Head of Business Operations & Execution Full Time NEW

We are hiring a Head of Business Operations & Execution for a specially funded stealth project at the intersection of AI, education, human capability assessment, and future workforce infrastructure.

This is not a traditional operations, chief of staff, or project management role. This is a high-ownership leadership position for someone who has personally operated a real business, owned results across revenue, cost, team, and delivery, and knows how to turn ambitious strategic judgment into disciplined execution.

You will serve as the critical bridge between strategy and reality, working directly with the founding team to translate high-level decisions into operating systems, team rhythms, measurable outcomes, and organizational learning.

We are building a new AI-native capability platform designed to identify, train, score, and certify the kinds of human abilities that remain valuable as AI reshapes knowledge work. This role is for someone who can build the execution engine behind that vision — not as an advisor, not as a strategist on the sidelines, but as an accountable business operator.

If you have built, scaled, or led a business under uncertainty and want to help turn a bold AI-era education and talent infrastructure company into an operating reality, this role is for you.

What You’ll DoBuild the Company’s Execution System

• Translate strategic priorities into clear business actions, operating cadence, and team workflows
• Convert high-level judgment into executable plans with owners, timelines, metrics, and consequences
• Establish the operating rhythm for a fast-moving early-stage company
• Create systems that keep leadership, product, business, and execution teams aligned
• Prevent strategic decisions from remaining abstract, vague, or disconnected from results

Own Business Results Across Core Operating Lines

• Take responsibility for execution across revenue, cost, team, and delivery
• Build and manage operating dashboards tied to actual business outcomes
• Identify structural bottlenecks in the company’s current execution model
• Ensure teams are focused on the highest-leverage work, not activity for activity’s sake
• Maintain operational discipline under ambiguity, uncertainty, and changing priorities

Design KPI / OKR and Feedback Systems

• Lead the design of KPI / OKR systems that connect strategy to measurable results
• Ensure major decisions can be validated by real data and consequences
• Create a closed-loop feedback system: judgment → execution → outcome → data → iteration
• Develop reporting systems that make progress, failure, and accountability visible
• Translate business performance into clear recommendations for leadership decisions

Build and Manage Frontline Execution

• Help establish the company’s frontline business execution hierarchy
• Manage core business teams and cross-functional execution workflows
• Clarify ownership across business development, operations, product, delivery, and partnerships
• Create lightweight processes that improve execution without slowing down the company
• Recruit, structure, and develop operators as the organization scales

Conduct Business Diagnostics and Post-Mortems

• Within the first 30 days, deliver a business diagnostic report identifying the most important execution flaws and recommended fixes
• Conduct systematic post-mortems on major mistakes, missed targets, or failed initiatives
• Convert wrong decisions into reusable organizational knowledge
• Build a culture where outcomes matter more than explanations
• Help the company learn faster than competitors by making mistakes visible, honest, and useful
  

What We’re Looking For

Strong candidates typically have:

Real Business Operating Experience — Most Critical

• Direct experience managing a business, business unit, or major operating function
• Personal ownership of revenue, cost, team performance, and delivery outcomes
• Experience making decisions with incomplete information and owning the consequences
• Ability to operate under uncertainty without losing execution discipline
• A track record of translating strategy into measurable business results

Founder / COO / GM-Level Judgment

• Experience as a founder, COO, GM, Head of Operations, Business Lead, or early-stage executive
• Ability to diagnose business problems quickly and prioritize the few issues that actually matter
• Strong instinct for what should be built, fixed, killed, delegated, or delayed
• Comfort working directly with founders on high-stakes decisions
• Ability to challenge leadership constructively when execution reality does not match strategic assumptions

Operational Systems Design

• Experience building KPI, OKR, reporting, or business review systems
• Ability to design operating cadence across teams and functions
• Strong understanding of execution loops, accountability systems, and organizational learning
• Ability to create structure without bureaucracy
• Ability to manage both high-level business architecture and practical day-to-day execution

Post-Mortem and Learning Discipline

• Clear experience with wrong decisions, failed initiatives, or difficult business moments
• Ability to explain what happened, what was learned, and what changed afterward
• Low ego, high accountability approach to mistakes
• Preference for truth, evidence, and consequences over politics or narrative protection
• Strong ability to convert failure into repeatable operating improvements

AI and Business Practicality

• Practical understanding of AI as a business tool
• Neither blindly worships AI nor dismisses it
• Comfortable using AI-enabled tools to improve execution, analysis, documentation, and operating leverage
• Strong interest in AI-native education, talent systems, future workforce transformation, or human capability infrastructure
• Ability to judge AI systems by outcomes, not hype

Preferred Backgrounds

• We are especially interested in candidates with experience as:
• Founders who built, operated, or exited a company within the past 1–3 years
• COOs or GMs of early-stage or mid-sized companies
• Operators from B2B SaaS, AI, education technology, workforce technology, marketplaces, or professional learning companies
• Business leads who have owned revenue, cost, hiring, delivery, and customer outcomes
• Startup operators who have worked through both successful and failed strategic decisions
• Executives who can produce a clear business diagnostic within 30 days and identify the company’s most important execution risks

Strong Plus If You Have

• Founder experience with a real operating history, regardless of whether the company succeeded or failed
• Experience scaling an early-stage company from ambiguity into repeatable execution
• Experience leading cross-functional teams across product, business, operations, partnerships, and delivery
• Experience building operating systems for a venture-backed or high-growth company
• Experience in AI, EdTech, workforce development, talent platforms, certification, or professional learning
• Experience negotiating with enterprise, institutional, education, or strategic partners
• Experience managing geographically distributed or remote-first teams
• Experience creating execution systems from scratch rather than inheriting mature corporate processes

Why Join Us?

• Help build the operating system for an ambitious AI-native education and talent infrastructure company
• Work directly with founding leadership on company-defining decisions
• High ownership over business execution, organizational structure, and operating rhythm
• Opportunity to shape a company at the ground floor, before the operating model is fully formed
• Build systems that connect strategy, execution, data, and consequences
• Competitive salary and equity incentives
• Help define how human capability is identified, developed, and valued in the AI era

Position Details

• Location: Silicon Valley, California / Remote initially
• Start Date: Flexible / immediate priority
• Compensation: Competitive salary + equity incentives
• Compensation determined based on experience, operating history, and expected impact
• Role Type: Full-time leadership role
• Company Stage: Early-stage / stealth

Who This Role Is Not For

• Traditional operations managers who have not owned business outcomes
• Chiefs of staff who primarily coordinate but have not operated revenue, cost, team, and delivery
• Consultants or advisors who prefer recommendations over responsibility
• Candidates who only want to design strategy but not execute it
• Candidates who rely on frameworks without being able to show real consequences and results
• Candidates uncomfortable with ambiguity, pressure, or direct accountability
• Candidates who either blindly worship AI or reject it without judging by business outcomes