, and any investment committee cadence.
• Constraints: jurisdictions, tax coordination points, and privacy boundaries.

Mandate checklist

• Who decides, and who can act without approval.
• What "risk" means for this family, including drawdown and liquidity tolerance.
• What stays in-house vs what is delegated to banks, managers, or advisers.
• How performance will be assessed, and over what time period.
• What information is private by default, and who is allowed access.
• What a "good week" looks like, including reporting rhythm and meeting cadence.

Common hiring mistakes

The failure modes are structural:

• Hiring a CIO when the real gap is execution, then judging them on day-to-day output.
• Hiring an Investment / Portfolio Manager without delegated authority, then blaming them for slow progress.
• Over-indexing on brand names and under-testing discretion and private office mindset.
• Widening the process before the mandate is settled, increasing privacy risk and stakeholder noise.
• Leaving decision style implicit (informal in practice, formal on paper), then watching friction build.

How Oplu works

Oplu runs controlled, private recruitment for families who need execution control and predictable reporting without widening the circle. Many of these searches are discreet, including replacement situations. We begin with scoping. We pressure-test your mandate and authority before the search begins. This protects both the family and the candidate. Vague mandates create friction that even strong hires cannot overcome. Our search is deliberately private. We use direct outreach and controlled disclosure. We do not advertise widely or create broadcast processes for investment roles. Confidentiality and governance clarity matter more than volume. Your shortlist will be deliberately small, built for comparison and decision-making. We typically present 3-5 candidates with written profiles covering role-fit, working pattern, compensation expectations, and notice period.

Next steps

• Explore roles by category: Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Investment / Portfolio Manager, Analyst
• Hiring now: start a confidential search with a scoped brief and a discreet process
• Candidates: explore current opportunities and submit your CV on our job board
• Back to: Family Office Recruitment, Family Office Hire Hub

Further reading

• Family Office Services Explained: What is a Family Office?