Chief of Staff CV example and writing guide for 2026

Use a reverse-chronological CV of about two pages, unless the breadth of a long senior career genuinely calls for more space. Put your contact details first, followed by a short personal statement, a compact skills section, employment history, education and relevant additional information. Use clean headings, ordinary fonts and restrained formatting so the evidence is easy to scan.

Your personal statement should define the kind of problems you solve rather than relying on broad claims such as "trusted partner". In the experience section, explain what changed because of your work. Name the size of a programme, budget or stakeholder group only when you can defend the figure. Tailor the skills section to the vacancy and support its most important terms with evidence elsewhere in the CV.

Keep education brief once your career history carries more weight. Additional sections should earn their space: include them when they demonstrate relevant sector knowledge, governance exposure, communication ability or public service. Remove routine duties, old detail and generic adjectives before shrinking the type or margins.

Chief of Staff experience can look oddly intangible on a CV. Meetings, briefings and executive conversations matter, but the reader needs to see the decision, programme or organisational result behind them. Build each bullet around four parts: the problem or priority, what you did, the scale and the outcome.

A useful pattern is: action verb + work owned + operating context + measured result. For example: "Reworked the quarterly planning process across six functions, assigning owners to 42 priorities and raising on-time completion from 68% to 91%." The metric tells the reader what changed; the rest shows how the candidate affected it.

Weak: "Helped the CEO with strategic projects."

Stronger: "Took ownership of a five-workstream growth programme for the CEO, resolving 17 overdue decisions and bringing delivery back within the agreed quarter."

Weak: "Improved communication between departments."

Stronger: "Introduced a weekly decision forum for eight department heads, cutting unresolved cross-team dependencies from 31 to 12 in ten weeks."

Weak: "Responsible for board reporting."

Stronger: "Redesigned the monthly board pack around 14 agreed measures, reducing preparation time by 25 hours per cycle and cutting late submissions by 60%."

Choose verbs that show the nature of your contribution: advised, aligned, brokered, challenged, coordinated, delegated, diagnosed, influenced, negotiated, prioritised, resolved, shaped and sponsored. "Led" is useful, but repeating it in every bullet hides the range of the job.

Give enough context to make each number meaningful. A percentage without a baseline can mislead, while an unqualified saving may invite awkward questions. State whether a figure refers to annual savings, forecast revenue, budget under oversight, headcount, delivery time or stakeholder reach. Use only numbers you can explain and defend.

Separate personally delivered results from collective outcomes. "Enabled", "coordinated" or "advised" may be more accurate than claiming sole ownership of an executive team's work. Where information is confidential, describe the type and scale of the issue rather than naming the organisation, transaction or individual. This produces a credible CV and gives you evidence you can discuss consistently at interview.

List education in reverse-chronological order, giving the qualification, subject, institution and completion year. Experienced candidates rarely need module lists or lengthy descriptions. Recent graduates or career changers can add one or two relevant projects, but should explain the analytical, organisational or communication work completed rather than padding the section with course content.

There is no named general-purpose Chief of Staff qualification in the supplied evidence, so avoid presenting an unrelated course as a standard route into the profession. Short training can still appear under professional development when it is recent, relevant to the vacancy and backed by an accurate provider name and date.

Requirements can vary sharply by employer. For one IOPC Chief of Staff vacancy, the stated criteria included significant senior management experience in a complex organisation with comparable scope, responsibilities, budget and resources. That vacancy also required Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff or Chief Advisor experience involving expert advice to a Director General or Chief Executive. Experience with executive teams and Boards was required there, although prior service as an executive was not. Liaison with government ministers, Council Leaders and senior community leaders was another vacancy-specific requirement. The advertised role also required SC level clearance.

Treat these as requirements for that IOPC vacancy, not universal entry rules. For any application, copy the employer's exact wording where it truthfully matches your background, place the strongest evidence in employment history and keep unsupported credentials off the CV. Optional supporting evidence may include work with cross-functional projects, budgets, senior stakeholders and business operations.