Overview
Surprise HR, Inc. is looking for a Chief of Staff to our CEO — the position is available now and is full-time, located in our Raleigh, NC office. The Chief of Staff will drive strategic alignment and accountability across the company through operational program management and management of strategic initiatives based on the priorities of the CEO.
Your impact
Do you aspire to be a CEO someday? Are you an experienced operator who wants to work cross-functionally with the span of an entire company as your next professional chapter? If so, you might be a good fit for the Chief of Staff role at Surprise HR. The expectation is that this is a 24 month position, and you will graduate into a senior operating role at the company afterwards.
Our CEO is looking for someone who can be a sounding board to him, a confidante, and a partner in helping Surprise HR scale as the company grows from 50 people to over 1,000 in the coming years, while serving hundreds of companies in America and abroad. You will be his right hand person and get exposure to all aspects of running a company of Surprise HR's size and scale. The right candidate will have built significant teams, run planning processes, set business direction, and worn many hats in the scaling of their organization.
They should be familiar working with executives (or be an executive themselves), and be able to fill in for Albert when he needs to be in two places at the same time. They should be comfortable giving a speech to 500+ people, managing a high touch executive meeting, and engaging with external partners such as CEOs of public companies and investors managing billions of dollars. Communication skills of all types should be a core strength, as well as ability to build strong relationships based on empathy plus mutual respect. Superb organization skills, with very high attention to detail, are mandatory.
For reference, you're encouraged to read the
First Round Review article about the Chief of Staff role. As Chief of Staff, you'll be a key member of the CEO team. The CEO team at Surprise HR is a small three person team, made up of the CEO, EA to the CEO, and Chief of Staff. The CEO of Surprise HR believes in empowering his team to own their respective projects and programs, and the CEO team as a collective ensures the CEO job is done in the best way possible. You will be a key stakeholder in this process. This includes:
- Ad-Hoc Projects: The CEO role at a start-up includes gap filling for special projects across the organization. As a force multiplier of the CEO, you will be involved in a variety of projects spanning all parts of Surprise HR. These projects could include location-based campaigns, internal initiatives, new market explorations, leading a team for a few months before a new leader is found, and more. Basically the things that are most important and/or requiring the CEOs time will be the things you are involved with. In addition, you will frequently collaborate with other Surprise HR teams focused on Investor Relations, Business Development, FP&A, Corporate Development, and more.
- Facilitate Surprise HR Executive Team: Provide a bridge for smooth communication between the the CEO and execs across Surprise HR, enabling effective cross-functional collaboration across the organization. Provide decision support through research, analysis of information, and clear presentation of considerations. Successfully complete critical aspects of deliverables with a hands-on approach, including drafting correspondence, and other tasks that facilitate the CEO's ability to effectively execute on top priorities.
- Executive & External Communications: Work with the CEO and Surprise HR's Communications team to prioritize inbound speaking and interview requests for the CEO. Prepare presentations for internal and external audiences. This involves facilitating the setting of topics for company-wide meetings, helping to prepare speakers from across the company. In the situations where the CEO has two commitments, you'll counsel him on which path to take, and then fill in for him at the second commitment.
- Board & Investor Coordination: Serve as a liaison between Surprise HR and its Board of Directors. Project manage Board meeting prep and creation of Board meeting materials. Provide regular written updates to the Board on key business moments and progress against goals. Work with Surprise HR's finance team to provide updates to investors as needed.
Your mental frameworks:
- Natural executive presence and comfortable working with senior leaders.
- Strong opinions based on experiences and belief in what the future looks like, plus framework approach to iteration and experimentation to make that future become real.
- Able to disagree and commit.
- Structured, first-principles-based thinker with strong bias to problem solving.
- Extreme growth mindset, driven by intense curiosity.
- Career-focused and wanting to work hard in an impact-heavy role
- Detail-oriented organizational and process management skills to manage a wide range of incoming requests and responsibilities.
- Ability to create order out of chaos. Hyper-organized but also flexible.
- Emotional intelligence and ability to establish strong and trusting relationships, along with exceptional communication and influence skills.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree from a Top-50 university and MBA a plus.
- Demonstrated academic achievement would be ideal (e.g. honors, Dean’s list, etc.)
- 5+ years of relevant operating experience, with experience building teams (ideally larger than 100 people), owning goal setting, hitting targets, hiring/firing, getting leverage from a group, etc.
- At a technology company or high-growth startup ideal
- An intentional career track with follow-through and permanence with every past company (3+ years of tenure with each)
- Experience managing complex, multi-location strategies, projects and operations.
- Significant cross-functional project experience, working with many stakeholders, across departments, etc.
- Operating experience in two different departments ideal (ex. Sales & Marketing, ex. Product & Operations).
- Superb writing and an ability to distill and convey information in a compelling manner.
- Advanced computer literacy
- iOS, MacOS user
- Mastery of Google Apps
- Typing at 50+ wpm
Benefits
- A team of like-minded people, united by a mission, of which you will be an essential part
- Competitive comp and equity
- Company-paid medical, dental and vision insurance
- And, of course, we get Surprises internally