Operations - Generalist / Business Operations

Job description

GENERALIST / BUSINESS OPERATIONS Valthos Inc. Valthos is an applied biological intelligence company. We build and deploy software and biological AI systems to safeguard humanity. The same AI architectures that enable self-driving cars, land rockets with precision, and deliver expert-level reasoning are beginning to be deployed in biological design. To stay ahead, we must advance our arsenal of tools to capture and design against real-time sensitivities in nature's evolving mutational landscape. We are a group of mission-driven software engineers from Palantir and applied biological ML engineers from MIT's Broad Institute and DeepMind making the latest advances in computational biology accessible in the real-world for federal and commercial use. Operations at Valthos is the function that keeps the company moving. It covers the full range: keeping the office running, closing fundraising rounds, talking to customers, and building out the operational infrastructure underneath it all. It is a generalist role by design. On any given day, you might be troubleshooting a broken A/C unit before lunch, building a financial model for the board deck after, and project-managing a vendor onboarding by the end of the day. We are a small team working on problems that matter. We need someone who will pick up whatever needs picking up, execute well, and do the work no one else wants to do, while also being trusted with some of the most sensitive and strategic decisions the company makes. You will work directly alongside the head of operations and founders on the highest-leverage problems we face. You will own projects end-to-end, from definition, to solutioning, to implementation, across every function: finance, recruiting, people, legal, facilities, IT, and whatever else comes up. Early on, you will hold many hats simultaneously. Over time, as we grow, the hats you choose to keep will define your role and likely seed an entire function at Valthos. Whether you aspire to be an entrepreneur, a future operator, or to build a category-defining company's operating spine, we believe Valthos is the best place, with the best colleagues, to learn how. You will learn how to unpack a problem, understand the costs and consequences of its solution, and ship. You will make decisions independently, alongside a small team that will support and challenge you as you grow. THE ROLE - Own the company's day-to-day operations: facilities, IT, office management, vendor management, travel, and anything else required to keep the team productive - Build the financial backbone of the company: construct and maintain financial models, scenario-plan budget and runway, partner with external accounting on close, and run spend, payroll, and treasury as needed - Stand up core business infrastructure, including equity administration, benefits, payroll, corporate policies, compliance, and vendor systems, choosing tools pragmatically and replacing them when we outgrow them - Support recruiting and people operations end-to-end: source candidates, run scheduling, manage offers and onboarding, and help architect the culture and operating cadence of the company - Lead special projects that do not fit neatly into anyone else's job description, from standing up security and clearance workflows, to opening a new office, to running internal offsites and all-hands - Provide operational support to commercial and government engagements as needed, helping the team move proposals, contracts, and procurement workflows across the finish line - Serve as the operational face of Valthos with external partners (investors, regulators, contractors, and vendors), and represent the company with the same bar of care as a founder would - Close the feedback loop between the team and our partners: translate what you learn from investors, customers, and vendors into the decisions and priorities that shape how we run QUALIFICATIONS (REQUIRED) - 3+ years in a high-ownership, high-tempo operational role, such as early-stage startup operator, chief of staff, investment banking, management consulting, private equity, or venture capital - Demonstrated ability to own projects end-to-end in ambiguous environments, with minimal structure and minimal supervision - Strong financial and analytical fluency; comfortable building models in Excel, running scenario analyses, and reasoning from numbers under time pressure - Exceptional written and verbal communication. You will draft memos, investor updates, and internal and external materials that need to meet the bar of the most senior people in the room - High attention to detail and organization. You are the kind of person who makes sure the details no one else is tracking are handled - High ownership and a bias to action. You would rather unblock the team by fixing something yourself than wait for someone else to do it - Comfort operating across extremes: one hour on the floor of the office, the next with a senior government stakeholder or a top-tier investor - Willingness to travel when needed, including to customer sites QUALIFICATIONS (PREFERRED) - Experience at a high-growth startup, ideally as one of the first non-engineering hires - Experience setting up finance and people ops systems from scratch - Experience with early-stage fundraising - Experience in defense tech, national security, or government contracting is a plus, but not required If there is a fit, we will schedule behavioral and case-based interviews. The final step is an onsite in our office, where you will work on a scoped project, discuss ideas, and work with the wider team.