Right Hand

**Location:** Edmonton, AB (hybrid) **Hours:** 5–10/week, flexible **Compensation:** $25/hour, negotiable — contractor **The Short and the Long...** I’m a scientist and clinician with research spanning sustainability, environment and health. I think in systems — how things connect, how small interventions cascade, how structure creates resilience or fragility. My work crosses disciplines and jurisdictions. My life does too. Right now I’m carrying more than one person can carry well. I’m mid\-career in a demanding training program. I run a small company. I manage properties. I’m coordinating care for aging parents. I’m a parent. I have research I refuse to let die. And I have a life I’d like to actually live, not just administer. I need someone who can step into the complexity, learn the landscape, and help me keep it coherent. This position enables something larger than administration. The work behind the scenes — the filing, the scheduling, the follow\-through — is what makes the front lines possible: bringing a family to the other side of seizures, restoring a kid's consciousness, cracking the hardest cases in medicine on any given day, and continuing to bridge human health and the natural world. The admin is the yin to the yang of making a difference. The compensation is modest, but this is the beginning of something that grows. **What This Isn’t** This is not a job where someone hands you a task list every morning. There are 300 items on the task list right now, and that doesn't cover everything. Your job is to see that list as a garden. Some things need planting — new systems, new contacts, new processes that don't exist yet. Some things need watering — ongoing relationships, recurring deadlines, work that dies if no one tends it. Some things need harvesting — deliverables that are ready but sitting unfinished. And some things are weeds — distractions, redundancies, obligations that should have been pruned weeks ago. You own the garden. You triage, track, flag what's due, identify what's blocked, and bring me the decisions that only I can make. Everything else, you drive. **What This Is** You’d be the person who sees the whole board. Communications come in from lawyers, accountants, healthcare teams, academic collaborators, institutions, contractors, and people I care about. You sort them. You figure out which ones need a decision, which need a response, and which need follow\-through. For the decisions, you assemble the context — the background, the stakes, the options — so I can think clearly and act, not dig through inboxes and reconstruct timelines. You’d manage calendars, coordinate travel, track deadlines, maintain filing systems, draft correspondence, and plan the occasional weekend that reminds me I’m a human being. If you have bookkeeping skills, you’d also handle payroll, account reconciliation, and expense tracking at a higher rate. The scope is broad. The depth is real. You will learn things — about trust administration, clinical research, regulatory compliance, property management, care coordination, and probably about yourself. I’ll teach you what you need to know. What I can’t teach is the willingness to learn it. **Who This Might Be For** You’re someone who’s drawn to complexity rather than overwhelmed by it. You’ve worked somewhere — a clinic, a lab, a legal office, a small organization, a family business — where holding multiple realities at once was just Tuesday. You didn’t just survive it. You were good at it. You care about doing things right. Not perfectly — right. You know the difference between a corner that can be cut and one that can’t. You notice when something is falling through a crack before it hits the floor. You value autonomy. This role runs on trust, not supervision. You set your own hours. You work asynchronously. We meet twice a week, we check in regularly. What matters is that when something needs doing, it gets done — and when something needs deciding, I see it before it’s urgent. You understand that discretion isn’t a policy. It’s a practice. This role touches sensitive legal, financial, medical, intellectual, and personal matters. **The Work** * Communications triage: sort, draft, respond, follow up * Decision support: assemble background, present options, execute follow\-through * Scheduling and logistics: calendars, travel, appointments * Professional coordination: lawyers, accountants, healthcare providers, academic collaborators * Deadline tracking: compliance, filings, registrations, submissions, renewals * Filing and documentation: maintain a digital system across all domains * Personal planning: help me protect and use my downtime well * *If qualified:* bookkeeping — payroll, reconciliation, expense tracking, CRA remittances (higher rate) **What Matters** * Administrative experience (2\+ years, any context involving real complexity) * Clear, professional writing * Self\-direction * Digital fluency: spreadsheets, cloud tools, email, calendars * Integrity **What Helps** * Bookkeeping experience * Legal, medical, or research admin background * Familiarity with CRA * A second language * Experience holding multiple professionals aligned toward a shared outcome A confidentiality agreement is required. Full scope is shared with shortlisted candidates after an initial conversation. **To apply:** Send a cover letter and resume. In your cover letter, tell me about a time you had to hold something complex together — and what you learned about what matters most when everything matters. If you have bookkeeping experience, describe it briefly.