Operations Associate (New York City Metropolitan Area)

Operations Associate

Location: New York, NY

Work Style: In-office, co-located with founders, product, and engineering

Team: Operations

Reports To: COO / Co-Founder

Focus: Operations, Finance, HR, Automation, AI-First Internal Systems

About Our Client

Our client is building an AI-native platform for capital markets.

Across the OTC derivatives trade lifecycle — from trade capture through confirmations, reconciliation, lifecycle events, and settlement — many workflows still rely on email, PDFs, manual processes, and fragmented systems.

Our client is replacing those legacy workflows with intelligent automation. Their platform ingests trade data in multiple formats, standardizes it in real time, and helps counterparties align at the point of trade. The result is faster processing, fewer errors, and fully auditable digital workflows.

The company is backed by top-tier venture investors and based in New York. The team includes engineers, quants, and capital markets experts working directly with some of the most sophisticated participants in financial services.

About the Role

Our client is hiring an Operations Associate to give the founders meaningful operating leverage as the company scales.

This is a junior, high-ownership generalist role that sits across operations, HR, finance, corporate administration, investor support, compliance, and internal systems. Because the company is still early, these functions have not yet been split into separate teams. This role will touch all of them.

What makes this role different is the automation-first mindset. Our client is an AI-native company, and they want operations to run the same way. The right person will look at every workflow and ask: “How can this be automated, simplified, or turned into a system?”

This is an ideal opportunity for someone early in their career — for example, someone from investment banking, consulting, professional services, or startup operations — who wants to become a COO, Chief of Staff, or startup operator over time.

What You’ll Do

Automation & AI-First Operations

• Treat every workflow as something that can be improved, automated, or systematized
• Design new processes to run automatically from day one
• Use AI tools, scripts, and no-code or low-code platforms to reduce manual work
• Partner with engineering to build internal tools and automations across finance, operations, HR, and compliance
• Continuously improve the operating systems that help the company scale without unnecessary headcount

Finance, Billing & Administration

• Own the monthly billing cycle end-to-end, including invoicing, sales tax, reconciliations, collections, and new-client setup
• Manage invoice payments, expenses, cashflow tracking, and vendor coordination
• Keep bank, card, billing, and finance systems reconciled
• Build automated reporting and reconciliation workflows where possible
• Support finance operations as the company scales

People & HR Operations

• Support hiring and onboarding end-to-end
• Coordinate recruiters, interview processes, contracts, payroll, equity grants, and new-hire setup
• Manage people operations across PEO, 401(k), visas, compliance, and year-end review workflows
• Streamline and automate recurring HR and people processes over time

Corporate, Compliance & Investor Support

• Manage the corporate calendar, including filings, tax items, R&D studies, 409A updates, insurance, and recurring deadlines
• Keep the cap table accurate and help maintain clean tracking systems
• Support the founders with quarterly investor reporting, board preparation, and fundraising administration
• Manage data sharing, follow-up tracking, and recurring reporting workflows
• Own client due diligence and security questionnaires, working closely with the CTO to gather accurate responses and supporting evidence
• Coordinate recurring compliance reviews, including SOC 2, evidence collection, auditor requests, and certification timelines

Office, Events & Special Projects

• Keep the office and team running smoothly across space, suppliers, travel, meetings, and day-to-day operations
• Plan client events, team events, and internal gatherings
• Field website inbound and route requests appropriately
• Take on special projects for the founders
• Act as connective tissue across a small, fast-moving team

What We’re Looking For

• 1–3 years of experience in a demanding, detail-intensive environment such as investment banking, consulting, professional services, finance, or startup operations
• Strong organization and project management skills
• Ability to manage many workstreams at once without letting details slip
• Automation-first mindset and excitement about using AI, scripts, and no-code or low-code tools to improve workflows
• Strong initiative and ownership in ambiguous environments
• Willingness to roll up your sleeves across administrative, operational, financial, and strategic work
• Comfort with billing, invoices, expenses, cashflow, and basic corporate finance
• Sound judgment and discretion when handling sensitive company, investor, employee, and financial information
• Strong communication skills and a service mindset toward teammates, customers, investors, and founders
• Interest in learning how a high-growth startup is built from the inside

Bonus Experience

• Experience building or using tools to automate finance, HR, compliance, or operations workflows
• Experience with AI tools, scripting, no-code, low-code, or internal automation platforms
• Investment banking, consulting, or startup operations background
• Exposure to HR, finance, legal, compliance, client due diligence, or information security processes
• Interest in capital markets, fintech, financial infrastructure, or enterprise software
• Experience completing client or vendor due diligence questionnaires
• Experience coordinating audits, certifications, SOC 2, or similar compliance processes

Why This Opportunity

• Join an early-stage AI-native capital markets company backed by top-tier investors
• Work directly with the COO, CEO, CTO, and founding team
• Get broad exposure across finance, HR, operations, compliance, investor relations, and internal systems
• Build the operating foundation of the company from the ground up
• Learn how to scale a startup from inside the room where decisions are made
• Use AI and automation to build an operations function that scales through better systems, not more manual work
• Step into a launchpad role for someone who wants to become a COO, Chief of Staff, or senior startup operator

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is an early-career operator who is exceptionally organized, highly proactive, and excited to build systems.

They are comfortable doing unglamorous work reliably while also identifying opportunities to automate, improve, and scale company operations. They can handle details, protect sensitive information, communicate clearly, and move quickly without needing a ready-made playbook.

This person wants to grow into a serious startup operator, not stay on a traditional finance or professional services path.