Chief of Staff Hires Surge 85% as CEOs Seek a Shadow Who Thinks

Job postings for chief of staff roles have jumped 85 percent since early 2020, according to Indeed, the job posting site. That growth outpaces postings for executive assistants and secretaries, the jobs most closely tied to helping business leaders run their day.

The New York Times traces the trend to two forces at once. Business has grown more complex, and chief executives want a trusted sounding board close at hand. At the same time, the Times notes, everyone wants in on the latest bureaucratic fad. Demand and fashion are pushing in the same direction.

What does a chief of staff actually do?

The IMAX case shows how the job expands. When Richard Gelfond, the chief executive of IMAX, hired his first chief of staff, he went looking for a shadow — someone who could take notes during meetings and let him know what was up next.

That is the entry-level version of the role. Gelfond's chiefs of staff kept the notebook, then moved far beyond it.

"They're really invaluable in helping me think through what I want to say and what I want to accomplish and then how to execute it and helping me execute it," Gelfond told the Times.

The quote maps the job's three layers: thinking, planning, doing. A chief of staff sits inside all three. An executive assistant manages the calendar. A chief of staff, in Gelfond's telling, manages the agenda.

How IMAX outgrew the notebook

IMAX itself explains why the role gained stature. The company expanded from 55 theaters to almost 2,000 across more than 90 countries. Gelfond has kept a chief of staff for 16 years.

Raphael Roesler held the post until June 2025. His recent work shows the ceiling of the job: coordinating with research and development to build the special camera used in Christopher Nolan's summer hit, "The Odyssey."

That is not note-taking. That is a cross-functional project with a hard deadline and a globally watched client — assigned to a staffer whose original brief was to whisper what comes next.

Why the role spread now

The Indeed data anchors the timing. The 85 percent rise in postings dates from early 2020. The comparison group matters: executive assistants and secretaries, whose jobs are also tied to helping business leaders manage their day, grew more slowly over the same period.

Companies are not simply adding support staff. They are adding a specific kind of staff — one who filters, frames and executes rather than schedules. The Times frames the demand plainly: the position is in high demand as business gets more complex.

The fad element carries a caution. Roles that spread because peers have them tend to be defined loosely. Gelfond's 16-year run suggests the durable version of the job earns its keep when it moves from shadow to operator — as Roesler did on the Nolan camera project.

For CEOs weighing the hire, the IMAX record offers the test: if the role stays a notebook, an assistant will do. If it coordinates R&D on a flagship film camera, it is a different job entirely.