Operations Manager

Operant is seeking an Operations Manager to support our revenue operations, business operations, and office operations in San Francisco’s Jackson Square.

The Operations Manager will provide administrative, logistical, and project-related support via partnering with executives on customer-related activities, product and team initiatives, as well as manage existing vendors for HR, accounting, and IT, interfacing with a range of vendor teams and ops systems to ensure the smooth and timely execution of day to day company operations ranging from employee onboarding to making sure vendor invoices are paid. Operant is a fast-paced Series A startup in ultra-growth mode, in the heart of AI & Cybersecurity, in an office in the middle of San Francisco’s AI tech boom, and this role requires a hybrid presence with 2 days per week at our SF headquarters in Jackson Square.

The ideal candidate will be an experienced operations manager who is proactive, organized, and able to handle a variety of tasks ranging from: recruiting support, being a point person with our HR and accounting firms, interacting with the office’s landlord and building management, and ongoing scheduling and comms on behalf of the founders when requested (including shuffling of schedules based on prioritization between customers, investors, partners, and vendors), and other tasks that need to be handled with professionalism and discretion, sometimes at a moment’s notice. This individual must work on-site in our San Francisco office one to two days per week and more often when projects/customers/events require it. Experience in a similar role at a successful Series A/B startup is a strong plus.

Who We Are:

We’re in business to secure the modern world. Operant’s unique technology solves several of the biggest problems in modern cybersecurity - including the most urgent and critical use cases in securing Agentic AI, MCP, and Gen AI applications - all with an implementation that is so easy that many customers don’t believe that it could possibly be true until they see it in action. As a leader in the AI and MCP security space, we have already been named as a vendor in four Gartner reports in the last year, including the iconic Market Guide for AI Trust, Risk, and Security Management (AI TRiSM), How to Secure Custom-Built Agents, Gartner’s market guide for API Protection and Kubernetes Runtime Security as well as Forrester’s Zero Trust landscape.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Operations Support
   • Manage relationships with HR, accounting, and other people/business ops vendors to push forward the timely and accurate handling of a range of daily business tasks including employee onboarding, password resets, periodic reviews of healthcare and company benefits (in partnership with our HR vendor), processing of invoices, payments, and receipts (in partnership with the accounting vendor), approval of team expense reports on behalf of the c-team, and similar
   • Operate with efficiency, clarity, detail orientation, and a sense of urgency, with the ability to reprioritize to get the most urgent tasks done by important deadlines without dropping secondary priorities.
   • Be available during business hours to coordinate last-minute meetings, escort visitors, and navigate changing needs.
   • Handle expense reports, budgets, and other financial documentation with discretion and accuracy.
2. Communication and Meeting Coordination:
   
   • Arrange and coordinate important executive meetings, including preparing agendas, taking minutes, and following up on action items.
   • Organize logistics for board meetings, including managing complex scheduling requirements for participants.
   • Serve as a gracious and diplomatic point of contact between the executive team and internal/external stakeholders.
   • Handle sensitive and confidential information and operate with a high degree of discretion at all times.
   • Communicate on behalf of the executive team when asked to serve as a point of contact in an email thread or phone call
   • Achieve successful outcomes with clear, strategic, on-time communication and follow-up, as well as leading with diplomatic influence in situations in which multiple vendors or stakeholders are balancing competing objectives or priorities
3. Office Operations:
   • Serve as a point of contact for building management in San Francisco
   • Make sure janitorial services are functioning properly and that the office is maintained in clean, professional condition by the building’s staff while periodically organizing clutter, re-ordering missing supplies, coordinating deliveries to the office, and similar tasks
   • Inform the executive team of issues relating to the physical space and coordinate with vendors to fix any issues.
   • Coordinate IT needs for important hybrid meetings, making sure that the physical office is connected and the spaces are appropriate for important meetings
   • Greet guests, employees, customers, and vendors, serving as a representative of the company and brand
4. Cultural Ambassador:
   • Embody and promote company values and culture.
   • Facilitate team-building activities and company events such as all-hands and team offsites.
   • Help maintain positive relationships with key partners and stakeholders.

Required Experience:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree.
• Experience: 5+ years of experience in an operations manager role (or equivalent level) in a demanding and fast-paced startup environment
• Experience interfacing with 3rd party operations vendors across HR, accounting, IT, payments, and similar
• Experience managing communications for senior executives on sensitive and confidential topics including handling customer information under strict MNDA
• Experience working in cybersecurity or AI startups a major plus, Series A/B stage a major plus
• Investor-relations, user-relations, and PR experience a plus, vendor management experience required

Required Skills:

• Skills:
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Strong attention to detail and sense or urgency in keeping sensitive and critical projects moving to achieve strict deadlines
• Experience working on cross-functional teams with the ability to communicate effectively through written and verbal communications, including synchronous interactions with others.
• Excellent documentation skills, with extreme comfort using spreadsheets, Google docs, and similar software to create plans, dossiers, itineraries, travel budget breakdowns, expense reports, event planning project management tracks, and similar.
• Experience with Rippling, Bench and/or similar vendors.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced hybrid environment and handle stress appropriately
• Ability to solve practical problems and be sufficiently adaptable to handle dynamic situations with little advance notice.
• Additional Requirements:
• Flexibility to work outside standard business hours when necessary.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally (up to 10-15% of the time).
• Ability to maintain composure under pressure.
• Cultural awareness and sensitivity, given the global nature of the company.
• Personal Attributes:
• High level of integrity and ethical standards.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Sense of personal responsibility for the outcomes of your work and how it affects end users/customers and your team-mates
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build long-term relationships with stakeholders.
• Excellent ability to work remotely and stay focused and on task with proactive communication focused on outcomes, even as priorities shift

Work Hours & Location:

• This role requires a physical presence in our San Francisco Jackson Square office on average 2 days per week, with remote work the rest of the time.
• This position will require you to be available during core PST business hours (9am-6pm) and to adjust schedules occasionally based on customer and business needs including business travel, client meeting/call schedules, and team off-sites.

What you can expect from us:

Operant is an equal opportunity workplace where you will find an open and supportive environment to share your thoughts and ideas, while enabling you to springboard your career in a high-growth, high-energy startup.

Benefits:

• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• Life insurance
• 401k
• Paid holidays
• Generous PTO
• Stock options