Operations Lead

About Poesis

Poesis is the AI-native investment manager pioneering a new foundation model for investing in U.S. equities. We're building modular AI systems to predict market movements and outperform legacy managers. This is frontier research with immediate real-world validation. Your work will directly shape investment decisions and portfolio performance.

Location & Workstyle

San Francisco Bay Area (near Stanford). Hybrid: several days on-site per week.

Relocation available.

About The Role

The Operations Lead will be responsible for building and maintaining the internal systems that keep Poesis running smoothly. This is a broad, hands-on role covering HR operations, contract and vendor management, office setup and facilities coordination, and general administrative support. You will work closely with the CEO to execute on operational priorities and ensure the team has what it needs to operate effectively.

Day to day, this role spans onboarding and documentation workflows, benefits coordination, secure handling of sensitive information, organizing legal and vendor documents, and managing the logistical aspects of establishing our first Palo Alto office. This includes coordinating move-in, utilities, furniture, access, network setup, and identifying the tools and processes that improve team productivity. The Operations Lead will be the primary point of contact for all non-technical operations across a small, focused team.

This role is on-site in the Palo Alto area, 10-20 hours a week.

Responsibilities

• Own people ops workflows including onboarding, documentation management, benefits coordination, and basic HR policy drafting.
• Create and maintain clean processes for contracts, NDAs, vendor engagements, and renewals.
• Support the CEO in identifying, planning, and moving into Poesis’s first office.
• Manage office setup logistics: furniture, utilities, networking, security access, vendor sourcing.
• Oversee procurement and budgeting across a small engineering and research team.
• Implement productivity and collaboration tools that improve execution speed.
• Maintain secure handling of sensitive information and internal compliance materials.
• Assist with ad hoc operational projects across finance, travel, scheduling, and vendor research.
• Serve as the operational backbone for a small, senior team.
  
  

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in operations, people ops, admin management, or similar roles in startups or fast-moving environments.
• Demonstrated ability to run operations independently and keep leadership informed.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple threads simultaneously.
• Comfort with HR basics, contract organization, vendor communication, and lightweight compliance.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality with sensitive information.
• On-site in Palo Alto.
  
  

Preferred

• Experience supporting engineering or quantitative research teams.
• Prior exposure to finance, investment firms, or professional services environments.
• Familiarity with productivity and automation tools (Notion, Linear, Airtable, password managers, etc.).
• Track record of improving operational systems in small companies.
  
  

Profile

You’re the person who makes teams more effective by making the work around them cleaner. You enjoy turning ambiguity into process, and you like solving problems by rolling up your sleeves instead of over-planning. You can work closely with a founder, take direction well, and still operate with independence. You’re comfortable being the solo operator who keeps a high-performing technical team running smoothly.

Current legal authorization to work in the US required; visa sponsorship considered later for full-time employees.