Chief of Staff, North America

About the role

Reports to: Chris Berry, Managing Director, North America. Location: Los Angeles or Chicago, Hybrid. Zen’s mission is to fully staff classrooms so all children can thrive and educators avoid burnout. We combine a product that schools and educators love with a hard‑working, education‑obsessed team. Since launching in North America we’ve been growing 4x year‑over‑year, creating hard, complex, urgent problems across the business. We’re looking for a Chief of Staff, North America to work closely with the leadership team as we scale. The role exists because the work is outrunning the org chart; you’ll own the operating cadence, drive key cross‑functional projects, and jump on problems that lack a clear owner.

Responsibilities

• Partnering with leadership to refine strategy and priorities
• Driving projects across Growth, Operations, Customer Success, Finance, and People
• Supporting new market launches and commercial rollout plans
• Building the operating cadence, dashboards, and decision‑making systems needed to scale
• Turning ambiguous problems into clear plans, owners, and outcomes
• Jumping into urgent business problems when there is no obvious owner yet

Requirements

• 5 to 10 years of experience in consulting, investing, high‑growth startups, strategy, operations, revenue, marketplaces, or another demanding generalist environment
• Demonstrated record of exceptional performance and ability to operate well in demanding environments
• Relentless drive to deliver outcomes
• Endless curiosity
• Strong analytical judgment
• Clear, logical, compelling communication
• High ownership and low ego
• Comfort with ambiguity
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders
• Excitement to move between strategy and hands‑on execution
• Genuine care for the mission, not just the title
• No one at Zen is above the work; the role requires willingness to tackle the most important problems in the business
• Fast‑moving environment with shifting priorities; comfort working with imperfect information; high ownership expected; excitement for fast‑paced, ambiguous work; not suited for those who prefer narrow, predictable lanes

Growth and progression

Choose your own adventure, then earn it. You’ll work across the organization and be well positioned to move into a senior role over time — potentially in operations, strategy, commercial, general management, or another area. The next step will be determined by business need and your ability to step into it.

Benefits

• Equity compensation
• 18 Paid Vacation Days and 10 Paid Company Holidays
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with no match
• Sick leave
• Paid biweekly

Pay

USD $120,000 to $160,000 base, depending on experience, plus equity.