Founder Associate, Growth & Partnership Operations

Job Description

Job Description

The Problem

Severe mental illness affects over 15 million adults in the United States. Schizophrenia. Schizoaffective disorder. Bipolar I. Treatment-resistant depression. These are the conditions the rest of healthcare has systematically failed to build for.

What makes this problem different from most of healthcare is that the tools to solve it do not exist. The clinical protocols, the measurement science, the precision medicine, the technology to deliver coordinated longitudinal outpatient care for this population. None of it has been built. This is a frontier problem, and it requires frontier science and care delivery to solve.

We are developing all of it. The care, the science, the technology.

Who We Are

Amae Health is a Series B, venture-backed Public Benefit Corporation delivering specialty outpatient care for people with severe mental illness through high-acuity, in-person clinics nationwide.

Our integrated model brings psychiatry, therapy, primary care, dietitians, and community support together under one roof. Leading health systems—including NewYork-Presbyterian, Cedars-Sinai, Mass General Brigham, Novant Health, and CommonSpirit—partner with us to expand this level of care.

Alongside care delivery, we are building the science and technology the field has long lacked—proprietary clinical protocols, novel measurement, and an AI-driven data platform designed for severe mental illness.

The impact: fewer hospitalizations, greater stability, and more people living meaningful lives in their communities.

The Team

We are clinicians, operators, technologists, and scientists who chose Amae because the problem is hard and the stakes are real. We are not interested in incremental improvements to a broken system—we are redefining it.

Our teams work cross-functionally because the work demands it. The psychiatrist informs the product roadmap. Engineers understand the clinical complexity their technology must solve. Researchers sit alongside the operators running the clinics their work measures.

Every function—finance, product, people, growth, technology—exists to serve one goal: better outcomes for the people we care for.

This role reports directly to Sonia Garcia, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer; one of the core architects of Amae's partnerships strategy, payer relationships, and commercial expansion. You will work shoulder-to-shoulder with Sonia and the broader leadership team on the work that drives Amae's growth.

The Role

We're hiring a Founder Associate to work directly with our co-founder, Sonia Garcia, and the growth team. This is a high-ownership role at the center of how Amae grows — from shaping partnerships to helping close them.

You will own key parts of our growth engine: building and driving the partnerships pipeline, driving health plan and health system BD, leading outreach, developing strategic materials, and helping land new health system and value-based care agreements. You'll work across the full commercial lifecycle — from first touch to signed contract — with visibility into every lever of growth.

We're looking for someone early in their career with a high ceiling — sharp, organized, low ego, and motivated by the mission. You may come from consulting, banking, or a fast-moving healthcare or tech company. You don't need to have done all of this before — but you should learn quickly, take ownership, and care about getting it right.

We are open to considering candidates who are based in San Francisco or New York City. This role will require onsite presence in office Monday through Friday.

What You'll Work On

Partnerships & Business Development

• Own the BD pipeline: research prospective health plan and health system partners, identify key contacts, and manage outreach from first touchpoint through to active conversation
• Prepare decks, one-pagers, and data analyses for partnership meetings; translating Amae's model and outcomes into compelling narratives for external audiences
• Coordinate due diligence, follow-up, and relationship management across the pipeline so nothing falls through the cracks
• Track and synthesize market intelligence on payer and health system trends to inform Amae's partnership strategy
• Support brand building and marketing efforts to continue to enhance our brand presence and position

Sales & Revenue Generation

• Support the development and execution of Amae's sales playbook for new market entry
• Identify and qualify new revenue opportunities, from referral partnerships to new VBC contracts, and help move them through the funnel
• Build and manage CRM hygiene and pipeline reporting so the team always has a clear view of what's in motion and what needs attention

Strategic Projects & Special Initiatives

• Act as a thought partner and doer on high-priority projects that don't fit neatly into a box; from new market analysis to grant applications to competitive landscaping
• Help develop and refine Amae's market expansion strategy as the company scales into new geographies and new payer relationships
• Produce crisp, high-quality materials— memos, briefings, presentations — to support Sonia and the executive team

Operations & Coordination

• Keep partnership and BD processes running smoothly: own scheduling, prep, follow-through, and accountability across all active work streams
• Work cross-functionally with clinical, operations, and finance teams to ensure commercial commitments are grounded in operational reality

What You'll Have

• 3–6 years of experience in consulting, banking, growth, BD, or a fast-moving healthcare/tech environment; you've owned real work and driven things forward
• Clear, strong communicator — you write well, think in structure, and show up prepared and thoughtful in conversations
• Highly organized and reliable — you keep track of details, follow-ups, and next steps across multiple workstreams without things slipping
• Quick to learn, strong judgment — you ramp fast, ask good questions, and don't need a lot of repetition
• High ownership and follow-through — you close loops, hit deadlines, and take responsibility for outcomes
• High EQ, low ego — you're easy to work with, self-aware, and collaborative across teams and levels
• Mission-driven — you care about SMI and want your work to matter
• Comfortable with variety and pace — you can move between projects, stakeholders, and problems without losing momentum
• Adaptable — when priorities shift, you adjust quickly and keep going

Nice to Have

• Prior exposure to healthcare BD, payer relationships, partner operations, or value-based care contracts
• Experience with CRM tools (HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar) and pipeline management
• Comfort with quantitative analysis, financial models, outcomes data, or similar
• An existing network in healthcare, health plans, or behavioral health

Why This Role Matters

Founder Associate roles at mission-driven startups are some of the most formative experiences available to early-career professionals. You will see the full picture of how a healthcare company grows; what it actually takes to close a health plan partnership, why some deals stall and others accelerate, how a commercial strategy gets built and rebuilt in real time.

You will work directly with a co-founder who has built and closed some of the most innovative health system and VBC agreements in behavioral health. You will have access to a leadership team with decades of experience across healthcare, technology, and operations. And you will do it all in the service of patients who genuinely need someone in their corner.

For the right person, this is a career-defining opportunity. We expect you to grow into more senior roles at Amae as the company scales; and we're committed to supporting that growth.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation includes a base salary of $100,000 - $165,000 (based on experience) plus equity ownership, giving you a meaningful stake in Amae's growth. Total compensation includes comprehensive medical/dental/vision, unlimited PTO, parental leave, and programs built around employee well-being. We'll share specifics during the interview process.

Amae Health is building the care platform, the precision medicine, and the frontier science that severe mental illness has never had. If you want to be part of creating something this hard and this important, something that has never been done, we'd like to talk.

What We Value

We center care in all we do. Empathy is not a brand value. It's how we make clinical decisions, build products, and treat each other.

We challenge convention. The existing system is the problem. We question it, we test alternatives, and we move with urgency when something works.

We take the work seriously, not ourselves. High standards and humanity are not in tension. We hold a hard bar for quality while leaving room for humor and levity.

Your job isn't done until the job is done. We close gaps, we follow through, and we don't hide behind titles or org charts.

We win together and fail together. We own outcomes as a team. We learn fast. We don't do blame.

We hustle with humility. Speed matters. So does integrity. We assume best intent and stay grounded in the mission.