Administrative Partner, Software Development Product Management and AI/ML group
Illumina
San Diego, California
Full-Time
$39
RemoteExecutive
Illumina is seeking a high-judgment **Administrative Partner** to act as a force multiplier for leadership teams under two VPs in the Illumina Software Organization. The right person is a **business partner** who makes the VP and leadership teams meaningfully more effective every week.
The Administrative Partner will own the operating rhythm of a fast-moving software organization that ships globally, drives Illumina's informatics revenue, and operates across San Diego and other US locations, the UK, Israel, and Singapore. The role demands independent judgment, a bias for action, and the comfort to coordinate across product, engineering, commercial, finance, legal, and the broader executive team without direct authority.
This role will increasingly **manage digital agents and modern productivity tooling** alongside humans. Comfort using AI to draft, summarize, route, and prep — and judgment about when *not* to — is part of the job.
Who We're Looking For
A partner who:
Treats the team's time, attention, and reputation as a portfolio to be actively managed, not a calendar to be filled.
Reads a room (or a thread) and figures out what matters before being told.
Wants to **organize the team**, not just the executive — pulling forward decisions, clearing blockers, surfacing the things that are about to slip.
Communicates crisply in writing. Edits down. Notices when something is unclear and asks.
Is energized by software, AI tools, and continuous improvement of how work gets done.
Key Responsibilities
Operating Rhythm & Executive Effectiveness
Own the executive's calendar as a strategic instrument: protect deep-work time, kill or delegate low-value meetings, and ensure the right cross-functional partners are in the room when decisions get made.
Drive the operating cadence of the leadership team — staff meetings, skip-levels, quarterly reviews, ELT prep — including agendas, pre-reads, follow-ups, and decision tracking.
Maintain a working understanding of the team's top priorities and active programs so that scheduling and prep decisions reflect what actually matters.
Meeting & Event Execution
Plan and execute high-visibility meetings, off-sites, customer engagements, and team events end-to-end. Set the agenda structure, secure logistics, manage tech, and own the follow-through.
Coordinate distributed meetings across time zones (PT, ET, GMT, IST, SGT) with operational excellence.
Manage content review schedules.
Stakeholder & Communications Partnership
Serve as a trusted liaison to other VPs' offices, C-Level staff, board-adjacent forums, and external partners. Build the network that makes things happen faster.
Triage inbound asks (email, Teams, calls). Respond directly when appropriate, route when not, and surface what the executive actually needs to see.
Draft and edit internal communications at an executive voice and tone.
Tooling, AI, & Continuous Improvement
Evaluate, adopt, and operate modern productivity tools and AI agents that augment the role (calendar/email triage, briefing generation, follow-up tracking, travel automation).
Partner with the executive on improving the operating model itself — not just running today's process but proposing better ones.
Maintain accurate context (org charts, contact lists, project trackers, decision logs) so that new team members ramp without re-discovering basics.
What This Role Is Not
It is not a 1:1 calendar-only role. We expect proactive, cross-team partnership.
It is not an "expense report and travel" role. Those are baseline competencies, not the value.
It is not a passive role. We want someone who pushes back, raises hands, and proposes changes.
Requirements
Typically requires a minimum of 4 - 6 years of administrative or executive-support experience in a mid- to large-sized organization, including direct experience supporting VP-level executives.
Proven track record supporting senior leaders with complex, distributed, global teams.
Strong written communication; able to draft, edit, and ghostwrite at an executive level.
High proficiency with Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and modern collaboration tooling.
Demonstrated experience with calendar management, complex travel, event planning, executive presentation prep, and expense administration.
Comfort experimenting with and adopting new tools (including AI / agentic tools) to improve how the role is performed.
Discretion and trust handling highly confidential information.
Based in San Diego; on-site 4 days/week.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in software organizations or a comparable fast-moving technical environment.
Prior support of leaders driving large change programs (launches, reorganizations, strategic shifts).
Experience working across global, distributed, matrixed teams.
Familiarity with software product management, engineering, or commercial operating cadences.
Demonstrated curiosity and fluency with AI/automation tools applied to executive support work.
Education
Bachelor's degree preferred. High school diploma required.
#LI-HYBRID
The estimated base hourly range for the Administrative Partner, Software Development Product Management and AI/ML group role based in the United States of America is: $39.66 - $59.47. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. The range reflects long‑term growth in the role; therefore, most candidates are hired between the minimum and middle of the range. Placement depends on experience, skills, location, and internal equity. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.