Business Operations Lead

Coast • New York, NY

3d • $160,000 - $200,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Coast is hiring a Business Operations Lead to own its portfolio of high-priority, cross-functional initiatives, from initial scoping through launch and handoff. The role works with leaders and teams across Product, Sales, Finance, Risk, Legal, People, and Operations, translating company priorities into clear plans, coordinating owners and milestones, resolving blockers, surfacing risks, and keeping executives informed.

This is a player-coach position: the Lead will personally run the highest-stakes projects while managing and developing a Business Operations Associate and building the templates, planning rhythms, cadences, and playbooks that make project work repeatable as Coast grows. The role also supports leadership with opportunity assessments, analyses, decision frameworks, quarterly planning, and prioritization recommendations.

AI is central to the role. The Lead will use AI tools in daily planning, synthesis, analysis, drafting, reporting, and automation; lead initiatives that apply AI to Coast’s operations; evaluate tools against real business problems; measure results; and document and share effective practices. The position is based in New York City, with an expectation of working in the office three to four days per week, and reports to the SVP of Operations.

Requirements

• 6–10 years of experience in business operations, strategy and operations, program or project management, consulting, or a similar role.
• A track record of leading complex cross-functional projects with many stakeholders, including at least one major initiative taken from idea to launch.
• Experience managing or mentoring others; direct management of an early-career team member is ideal.
• Strong executive presence, including the ability to brief senior leaders concisely, make recommendations, push back constructively, and write documents that align teams.
• Regular use of AI tools in daily work and experience building something with them, such as a workflow, automation, agent, or prompt library.
• Strong structured thinking and the ability to turn ambiguous problems into clear plans.
• Strong analytical instincts, comfort with data and spreadsheets, and the ability to identify trends and make recommendations.
• High ownership and the ability to identify problems proactively and drive them to completion.
• Ability to influence without authority and work with people at every level.
• Organization and process skills, including the ability to manage multiple high-stakes projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, operations, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Based in New York City and able to work in the office three to four days per week.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in fintech, SaaS, or financial services.
• SQL and low-code tools.
• Experience at a Series B or growth-stage startup.

Responsibilities

• Own and lead high-priority cross-functional initiatives from scoping through launch, including defining goals, plans, owners, milestones, and measures of success.
• Maintain visibility into the active project portfolio, including priorities, owners, status, risks, and dependencies; work with leadership to determine what should be staffed, delayed, or stopped.
• Coordinate work across teams that do not report to the role, clarify next steps and tradeoffs, and help resolve blockers.
• Raise risks early with recommendations and keep executives informed of project progress.
• Close projects by documenting outcomes, lessons learned, and next steps.
• Manage and coach the Business Operations Associate, set expectations, provide feedback, and assign meaningful ownership.
• Determine which projects to lead directly and which to delegate, and support the Associate’s success.
• Build reusable templates, cadences, and playbooks for project work.
• Coordinate with Product, Sales, Finance, Risk, Legal, People, and Operations to bring the right stakeholders together and enable decisions.
• Translate executive goals into actionable work and synthesize ground-level input into decision-ready information for leadership.
• Support quarterly planning and goal tracking by turning company priorities into projects with owners, dates, and success measures.
• Run operating cadences, including status reviews, metrics check-ins, and planning cycles.
• Scope and evaluate potential processes, partnerships, and initiatives, and provide leaders with recommendations backed by analysis.
• Build analyses and decision frameworks to support prioritization and allocation of time and money.
• Take promising ideas through pilots and into operational use.
• Use AI in project planning, synthesis, analysis, drafting, and reporting; create repeatable workflows and prompts that reduce manual work.
• Lead AI initiatives that apply tools or automation to Coast’s operations, and define measures of success.
• Evaluate AI tools against business needs and recommend which to adopt or skip.
• Document effective AI practices and teach them to other teams.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Flexible paid time off, including vacation, personal well-being time, and paid holidays.
• Financial wellness resources, including webinars and access to an equity tax advisory service.
• Company-sponsored 401(k).
• Paid parental leave.
• $400 accessories allowance for items such as a keyboard, mouse, or headphones.
• Education stipend.
• Free lunch every Friday.
• Equity grant with potential upside.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior