Chief of Staff

Job Description:

The Chief of Staff is the force multiplier to the Chairman & CEO. You are the operator, builder, integrator, and proxy. You take the commander's broad intent and high-level direction from the CEO and translate them into tactical plans that you then execute, often with little oversight and significant ambiguity.

This is not a strategy role. This is not a deck role. This is a hands-on operating seat in a hardware manufacturing company that makes physical products in a physical factory and ships them to physical customers. You will spend time on the shop floor as often as you spend it in the boardroom. You will jump into sales when a deal is stuck, into marketing when a launch is slipping, into finance when a vendor needs to be renegotiated, into engineering when a project is off-spec, and into HR when a sensitive personnel issue lands on the CEO's desk.

You are the person who walks in, sees a broken process, and quietly fixes it before anyone else notices it was broken.

WHAT THIS IS - AND WHAT IT IS NOT

This role IS:
• An operator's seat in a vertically integrated hardware and manufacturing company
• A builder's role, you will design, deploy, and own systems, SOPs, dashboards, and internal tools
• AI-native, you live in modern AI tools and use them to multiply your output by 10x
• Cross-functional by design, sales, marketing, ops, finance, engineering, HR all flow through this seat
• A confidential information broker who sees everything and discloses nothing without authorization
• A future executive, the path from this seat leads to C-suite roles as VVater scales

This role IS NOT:
• An executive assistant (we have separate EA support)
• A consulting role (we do not need decks, we need execution)
• A pure strategy role (strategy is a small part, operating discipline is the bulk)
• A 9-to-5 (more on that below)
• A seat for someone who needs a defined process to function

WHAT WINNING LOOKS LIKE

First 30 Days:
• Full command of VVater's business, the technology, the customers, the financials, the org chart, the factory floor, and the current strategic priorities
• Trusted relationships established with the executive team and key managers
• CEO's operating cadence (meetings, decisions, action items) actively owned and running cleanly
• Quick wins shipped, small fires put out within the first two weeks

First 90 Days:
• A documented operating system in place for how the executive office runs
• Two to three strategic initiatives owned end-to-end and driving toward measurable outcomes
• AI-powered internal tools, dashboards, or agent workflows built and deployed where they save time
• Decision briefs and weekly executive reporting cadence established
• CEO has reclaimed meaningful time for high-leverage external work, investors, customers, and strategic partnerships

By the End of Year 1:
• VVater operates with measurably better internal coordination, faster decisions, and cleaner execution than it does today
• A documented playbook exists for the company's recurring operating rhythms, board prep, all-hands, planning cycles, and hiring
• AI is meaningfully embedded in how the company runs day-to-day, driven by you
• You are widely recognized inside the company as an extension of the CEO and a credible decision-maker in your own right
• You have demonstrated readiness for a future executive seat (CRO, COO, CSO, or a function-specific leadership role)

THE REALITY OF THIS ROLE

We will be direct, because that is one of our values. This role is intense. The CEO works at a pace that is uncommon, and the Chief of Staff works alongside him. That means early mornings, late nights, and weekends when the work demands it. Critical deals do not pause for calendars. Manufacturing problems do not wait until Monday. Investors call when they call.

We are not asking for someone to grind for the sake of grinding. We are direct, transparent, and respectful of personal time when the operating tempo allows. But this is a foundational seat in a company moving at extraordinary speed, and the right person will be energized by that pace rather than depleted by it.

If you need predictability and rigid working hours, this is not your seat. If you want to be in the room where it happens, and you want to build the room, this is exactly where you want to be.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the rhythm of how the company runs at the executive level, leadership meetings, planning cycles, all-hands, board prep
• Set agendas, drive meeting discipline, capture decisions, assign owners, and follow up until items are closed
• Maintain a real-time view of the CEO's top priorities and ensure his time is allocated against them
• Triage information into and out of the CEO's office, surface what matters, filter what does not
• Step into sales when a deal needs senior coordination, RFP responses, customer escalations, and contract negotiations
• Step into marketing when a launch, campaign, or PR moment needs executive-level coordination
• Step into operations and the factory floor when production, supply chain, or facilities issues need cross-functional unblocking
• Step into finance when cash flow, financing rounds, or vendor negotiations need executive involvement
• Step into HR when sensitive personnel issues, hiring decisions, or organizational design questions arise
• Step into engineering when project coordination, technical reviews, or customer technical escalations need a senior point of contact
• Build and document VVater's operating system, SOPs, policies, escalation paths, and decision frameworks
• Identify process gaps and design lightweight, scalable solutions that do not create bureaucracy
• Partner with functional leaders to standardize how VVater plans, reports, and executes
• Own internal tooling decisions in coordination with IT and operations, CRM, ERP, project management, and communication platforms
• Build internal tools, dashboards, automations, and AI agent workflows that multiply executive output; this is non-negotiable
• Vibe-code prototypes and working internal applications, when a problem can be solved faster with a Friday-afternoon build than a six-week vendor procurement
• Deploy AI agents to automate reporting, document drafting, research, customer outreach, and routine operations wherever it makes sense
• Stay at the bleeding edge of AI tooling and bring the best of it into VVater's stack, Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Lovable, Replit, Zapier MCP, n8n, and whatever ships next
• Treat AI fluency as table stakes; the CEO already operates this way and expects the same from his Chief of Staff
• Serve as primary thought partner to the CEO on strategy, operations, capital allocation, and people decisions
• Prepare decision briefs and synthesized recommendations on complex cross-functional issues
• Pressure-test the CEO's thinking before key decisions; play devil's advocate when the moment calls for it
• Translate the CEO's vision and priorities into clear, actionable plans for the executive team
• Draft executive communications, internal updates, board memos, investor letters, and key external correspondence
• Attend meetings on behalf of the CEO; debrief with clear summaries and recommended actions
• Maintain relationships with key external stakeholders, investors, lenders, legal counsel, and strategic partners, at the CEO's direction
• Manage confidential and sensitive information with absolute discretion; what happens in the CEO's office stays in the CEO's office
• Take ownership of high-priority initiatives that do not yet have a functional home
• Lead investigations into new business opportunities, partnerships, or strategic pivots
• Stand up new functions or workstreams from scratch until they are mature enough to hand off
• Be the catch-all for anything important that is falling through the cracks

Qualifications

• 7+ years of operating experience in a hardware, manufacturing, defense, energy, aerospace, automotive, water, or similarly physical-product industry
• 7+ years of stakeholder management, investor relations, fundraising, listed or private.
• Demonstrated track record of building things, internal tools, systems, processes, products, or businesses. You ship.
• Hands-on fluency with modern AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Lovable, Replit, v0, Bolt, Zapier MCP, n8n, or equivalents). You can vibe-code a working internal application in an afternoon.
• Cross-functional fluency, you have worked across at least three of: operations, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, marketing, finance, engineering, HR
• Strong technical and operational instincts, you can read a P&L, evaluate a BOM, sit in on an engineering review, and walk a shop floor with credibility
• Exceptional written and verbal communication; you can draft an investor letter, a board memo, and a customer email with equal clarity
• Project management discipline, you finish what you start, and you make sure others do too
• Comfort with ambiguity, you do not need a job description to know what to do next
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, a STEM field, or equivalent practical experience. We care about what you have built and shipped, not where you went to school.