6 templates for the small agencies, brokerages, and media teams that hire this role directly: advertising, public relations, ad sales, insurance, SaaS, and the first support hire. Download as DOCX.
The first assistant account executive job description I ever read at a small agency had been copied wholesale from a global network. It listed four levels of internal approval, a matrixed reporting line, and a department that did not exist at a firm of eleven people. The founder had no idea it read that way. He had simply grabbed the first posting that used the right title.
That is the normal case, not the exception. The employers who actually hire assistant account executives are small: independent agencies, boutique public relations firms, regional media sellers, and family-run insurance brokerages. None of them has a talent team, and most of them are writing the posting between two client calls.
So the templates below are built for that reader. Six variants covering the settings where this title genuinely appears, each with the two things generic versions leave out: an honest overtime classification, and pay benchmarked against real federal wage data instead of a number someone guessed. You can find the rest of our hiring documents in the hiring templates library.
TL;DR
An assistant account executive is the entry-level execution seat on a client account team, supporting an account executive who owns the relationship and the revenue. The role is non-exempt in almost every case, because it fails the discretion and independent judgment test. Realistic pay runs about $40,000 to $55,000. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What an Assistant Account Executive Actually Does
An assistant account executive keeps client work moving while a more senior account executive owns the relationship, the scope, and the revenue. The job is execution and follow-through: preparing materials, tracking commitments, drafting communication for approval, and closing the gap between what was agreed in a meeting and what actually ships.
The title is one of the most inflated in professional services. It contains the word executive and carries none of the authority, which is a candidate expectation problem before it is anything else. Say plainly in the posting who this person supports and what they do not decide.
Advertising and marketing agency
The classic reading
The account team support seat: status documents, timelines, trafficking, budgets, and first-draft client communication. No quota, no signing authority, constant deadlines. This is what most candidates assume the title means.
Public relations firm
Media lists and drafts
Builds media lists, drafts pitches and releases for review, pitches lower-tier outlets under supervision, and owns coverage monitoring and reporting. Writing quality matters more here than anywhere else on this list.
Media and advertising sales
Support to a seller
Supports one or more sellers with proposals, order entry, asset chasing, and delivery reporting. Often paid a base plus a support bonus, which changes the overtime math in a way most postings ignore.
Insurance brokerage
Licensing decides the scope
Supports a producer on submissions, renewals, certificates, and service requests. State producer licensing rules, not the job title, set what this person is allowed to say to a client about coverage or price.
Write the Posting for the Setting, Not the Job Title
The same title covers four different jobs. In an agency it is account team support. In public relations it is media lists and drafting. In media sales it is proposals and order entry for a seller. In an insurance brokerage it is submissions and renewals, bounded by state producer licensing rules. A candidate reading a generic posting cannot tell which one you mean, so they self-select on the wrong signals and you interview the wrong people. Name the setting in the first two sentences.
Where the Title Sits on the Account Team
The assistant account executive is the second rung on a five-step account ladder, above the coordinator and directly below the account executive. Naming that ladder in the posting is one of the cheapest ways to attract ambitious junior candidates, and almost no posting does it.
The rungs matter for classification as well as recruiting. Everything below the account executive line is execution work, and execution work is non-exempt. The exemption question only becomes genuinely arguable at the account executive level and above, and even there it turns on duties rather than title.
Title
What the role owns
Usual FLSA status
Reports to
Intern
Learning, on supervised real work
Employee, unless the internship passes the primary beneficiary test
Day-to-day execution on named accounts, first-draft client work
Non-exempt in almost every case
Account executive
Account executive
The client relationship, the scope, and the revenue
Often exempt, but test the duties
Account supervisor or director
Account manager
Retention, growth, and renewal across a book of accounts
Often exempt, but test the duties
Account director
Account director
The account team, the margin, and the senior client relationship
Exempt
Managing director or partner
If you are choosing between two of these rungs, the deciding question is whether the person will be in front of a client in the first month. If yes, hire an assistant account executive. If the work is coordination behind the scenes, the account coordinator templates fit better, and if you need someone to own revenue on the account, use the account executive templates instead.
What Belongs in the Posting
A good posting for this role does four jobs at once: it explains the company, it filters applicants, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Junior postings usually do only the first, which produces volume without fit. Here is the full inventory.
The parts candidates read first
Agency or company type, size, and client mix in two sentences
Who this person supports, by title
How many accounts and how many people on the team
Onsite, hybrid, or remote, stated once and clearly
The parts that filter applicants
Years of experience as a range, not a hard floor
The tools you actually use, named
Any license or certification, marked required or preferred
A writing sample request, because this role writes
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Overtime expectation for busy periods, in plain words
Essential functions written as functions, not adjectives
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
Pay or a good-faith range, hourly and annual
How any bonus is earned and when it is paid
The path to Account Executive and the usual timeline
A named person to apply to and a real deadline
The omission that costs small employers the most is the growth path. A junior candidate choosing between your agency and a larger one is comparing two futures, not two salaries, and a single sentence about when assistants typically move up is worth more than another paragraph of adjectives. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure in more depth.
6 Assistant Account Executive Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file, or copy the one you need. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification note written for that setting, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you have to change.
Download All 6 Assistant Account Executive Job Description Templates
Agency, public relations, media and ad sales, insurance brokerage, SaaS, and small-agency first hire. All in one download.
Agency Assistant AE
Advertising and marketing
The standard account team support role: status, timelines, trafficking, budgets, and client-facing drafts, with the classification note built in.
Public Relations
Media relations support
For a PR firm: media lists, pitch and release drafting, coverage monitoring, reporting, and the escalation judgment a junior needs to have.
Media and Ad Sales
Support to a seller
For broadcast, digital, print, or podcast sales: proposals, order entry, delivery reporting, and the outside-sales exemption warning stated plainly.
Insurance Brokerage
Producer support
For an independent brokerage: submissions, renewals, certificates, and a licensing note that keeps unlicensed staff inside the permitted scope.
SaaS and Technology
Sales support seat
For a software company: account research, demo prep, CRM hygiene, proposals, and why a support seat does not have true on-target earnings.
Small Agency, First Hire
The founder version
The version generic templates skip: the first support hire at a small shop, where the job is half defined and half built by the person who takes it.
Template 1: Assistant Account Executive, Advertising or Marketing Agency
The standard account team support role, with status documents, timelines, trafficking, budget tracking, and client-facing drafts, plus the classification note written for an agency.
Reports to: [Account Executive / Account Supervisor]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible) unless you have tested the
duties against the administrative exemption and documented the result
Compensation: $_ per hour, or $_ per year
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [full-service / brand / performance / creative] agency in
[City, State] with a team of [number]. We work with [number] active clients in
[industries]. This is a hands-on account team, not a layered one, so the person
in this role sits in client meetings from the first month.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Assistant Account Executive supports the Account Executive on a defined set
of client accounts: preparing materials, keeping timelines and budgets current,
drafting client communication for review, and making sure nothing agreed in a
meeting quietly fails to happen.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Support the Account Executive on [number] named accounts
•Write meeting agendas, contact reports, and status documents
•Keep timelines, task lists, and project trackers current in [tool]
•Route creative work through internal review and traffic it to the client
•Prepare campaign performance reports from [analytics platform]
•Track estimates, purchase orders, and invoices against approved budgets
•Draft client emails and decks for Account Executive review before sending
•Coordinate assets, approvals, and vendor deliveries against deadlines
•Attend client calls, capture decisions, and circulate written follow-ups
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Bachelor's degree in advertising, marketing, communications, or equivalent
practical experience
•[0 to 2] years in an agency, in-house marketing team, or internship
•Strong written English; you will draft documents a client reads
•Comfortable with [project management tool], spreadsheets, and [analytics]
•Organized under a shifting set of deadlines with several accounts at once
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Treat this role as non-exempt unless you have genuinely tested it. The
administrative exemption requires a primary duty of office work directly related
to management or general business operations AND the exercise of discretion and
independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. An assistant who
executes decisions made by the Account Executive usually fails the second half,
and paying a salary above the federal floor of $684 per week does not cure that.
Non-exempt means you track hours and pay overtime past 40 in a workweek,
including pitch weeks and evening events. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year], [bonus structure], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one writing sample.
Template 2: Assistant Account Executive, Public Relations
For a public relations firm: media list building, pitch and release drafting, coverage monitoring and reporting, and the escalation judgment a junior on a live account needs to have.
Template 3: Assistant Account Executive, Media and Advertising Sales
For broadcast, digital, print, out of home, or podcast sales: proposals, order entry, delivery reporting, and a plain warning that the outside sales exemption does not cover a support seat in the office.
Assistant Account Executive Job Description (Media and Advertising Sales)
ASSISTANT ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE JOB DESCRIPTION (MEDIA / AD SALES)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Department: Advertising Sales
Reports to: [Account Executive / Sales Manager]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible). The outside sales exemption
does not apply to a support role that works from the office.
Compensation: $_ per year base, plus [bonus / support commission]
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] sells advertising across [broadcast / digital / print / out of
home / podcast] inventory in the [market] market. Our sellers carry [number]
active advertisers each and need a support partner who can run the proposal and
the paperwork without being asked twice.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Assistant Account Executive supports one or more sellers by building
proposals and media plans, entering and maintaining orders, chasing creative
assets, and reporting campaign delivery to advertisers and agencies.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Build proposals, rate cards, and media plans from seller direction
•Enter and maintain orders in [traffic / order management system]
•Chase creative assets, specs, and approvals from advertisers and agencies
•Monitor campaign delivery and flag under-delivery or make-good needs
•Pull post-campaign reports and prepare recap decks
•Maintain accurate account records and pipeline notes in the CRM
•Research prospects and prepare category and competitive summaries
•Coordinate contracts, insertion orders, and billing questions with finance
•Support client entertainment, station events, and trade show logistics
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / bachelor's degree: set your bar]
•[0 to 2] years in media, advertising, or a fast sales support environment
•Confident with spreadsheets, CRM data hygiene, and proposal tools
•Clear phone and email manner with advertisers and agency buyers
•Accuracy under deadline pressure; an order entry error costs real money
CLASSIFICATION AND PAY NOTE
Do not classify this role as exempt outside sales. The outside sales exemption
covers an employee whose primary duty is making sales and who is customarily and
regularly engaged away from the employer's place of business. A support seller
working from the office fails that test, so the role is non-exempt, hourly, and
overtime-eligible. If you pay a nondiscretionary bonus or a support commission,
that money must be included in the regular rate when overtime is calculated for
the period it covers, which raises the overtime rate. Build that into the plan
before you publish it. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, plus [bonus / support commission], [benefits]
For an independent brokerage: submissions, renewals, certificates, and service requests, with a licensing note that keeps unlicensed staff inside the scope your state actually permits.
Line of business: [Commercial P and C / Employee Benefits / Personal Lines]
Reports to: [Account Executive / Producer / Agency Principal]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible) in most support roles
Compensation: $_ per hour, or $_ per year
ABOUT [AGENCY NAME]
[Agency Name] is an independent insurance brokerage in [City, State] with
[number] staff serving [number] commercial clients in [industries]. This role
supports [an Account Executive / a producer] on renewals, submissions, and
day-to-day service for a defined book.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Assistant Account Executive prepares submissions and renewal materials,
processes policy documentation, maintains client records in the agency
management system, and handles routine service requests within the limits of
[his or her] license status.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Prepare submissions, applications, and loss run requests for market
•Assemble renewal packets, proposals, and comparison spreadsheets
•Process endorsements, certificates of insurance, and auto ID cards
•Maintain client files and activity notes in [agency management system]
•Track renewal calendars and start the renewal cycle on schedule
•Check policies and endorsements against what was ordered
•Respond to routine client and carrier service requests
•Support premium audits, claims reporting, and billing follow-up
•Escalate any coverage question to a licensed colleague
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / bachelor's degree: set your bar]
•[State producer license required / must be obtained within ____ days / not
required for this scope of duties: choose one and confirm with your state]
•[0 to 2] years in insurance, financial services, or a detail-heavy support role
•Comfortable with [agency management system] and carrier portals
•Precision with documents; small errors here become coverage disputes
LICENSING AND CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Licensing is the item this posting must get right. States generally require a
producer license for anyone who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance, while
unlicensed staff may perform clerical and administrative work such as processing
documentation, maintaining files, and gathering information, without discussing
coverage, price, or terms. The line differs by state and the penalty falls on the
agency, so confirm the scope with your state department of insurance and write
the license requirement into the posting. On classification, a support role that
processes and prepares rather than advises is normally non-exempt and
overtime-eligible. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Agency Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year], [license study support], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 5: Assistant Account Executive, SaaS or Technology Sales
For a software company: account research, demo preparation, CRM hygiene, proposals, and why a support seat without a quota does not have true on-target earnings. Compare it against the sales development representative templates if you need outbound pipeline instead of deal support.
Compensation: $_ base, plus [bonus tied to sourced or supported deals]
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] builds [product] for [customer type]. We are a team of [number]
with [number] paying customers. Our sellers run full-cycle deals, and this role
is the support seat that keeps their pipeline clean, their demos prepared, and
their deals moving between calls.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Assistant Account Executive supports one or more Account Executives across
the sales cycle: researching accounts, preparing demo environments and
materials, maintaining CRM hygiene, and handling the follow-up that keeps deals
from stalling.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Research target accounts and build account maps for assigned territories
•Prepare demo environments, sample data, and tailored decks before calls
•Join discovery and demo calls, capture notes, and send written follow-ups
•Keep CRM records, next steps, and forecast fields accurate and current
•Draft proposals, order forms, and security questionnaire responses for review
•Coordinate trials, pilots, and technical resources with [solutions engineering]
•Chase signatures, procurement steps, and onboarding handoffs
•Report pipeline movement and stage conversion to [Head of Sales]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Bachelor's degree / equivalent practical experience: set your bar]
•[0 to 2] years in a sales, support, or customer-facing technology role
•Fluent with [CRM] and comfortable learning technical products quickly
•Clear written English for proposals and customer email
•Curiosity about how customers actually use software, not just what they buy
CLASSIFICATION AND PAY NOTE
Software sales support is non-exempt. The inside sales exemption under section
7(i) is written for retail and service establishments and does not fit a
software company, and the outside sales exemption requires customarily and
regularly working away from the employer's place of business, which a support
seat does not. Publish the base clearly and describe any bonus as a bonus rather
than as on-target earnings, because a support role without a quota does not have
true on-target earnings. Nondiscretionary bonuses must be folded into the regular
rate for overtime. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, plus [bonus], [equity], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: Assistant Account Executive, Small Agency First Support Hire
The version generic templates skip entirely: the first account-side hire at a small shop, where half the job is defined and half of it is built by the person who takes it.
Assistant Account Executive Job Description (Small Agency, First Support Hire)
ASSISTANT ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE JOB DESCRIPTION (FIRST SUPPORT HIRE)
[Company Name] is a [number] person [advertising / PR / marketing / creative]
shop in [City, State]. Until now the founder has run every account personally.
This is the first support hire on the account side, which means the job is
partly defined and partly yours to shape in the first year.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Assistant Account Executive takes the recurring, deadline-driven half of
account management off the founder: status documents, client reporting,
timelines, asset chasing, and the written follow-up that currently happens at
nine at night.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own status documents, contact reports, and timelines across all accounts
•Prepare monthly client reports from [analytics / coverage / campaign] data
•Keep the project tracker accurate so nothing is discovered late
•Draft client email and meeting materials for founder review
•Coordinate freelancers, vendors, and asset deliveries against deadlines
•Track budgets, estimates, and invoices, and flag scope creep early
•Build and maintain the reusable templates this agency does not have yet
•Take on one process improvement per quarter as the team grows
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[0 to 3] years of agency, marketing, or client-facing experience
•Strong written English and genuine comfort with client contact
•Self-directed: there is no account team above you to copy from
•Organized enough to build a system, not just work inside one
•Willing to say when something is slipping before it slips
WHY THIS ROLE IS DIFFERENT
At a [number] person shop you sit in every client meeting from week one, you see
how the business is actually priced and won, and the path to Account Executive is
a conversation with the founder rather than a promotion cycle. That is the trade
against a larger firm's starting salary, and it belongs in the posting.
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
A first support hire is non-exempt. Nothing in this role passes the discretion
and independent judgment test on matters of significance, and a small employer
is still fully covered by federal wage and hour law. Set an hourly rate or a
salary with hours tracked, pay overtime past 40 hours in a workweek, and keep
timekeeping records from day one rather than reconstructing them later. Founders
who let a first hire work uncounted evenings create the exact exposure they can
least afford. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year], [bonus], [benefits], [growth path]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on
what you would fix first.
Overtime and Why This Role Is Almost Always Non-Exempt
Classify an assistant account executive as non-exempt unless you have tested the duties and written down why the test came out the other way. The salary is rarely the problem. The duties are, because assisting is by definition carrying out decisions that somebody else made.
The relevant standard is the administrative exemption, set out in Department of Labor Fact Sheet 17C. It requires both a qualifying primary duty and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through each test in plain terms.
The salary floor is $684 a week, and clearing it proves nothing
The federal salary level for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions is $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 a year, with the highly compensated employee threshold at $107,432. The 2024 rule that would have raised those numbers was vacated in federal court and then formally rescinded by the Department of Labor with effect from May 15, 2026, so the older figures are the ones that apply. Almost every assistant account executive salary clears $684 a week, and that is exactly where employers go wrong: the salary level is a floor to get over, not a test you pass. Clearing it makes the exemption possible. The duties test decides whether it is real.
The duties test is where this role fails
The administrative exemption asks two things: is the primary duty office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or its customers, and does the employee exercise discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. An assistant account executive usually clears the first and fails the second. Preparing a proposal that someone else prices, drafting an email that someone else approves, and updating a tracker that reflects someone else’s decisions is execution, not independent judgment on matters of significance. That is not a criticism of the role, it is a description of what makes it an assistant role. Classify it non-exempt, and revisit the question honestly on the day the person starts setting client strategy alone.
Agency hours are hours worked
Pitch weeks, launch mornings, evening events, and the client email answered from a phone at ten at night are all compensable time for a non-exempt employee. Time is generally hours worked when the employer knows or has reason to know the work is being performed, and an unwritten expectation counts. A policy saying overtime must be pre-approved does not let you refuse to pay for overtime that was actually worked; it lets you discipline someone for skipping the approval. The practical answer for a small agency is a real timekeeping habit, an explicit rule about after-hours client contact, and comp planning that assumes busy weeks will exceed forty hours rather than pretending they will not.
A bonus changes the overtime math
If you pay a non-exempt assistant a nondiscretionary bonus, a support commission, or anything promised in advance for hitting a target, that money has to be included in the regular rate used to calculate overtime for the period the bonus covers. It is not a separate pot sitting outside the wage calculation. That means a quarterly bonus retroactively raises the overtime rate for every overtime hour in the quarter, and you owe the difference. Truly discretionary bonuses, decided after the fact with no promise attached, are treated differently. Most agency bonus plans are not discretionary in that sense, whatever the handbook calls them. Decide which one you are running before you publish the number in a posting.
Getting this wrong is expensive in a specific way: unpaid overtime accrues quietly for months and surfaces all at once, usually after the person leaves. Small employers are fully covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the rules on overtime pay do not soften for a twelve-person agency.
Pre-Approval Policies Do Not Erase Overtime
A rule saying overtime needs written approval first is good management and no defense. Under Department of Labor guidance on hours worked, time is compensable when the employer knows or has reason to know the work is being performed, whether or not it was authorized. If your assistant answers client email at night because the culture expects it, that is hours worked. You may discipline someone for skipping the approval step. You may not decline to pay for the hours.
The Intern-to-Assistant Problem
If an unpaid intern is doing the work in these templates, they are almost certainly an employee. Agencies and public relations firms lean on internship pipelines harder than most industries, and the line between a genuine internship and unpaid junior labor gets crossed by accident more often than by design.
For a for-profit employer the question is settled by the primary beneficiary test described in Department of Labor Fact Sheet 71, which weighs factors including the educational tie, academic credit, accommodation of school commitments, whether the intern displaces paid staff, and whether either side expects a paid job at the end. No single factor decides it, and the analysis is flexible.
The practical read for a small agency is simple. If the intern carries live accounts, produces billable deliverables, and covers work a paid assistant would otherwise do, the agency is the primary beneficiary and the intern is an employee owed at least minimum wage and overtime. That is not a reason to stop running internships. It is a reason to pay for the real ones and to hire the assistant properly when the work has outgrown the label.
What to Pay an Assistant Account Executive
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation for assistant account executive, so any figure you see attributed to one is an aggregate of self-reported data rather than a federal statistic. Say that plainly to yourself before you set a range, then benchmark against the nearest official classifications instead.
No Exact Occupation Code Exists: Benchmark to the Nearest Four
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the nearest classifications had 25th percentile annual wages of $47,020 for advertising sales agents, $47,670 for sales representatives of services, $56,260 for public relations specialists, and $58,350 for market research analysts and marketing specialists. Assistant-level pay generally sits between the 10th and 25th percentiles of whichever fits your industry, which puts a realistic band around $40,000 to $55,000 a year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Nearest BLS classification (May 2025)
10th percentile
25th percentile
Median
When it is the right anchor
Advertising sales agents
$35,240
$47,020
$64,820
Media and advertising sales support
Sales representatives of services
$37,980
$47,670
$69,990
B2B services and SaaS deal support
Public relations specialists
$44,110
$56,260
$74,750
Public relations and communications firms
Market research analysts and marketing specialists
$43,390
$58,350
$78,760
Agency-side marketing and analytics support
Secretaries and administrative assistants
$33,280
$38,830
$47,540
Only if the role is genuinely administrative
Two adjustments matter after you pick an anchor. Location moves the number hard: New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco sit well above the national figures, and smaller markets sit below. And because the role is non-exempt, publish an hourly rate alongside the annual one, since that is the number that governs the paycheck. Where pay transparency laws apply, the posted range must be a good-faith one.
Resist the urge to advertise on-target earnings. A support seat without a quota does not have genuine on-target earnings, and borrowing the language from a seller posting sets up a disappointment in month four. If you pay a bonus, describe how it is earned and when it is paid, and read our explanation of what on-target earnings actually means before you use the term at all.
Companies Using FirstHR Onboard 3x Faster
Join hundreds of small businesses who transformed their new hire experience.
Hiring an Assistant Account Executive Without an HR Department
This hire fails in three predictable places at a small firm: the posting is borrowed from a company nothing like yours, the process moves slower than the larger firms competing for the same candidate, and the paperwork arrives in a single overwhelming week. Each has a fix that costs nothing.
The founder is the account director and the HR department in the same afternoon
At a small agency, brokerage, or media shop, the person writing this job description is the founder or the managing director, working between a client call and an invoice question. There is no talent team to hand it to and no internal template library, so the posting gets copied from a holding company job that describes a role with three layers above it. Candidates notice. A twelve-person shop that posts a job written for a global network reads as either confused or dishonest, and the applicants it attracts are the ones who did not read carefully. The fix is a fixed structure you reuse every time, where the only parts you rewrite are the client mix, the tools, the reporting line, and the pay.
You are hiring against firms that pay more and post earlier
Larger agencies and brokerages generally pay more at the assistant level and start recruiting on a calendar you do not run. You will not win on base salary, so compete on the things a small shop genuinely has: client contact from week one, visibility into how the business is priced and won, a real promotion path measured in a conversation rather than a cycle, and a decision you can make in days. Say all of that in the posting instead of holding it back as a pleasant surprise in a second interview. Then move quickly, because speed is one of the few advantages a small employer can actually spend, and the strongest junior candidates are usually in two other processes at the same time.
The paperwork lands the same week the new hire does
A first or second account hire arrives with a stack: signed offer, tax and eligibility forms, handbook acknowledgment, confidentiality and client-data agreements, tool access across five systems, and, in a brokerage, license paperwork with a real deadline attached. At a small shop that all lands in one week on the person who is also running the accounts. FirstHR was built for exactly that squeeze. The AI onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, built-in e-signature handles the offer and the policy acknowledgments, document management keeps licenses and certifications against the employee profile with renewal dates attached, and training modules cover the client-confidentiality and process orientation that would otherwise happen by accident. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so connect payroll separately.
Once someone accepts, the job description becomes the basis for the offer and the first ninety days. The offer letter template handles the next document, and a repeatable onboarding checklist keeps the first week from turning into a scavenger hunt across five systems.
Key Takeaways
An assistant account executive is the entry-level execution seat on a client account team, supporting an account executive who owns the relationship, the scope, and the revenue.
The same title covers four different jobs across advertising agencies, public relations firms, media sales teams, and insurance brokerages, so name the setting in the first two sentences of the posting.
The role is non-exempt in almost every case: it clears the $684 weekly salary floor easily but fails the discretion and independent judgment test that the administrative exemption requires.
Pitch weeks and after-hours client email are compensable hours worked, and a pre-approval policy lets you discipline an employee but never lets you decline to pay.
No BLS occupation matches this title, so benchmark to the nearest classifications: 25th percentile wages ran $47,020 to $58,350 in the May 2025 OEWS, putting a realistic band near $40,000 to $55,000.
An unpaid intern carrying live accounts and billable deliverables fails the primary beneficiary test and is an employee owed minimum wage and overtime.
A junior account hire arrives with an offer to sign, policy acknowledgments to collect, tool access across five systems, and, in a brokerage, a license deadline. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with built-in e-signature, document storage that tracks certifications and renewal dates, and training modules for confidentiality and process orientation. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an assistant account executive do?
An assistant account executive is the entry-level support seat on a client account team. The work is execution: preparing status documents and contact reports, keeping timelines and budgets current, drafting client email and decks for a senior colleague to approve, chasing assets and approvals, building performance or coverage reports, and making sure decisions taken in a meeting actually happen. In a public relations firm the same title builds media lists and drafts pitches. In media and advertising sales it prepares proposals and enters orders for a seller. In an insurance brokerage it prepares submissions and renewals for a producer. What the title never means is owning the client relationship, setting scope, or carrying revenue responsibility. That belongs to the account executive one rung up.
Is an assistant account executive exempt or non-exempt?
Non-exempt in almost every case, which means hourly or salaried with hours tracked, and overtime past forty hours in a workweek. The federal salary floor for the white-collar exemptions is $684 per week, or $35,568 a year, restored after the 2024 rule was vacated in court and formally rescinded effective May 15, 2026. Most assistant salaries clear that floor, and employers then wrongly conclude the role is exempt. The salary level is only half the test. The administrative exemption also requires the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance, and an assistant who prepares work that someone else approves, prices, and decides does not meet it. Classify on the real duties, keep timekeeping records, and revisit the question if the role grows into owning client strategy independently.
How much does an assistant account executive make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation for assistant account executive, so the honest answer is a benchmark rather than a published figure. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the nearest classifications had these 25th percentile annual wages: advertising sales agents $47,020, sales representatives of services $47,670, public relations specialists $56,260, and market research analysts and marketing specialists $58,350. Assistant-level pay generally sits between the 10th and 25th percentiles of whichever classification fits your industry, which puts a realistic band around $40,000 to $55,000 a year, or roughly $19 to $26 an hour, higher in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and lower in smaller markets. Benchmark to your own market and publish a good-faith range where pay transparency rules require one.
What is the difference between an assistant account executive and an account coordinator?
The two overlap heavily and many agencies use them interchangeably, but where both exist the coordinator sits one step lower. A coordinator handles scheduling, trafficking, file hygiene, and internal logistics, and is largely internal-facing. An assistant account executive is expected to be in front of the client: attending calls, drafting the communication that goes out under a senior name, and owning the day-to-day execution on named accounts. The classification answer is the same for both, because both are execution roles that fail the discretion and independent judgment test. If you are hiring for one and not the other, the deciding question is whether this person will be on client calls in the first month. If yes, write the assistant account executive posting. If the job is coordination behind the scenes, use the coordinator posting instead.
What qualifications should an assistant account executive have?
A bachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing, communications, or journalism is the common ask, though practical experience substitutes well and increasingly does. Beyond that, three things matter more than credentials: written English good enough that a client reads a draft without knowing a junior wrote it, organization across several accounts with competing deadlines, and the judgment to escalate a problem early instead of hoping it resolves. Zero to two years of experience is the standard band, and an internship counts. In an insurance brokerage add the state producer license question, which decides what the person may legally discuss with a client. Ask for a writing sample in the posting. It is the single most predictive screen for this role and it takes five minutes to review.
Can an unpaid intern do assistant account executive work?
Almost certainly not. Under the primary beneficiary test the Department of Labor uses for for-profit employers, an unpaid internship is lawful only when the intern is the primary beneficiary of the arrangement, judged on factors including the educational tie, academic credit, whether the internship accommodates academic commitments, whether the intern displaces paid staff, and whether either side expects paid work at the end. An intern who carries live client accounts, produces billable deliverables, and covers work a paid assistant would otherwise do fails that analysis, and the correct conclusion is that they are an employee owed at least minimum wage and overtime. Agencies and public relations firms get audited on this more than most industries. If the work is real, pay for it and hire the assistant properly.
How do I hire an assistant account executive at a small agency?
Run a short fixed sequence and move faster than the larger firms you compete with. Write the posting with the pay range, the classification, the reporting line, and the tools named, and request a writing sample in the application itself. Screen the samples before any call, since writing quality is the strongest early signal. Run one structured interview on organization and client judgment, then a paid short exercise such as drafting a status document from a messy set of notes. Check one reference who saw the candidate handle a deadline. Then decide quickly, because junior candidates rarely wait. Once the offer is accepted, run onboarding as a checklist rather than a pile: signed offer, tax and eligibility forms, handbook and confidentiality acknowledgments, tool access, and timekeeping set up on day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
