The OpportunityYou'll be the strategic and operational right hand to the founding team, reporting directly to the COO - sitting at the intersection of planning, metrics-driven accountability, and large-scale execution. This role is for a strategy and operations athlete who moves fluidly between building the framework and getting their hands dirty to ship it.
The role spans four critical functions: running the company's management cadence, driving performance culture through data and truth-telling, program-managing major operational rollouts, and owning select partnership relationships. If you've ever been the person in the room who sees the system everyone else is inside of - this is your seat.
This role is perfect for someone who is:
- Energized by operational rigor and the challenge of scaling a hardware-meets-software business
- A systems thinker who can define KPIs, own dashboards, and run a weekly review cadence without being told to
- Comfortable doing the analytical work themselves - not just managing others to do it
What We're Looking ForThese are not hard-and-fast requirements - we care more about ownership, execution, and judgment than checking every box.
- 5-10 years total experience, with at least 2-3 years of direct exposure to manufacturing, supply chain, or industrial operations
- Has worked inside a company actively going through scale - not just a mature, stable operation
- Ideally has served as the right hand to a GM, COO, or CEO before - knows how to operate in that leverage role
- Fluency in unit economics, COGS structure, and contribution margin analysis
- Experience running S&OP or analogous cross-functional planning processes
- Understands factory economics: yield, throughput, capacity utilization, capex payback
- Proven ability to structure ambiguous problems into a rigorous framework and drive to a decision
- Experience designing and implementing leading and lagging indicator systems
- Strong executive presence - equally effective with operators on the floor and founders in the boardroom
Ideal BackgroundThe best candidates tend to come from one of four places:
- Ops or Industrial Engineering at a scaled hardware/manufacturing company - Thinks in systems and constraints. Apple, Tesla, SpaceX, Medtronic, or similar. Has seen what rigorous operational excellence actually looks like at scale.
- Military (engineering or logistics) 12 MBA 12 ops - Execution discipline, cross-functional influence without authority, and genuine comfort with ambiguity.
- Management consulting 12 ops or manufacturing role - Gets strategy and structure, and has been tested in implementation. Work product should show operational results, not just decks.
- Private equity or portfolio ops - Wired to find COGS and efficiency opportunities, drive metrics discipline, and manage toward milestones. Blend of financial and operational instincts.
What we're not looking for: pure finance backgrounds without operational exposure, or generalist chiefs of staff whose work has been primarily coordination.
Primary Responsibilities- Management Cadence: Develop and operate the company's executive operating rhythm - planning cycles, reviews, and decision-making forums
- Metrics & Truth-Telling: Apolitically drive performance culture through data, dashboards, and honest analysis - with both numbers and anecdotes
- Program Management: Lead large-scale operational rollouts, cross-functional initiatives, and crisis response
- Partnership Ownership: Own select partner and supplier relationships end-to-end
- Operating Model: Build and maintain the company operating model; own make/buy/partner analysis and investment cases
- Systems Design: Design and run company-wide and operations-wide KPI systems from definition through weekly and monthly review cadence
What You'll Get- Competitive cash compensation + equity
- Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
- $15K relocation bonus if needed
- Daily collaboration with the founding team and senior leadership
- Free custom insoles (of course...)
