AI-Native Founder's Associate

ABOUT THE ROLE This is a core operator role sitting directly alongside the CEO of a fast-growing consumer health and e-commerce company. You will own high-impact projects end-to-end across operations, growth, and finance, in a lean, no-bureaucracy environment where your work has immediate, visible effect. It is designed as a genuine launchpad into senior leadership. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Partner directly with the CEO to turn ambiguous, high-stakes problems into structured analyses, decisions, and execution plans. - Support day-to-day operations spanning fulfillment, customer experience, supply chain coordination, and internal workflows. - Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, then design and deploy AI-driven solutions to remove them. - Use AI to scan the market for new products and ingredients, converting signals into a prioritized sourcing pipeline. - Build automated supplier discovery, qualification, and outreach workflows that operate at scale. - Design AI-assisted negotiation workflows covering pricing, minimum order quantities, and contract terms from first contact to signature. - Support growth initiatives across marketing experimentation, performance tracking, and channel analysis. - Develop financial models, dashboards, and reporting tools grounded in real unit economics. - Leverage AI, automation, and low-code platforms to replace manual effort with durable, scalable systems across all functions. - Own ad-hoc, high-priority projects and move fluidly between strategy and hands-on execution. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Degree from a top-tier university in engineering, science, math, business, or a related field. - Hands-on experience building AI-powered systems, automation workflows, or low-code solutions that delivered measurable business outcomes. - Proficiency with automation and AI platforms such as Make, Zapier, n8n, or equivalent APIs. - Experience as a startup operator or in a comparably autonomous, early-stage environment, rather than a primarily large-corporate background. - Strong analytical capability across operations, growth, and finance, including financial modelling and business intelligence tooling. - Experience with operational analysis, process optimization, or supply chain workflows across fulfillment, sourcing, or logistics. - Technical fluency, whether through an engineering or science background or self-taught coding with demonstrated applied output. - Experience conducting market research, supplier discovery, or vendor evaluation and negotiation. - Proven ability to own projects end-to-end from problem definition through execution and measurement. - High agency: you spot problems, take ownership, and execute without waiting for instructions. - Bonus: experience with growth analysis, A/B testing, or marketing analytics; familiarity with e-commerce, direct-to-consumer, or membership models; interest in functional nutrition or consumer products; passion for content creation and storytelling. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary: $120,000 to $140,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role. LOCATION On-site in San Francisco, California, five days per week. This is a high-collaboration role requiring full-time in-office presence.