Chief of Staff – AI Governance

Lavendo•San Francisco, CA

3d•$250,000 - $300,000•Onsite

About The Position

This is a rare "right hand to the co-founder" role at a company shaping the future of AI governance. As Chief of Staff, you will embed yourself at the center of the commercial organization — running operations, driving strategy, and representing co-founder leadership in high-stakes meetings with Fortune 500 executives and AI startup founders alike. Within 90 days, you will stand in for the co-founder in 50%+ of his meetings. This is a full ownership role for someone who wants to be a builder, not a bystander. The company is building the bedrock beneath the AI wave, acting as the creator of an emerging global standard for AI agent risk, certification, and liability. They occupy a position that makes everything else possible by certifying agents, auditing deployments, and insuring outcomes. This is a ~20-person team operating with the structural precision of a top-tier consulting firm and the velocity of a startup that knows it has first-mover advantage on a category worth billions. The co-founders are ex-McKinsey. The culture rewards radical transparency, direct feedback, and people who build — not just advise. The mission is to make AI agents safe, trusted, and deployable at scale — giving enterprises the confidence to adopt AI agents without taking on unacceptable risk.

Requirements

A former BA or analyst who joined McKinsey, Bain, or BCG directly from undergrad — and excelled there
Promoted ahead of peers, consistently rated in the top tier, and trusted with generalist work across industries and functions before ever specializing
5–7 years into your career, with a track record that speaks for itself — and performance review data to back it up (note: MBB review memos and performance ratings are required with your application)
A communicator who can hold a room with a Fortune 500 CEO in the morning and earn the trust of a startup engineer by afternoon
Experienced at an early-stage startup (seed–Series C) post-MBB — in any function: ops, strategy, partnerships, product, or growth
Ready to be on-site in San Francisco 5 days/week
Structured problem-solver who thrives in ambiguity and brings frameworks — not chaos — to every challenge
High-bandwidth communicator who can hold their own in any room, from a board meeting to a technical deep-dive
Hands-on executor — you don't just shape strategy, you drive it to completion
Entrepreneurial hustle — you are energized by building from 0→1 and take full ownership
Culture carrier — you thrive in a radically transparent, feedback-forward environment where feedback is given openly, not just in 1:1s
Builder's itch — you have a genuine desire to be at the heart of a commercial AI business, not on the sidelines

Nice To Haves

A track record of working directly with C-suite executives at large enterprises
Experience leading a small team while also influencing a much broader group to move
A genuine curiosity about AI — you've used the tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.), you follow the space, and you have real opinions about where it's going

Responsibilities

Build the operational backbone of the commercial org: communication systems, decision-making processes, and information dissemination across the team
Represent co-founder leadership in 50%+ of meetings within 90 days — including sales conversations and strategic internal decisions
Lead high-impact strategic projects: identifying and onboarding channel partners, selecting key vendors, and shaping GTM strategy
Build repeatable, scalable systems across sales collateral, pipeline tracking, hiring processes, and decision frameworks
Drive the partner-led sales motion with auditors and, over time, own the revenue organization
Scale the commercial org from ~20 people to full maturity across three business lines: standards, auditing, and insurance