Chief of Staff

Key Responsibilities

• Own the rhythm of how the company runs at the executive level, leadership meetings, planning cycles, all-hands, board prep
• Set agendas, drive meeting discipline, capture decisions, assign owners, and follow up until items are closed
• Maintain a real-time view of the CEO's top priorities and ensure his time is allocated against them
• Triage information into and out of the CEO's office, surface what matters, filter what does not
• Step into sales when a deal needs senior coordination, RFP responses, customer escalations, and contract negotiations
• Step into marketing when a launch, campaign, or PR moment needs executive-level coordination
• Step into operations and the factory floor when production, supply chain, or facilities issues need cross-functional unblocking
• Step into finance when cash flow, financing rounds, or vendor negotiations need executive involvement
• Step into HR when sensitive personnel issues, hiring decisions, or organizational design questions arise
• Step into engineering when project coordination, technical reviews, or customer technical escalations need a senior point of contact
• Build and document VVater's operating system, SOPs, policies, escalation paths, and decision frameworks
• Identify process gaps and design lightweight, scalable solutions that do not create bureaucracy
• Partner with functional leaders to standardize how VVater plans, reports, and executes
• Own internal tooling decisions in coordination with IT and operations, CRM, ERP, project management, and communication platforms
• Build internal tools, dashboards, automations, and AI agent workflows that multiply executive output; this is non-negotiable
• Vibe-code prototypes and working internal applications, when a problem can be solved faster with a Friday-afternoon build than a six-week vendor procurement
• Deploy AI agents to automate reporting, document drafting, research, customer outreach, and routine operations wherever it makes sense
• Treat AI fluency as table stakes; the CEO already operates this way and expects the same from his Chief of Staff
• Serve as primary thought partner to the CEO on strategy, operations, capital allocation, and people decisions
• Prepare decision briefs and synthesized recommendations on complex cross-functional issues
• Pressure-test the CEO's thinking before key decisions; play devil's advocate when the moment calls for it
• Translate the CEO's vision and priorities into clear, actionable plans for the executive team
• Draft executive communications, internal updates, board memos, investor letters, and key external correspondence
• Attend meetings on behalf of the CEO; debrief with clear summaries and recommended actions
• Manage confidential and sensitive information with absolute discretion; what happens in the CEO's office stays in the CEO's office
• Take ownership of high-priority initiatives that do not yet have a functional home
• Lead investigations into new business opportunities, partnerships, or strategic pivots
• Stand up new functions or workstreams from scratch until they are mature enough to hand off
• Be the catch-all for anything important that is falling through the cracks

Qualifications

• 7+ years of operating experience in a hardware, manufacturing, defense, energy, aerospace, automotive, water, or similarly physical-product industry
• 7+ years of stakeholder management, investor relations, fundraising, listed or private
• Demonstrated track record of building things, internal tools, systems, processes, products, or businesses. You ship
• Hands-on fluency with modern AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Lovable, Replit, v0, Bolt, Zapier MCP, n8n, or equivalents). You can vibe-code a working internal application in an afternoon
• Cross-functional fluency, you have worked across at least three of: operations, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, marketing, finance, engineering, HR
• Strong technical and operational instincts, you can read a P&L, evaluate a BOM, sit in on an engineering review, and walk a shop floor with credibility
• Exceptional written and verbal communication; you can draft an investor letter, a board memo, and a customer email with equal clarity
• Project management discipline, you finish what you start, and you make sure others do too
• Comfort with ambiguity, you do not need a job description to know what to do next
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, a STEM field, or equivalent practical experience. We care about what you have built and shipped, not where you went to school.