Chief Administrative Officer Job Description Templates
Free chief administrative officer (CAO) job description templates: standard, growing company, nonprofit, and healthcare. With CAO vs COO guidance.
Chief Administrative Officer Job Description Templates
4 templates plus a CAO vs COO decision guide. Download as DOCX.
A chief administrative officer is a senior executive who runs an organization's administrative operations, and the most useful thing a guide can do is help you decide whether you actually need one. The honest answer for most small and growing businesses is no: the role belongs to larger organizations, and what you probably need is a COO, an operations manager, or an office manager. This page gives you both, real CAO templates if you need them, and a clear decision guide if you are not sure.
At FirstHR, we cover the full leadership cluster, from COO and CFO to operations and office roles, so you can match the title to the stage. The four templates below cover the CAO role by setting, plus a decision guide pointing to better-fitting roles when a CAO is overkill. The guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
What Is a Chief Administrative Officer?
A chief administrative officer (CAO) is a senior executive who oversees administrative operations, HR, IT, legal, facilities, and compliance, and turns strategy into smooth daily execution, reporting to the CEO. The role has no dedicated federal job code; it maps to chief executives (SOC 11-1011), or to general and operations managers for less senior versions.
The defining fact for most readers: this is a large-organization role. It is common in Fortune 500 companies, large financial institutions, health systems, government, and big nonprofits, and rare below several hundred employees, which is why the decision guide below matters as much as the templates.
Which CAO? A Quick Disambiguation
Before going further, one clarification: the acronym CAO has several meanings, and they are different jobs. This page is about the Chief Administrative Officer.
CAO Duties and Responsibilities
A chief administrative officer's duties cluster into operations and systems, finance and vendors, policy and compliance, and leadership. The scope is broad and senior, spanning multiple functions across the organization.
A strong posting grounds these in your organization: your functions, your scale, and your priorities. For a structured way to scope any role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Does Your Business Actually Need a CAO?
This is the question most guides skip, and for a small or growing business it is the important one. A dedicated CAO rarely makes sense until an organization is large; before that, the same work is better handled by a more fitting role. Here is roughly which role suits which stage.
Which Template Should You Use?
If a CAO is the right role for your organization, pick the template by your setting and stage. Use this guide to choose the closest fit.
4 Free Chief Administrative Officer Job Description Templates
Download all four as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: organization and role summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, FLSA-exempt status, and how to apply, with an EEO statement. Fill in the brackets and post.
Template 1: Standard CAO
The full canonical version: oversees HR, IT, legal, facilities, and compliance, reporting to the CEO.
Template 2: CAO for a Growing Company
For a company outgrowing informal systems: a first administrative leader who builds structure from scratch.
Template 3: Nonprofit CAO
Adds fundraising operations, grant administration, board support, and tax-exempt compliance.
Template 4: Healthcare CAO
Adds regulatory compliance, quality and risk, payor contracts, and emergency preparedness.
CAO Qualifications and Skills
The role is broad and senior, so employers weigh a track record of running complex operations over any single credential. List must-haves separately from preferences.
| Type | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Education | Bachelor's minimum; master's or MBA often preferred |
| Experience | 7-10+ years of senior, cross-functional leadership |
| Track record | Building and scaling administrative operations |
| Skills | Financial, operational, and people leadership |
| Industry | Healthcare or nonprofit knowledge for those versions |
Keep the requirements job-related and the language neutral, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on protected characteristics. For a fuller framework, the SHRM guide to writing a job description covers the standard sections.
Chief Administrative Officer Pay
CAO pay is high and varies widely by organization size and industry, so benchmark against similar organizations rather than a single figure.
A CAO at a large corporation or health system earns far more than one at a midsize company, so benchmark against organizations of similar size and industry, and budget for executive-level total compensation. The occupation is steady: BLS projects employment of top executives to grow about 4 percent from 2024 to 2034.
FLSA: A CAO Is Exempt
Unlike junior administrative roles, where overtime classification can be genuinely close, a CAO's status is clear.
So a CAO is classified as exempt, with no overtime. For the underlying rules, the exempt vs non-exempt guide and the Fair Labor Standards Act guide explain the tests. This is general information, not legal advice; for roles below the executive level where classification is closer, confirm with counsel.
After You Hire: Onboarding a CAO
Onboarding a senior executive is high-stakes and deserves a deliberate process. Before the start date, send the executive offer letter stating salary, bonus, equity, and exempt status, collect the signed offer and any executive agreements, and complete the standard new hire paperwork, then have them sign confidentiality, conduct, and governance policies.
Strong executive onboarding focuses on context over tasks: a clear first-90-days plan, introductions to the leadership team and board, and a shared understanding of priorities. An org chart helps place the CAO in your leadership structure, and the offer letter template covers the terms.
FirstHR supports the people side of an executive hire: e-signature for the offer letter and policy acknowledgments, document management for executive agreements and signed policies, onboarding workflows, and an HRIS with an org chart placing the CAO under the CEO. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, so connect those providers separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a chief administrative officer do?
A chief administrative officer (CAO) is a senior executive who oversees an organization's administrative operations and turns strategy into smooth daily execution. Reporting to the CEO, the CAO typically owns functions such as HR, IT, legal, facilities, and compliance, builds the systems and processes the organization needs to scale, leads administrative department heads, manages budgets and major contracts, and supports the executive team and board. The exact scope varies by organization: in some companies the CAO is broad and strategic, in others more operationally hands-on. The role is most common in larger organizations, Fortune 500 companies, large financial institutions, health systems, government, and large nonprofits, because that is where administrative complexity justifies a dedicated executive for it. In smaller companies, the same work is usually handled by the COO, an operations manager, or the owner. The templates on this page cover standard, growing-company, nonprofit, and healthcare versions, plus a decision guide for whether you actually need this role.
What is the difference between a CAO and a COO?
They overlap, and in smaller organizations they are usually the same role under the COO label. A chief operating officer (COO) is generally responsible for the core operations of the business, how the main product or service gets produced and delivered, and is often second-in-command to the CEO. A chief administrative officer (CAO) focuses on the administrative and support functions that keep the organization running: HR, IT, legal, facilities, and compliance. In large organizations, both can exist, with the COO owning core operations and the CAO owning administration. In small and midsize companies, splitting them rarely makes sense, so the COO label usually covers both, and a separate CAO does not appear until the organization is large enough that administrative complexity needs its own executive, often past several hundred employees. If you are choosing between the two for a growing company, a COO or operations leader is usually the more fitting first hire.
Does a small business need a chief administrative officer?
Almost never. A CAO is a role for larger organizations, and the function does not economically justify a dedicated executive in a company of 5 to 50 employees, or even up to about 100. At that size, the owner, an office manager, or an operations manager handles the administrative work, and as the company grows, a COO typically takes it on. The role of CAO usually appears only when an organization has grown past roughly 100 employees and informal systems start breaking, and a full CAO is most common in organizations of several hundred or more, in sectors like large tech, finance, healthcare, government, and big nonprofits. If you run a small or growing business and feel you need more administrative leadership, the right hire is almost always a COO, an operations manager, or an office manager, not a CAO. The decision guide and headcount table on this page lay out which role fits at which stage, with links to the more appropriate templates.
Is CAO always chief administrative officer?
No, and this is a common source of confusion. The acronym CAO has several meanings. Chief Administrative Officer is the one described on this page, the executive over administrative operations. But CAO can also mean Chief Accounting Officer, a finance executive who oversees accounting, financial reporting, and controls, which is a very different, finance-specific role. It can also mean Chief Analytics Officer, who leads data and analytics strategy. In government, CAO often refers to a City or County Administrative Officer, a senior public-sector administrator. Because of this overlap, a search for CAO can return a mix of these roles. When writing or searching for a job description, use the full title, chief administrative officer, to be clear about which role you mean, and check that the duties match the administrative-operations role rather than the accounting or analytics ones.
How much does a chief administrative officer make?
CAO pay is high and varies widely by organization size and industry, which makes a single number misleading. There is no dedicated federal wage code for chief administrative officer; the closest benchmark is chief executives, who had a median annual wage of $206,420 in May 2024 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though top executive pay ranges enormously, with the lowest 10 percent under $73,710 and the highest well above the reported range. For a CAO specifically, compensation depends heavily on the size of the organization: a CAO at a large corporation or health system earns far more than one at a midsize company, and total pay often includes substantial bonus and equity. Third-party salary estimates for the role vary a great deal for the same reason. The practical takeaway is to benchmark against organizations of similar size and industry to yours, and to budget for executive-level total compensation rather than anchoring on any single figure.
Is a chief administrative officer exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
A chief administrative officer is almost certainly exempt from overtime. The executive exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act applies when an employee's primary duty is managing the organization or a department, who customarily directs the work of two or more full-time employees, and who has authority to hire and fire or whose recommendations on personnel decisions carry particular weight, all of which describe a CAO. The administrative exemption may also apply. Either way, the role must be paid on a salary basis above the federal threshold of $684 per week ($35,568 per year), and a CAO's compensation exceeds that many times over, so exempt status is not in question for this role. This is unlike junior administrative roles, where classification can be genuinely close. Because the CAO clearly meets both the salary and duties tests, you would classify the position as exempt. This is general information, not legal advice; for borderline roles below the executive level, confirm classification with counsel.
What qualifications does a CAO need?
A chief administrative officer typically needs a bachelor's degree at minimum, often with a master's or MBA preferred, plus extensive senior leadership experience, commonly seven to ten or more years across multiple business functions. Beyond credentials, the role demands proven ability to build and scale administrative operations, strong financial and operational judgment, experience leading and developing department heads, and the executive presence to work with the CEO, executive team, and board. Industry-specific versions add their own requirements: a healthcare CAO needs knowledge of healthcare regulation and compliance, a nonprofit CAO needs experience with grants, governance, and board support. Because the role is broad and senior, employers weigh a track record of running complex operations and leading teams over any single credential. For a growing company hiring its first administrative leader, prioritize someone who has built systems from the ground up during a period of rapid growth, which is a different skill than maintaining established operations at a large organization.
What happens after I hire a chief administrative officer?
Onboarding a senior executive like a CAO is high-stakes and deserves a deliberate process, even though the role itself is uncommon in small organizations. Before the start date, send the executive offer letter stating the salary, bonus, equity, and exempt status, collect the signed offer and any executive agreements, and complete Form I-9 and tax forms, then have them sign confidentiality, conduct, and any governance policies. Because a CAO touches sensitive financial, legal, and personnel matters immediately, set up access carefully and document it. A strong executive onboarding plan focuses less on tasks and more on context: a clear first-90-days plan, introductions to the leadership team and board, and a shared understanding of priorities and decision rights. FirstHR supports the people side of an executive hire: e-signature for the offer letter and policy acknowledgments, document management for executive agreements and signed policies, onboarding workflows, and an HRIS with an org chart placing the CAO in your leadership structure. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, so connect those providers separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.