Head of Operations / COO

About Tenkara

Tenkara builds AI agents that run back-office operations for American manufacturers: sourcing and qualifying raw materials, procurement, freight, order tracking, and compliance documents. Customers are process manufacturers in food, supplements, cosmetics, chemicals, beverage, and OTC. Tenkara raised a $7M seed round led by True Ventures and is a small team based in San Francisco.

About the Role

Tenkara is hiring a Head of Operations / COO to work directly with the founders and own how the business runs day to day, from customer delivery to the supplier and freight network behind it. This is an on-site role in San Francisco, 5 days a week.

What You'll Do

• Own operations end to end: customer onboarding, order execution, supplier and carrier coordination, and issue resolution.
• Build the processes, metrics, and playbooks that let a small team serve many more manufacturers.
• Work with engineering to decide what the AI agents should automate next, based on what you see in daily operations.
• Run the supplier and freight side of the business, including vendor relationships and service quality.
• Hire and lead the operations team as the company grows.
• Partner with the founders on planning, finance, and company priorities.

What We're Looking For

• Senior operations leadership experience (Head of Operations, COO, VP or Director of Operations, or similar), ideally at an early-stage startup.
• Hands-on background in supply chain, procurement, logistics, or manufacturing operations.
• Comfortable being very hands-on in a small team and building from zero.
• Strong with numbers, systems, and process design.
• Able to work on-site in San Francisco 5 days a week (relocation within the US is fine).

Nice to Have

• Experience at a CPG, food, supplements, cosmetics, or chemicals manufacturer, or at a company selling to them.
• Experience in freight brokerage or 3PL operations.
• Past founder or early startup employee.