Chief of Staff to the CEO

Formic • Oakland, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Chief of Staff to the CEO is an early-career, high-output operator who works directly with the CEO to drive execution across the company’s most critical priorities.
This role is designed to increase the CEO’s effectiveness by ensuring clarity amid ambiguity, follow-through, and momentum across the business. As an execution-heavy role in a fast paced startup, it requires producing tangible outputs quickly, ramping quickly and beginning to contribute in a short period of time.
This is a hands-on, in-person role based in Oakland for someone who wants to learn how a company is built from the inside and take on increasing responsibility over time.

Requirements

• 2–3 years of experience in a high-performance environment (consulting, investment banking, startup, operations, etc.)
• Motivated to learn by doing, not by directing
• Strong problem-solving ability and structured thinking
• High ownership and a strong bias toward action
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and move quickly
• Clear, concise communication
• Low ego, high curiosity, and willingness to do whatever it takes
• You prioritize execution over analysis and are comfortable delivering imperfect but fast outputs
• You are direct and willing to push for clarity when needed
• You take full ownership of outcomes, even when work depends on others
• You are highly responsive and operate with a strong sense of urgency
• You move quickly and are comfortable delivering high-quality work on short timelines
• You are comfortable receiving direct feedback and adjusting quickly
• You do not rely on influence, positioning, or optics to drive impact; you focus on doing the work and delivering results

Nice To Haves

• Experience building dashboards, working with data, or improving internal systems
• Familiarity with SaaS, robotics, or industrial businesses

Responsibilities

• Drive execution on the CEO’s highest-priority initiatives by owning outcomes, ensuring clear owners, timelines, and follow-through
• Collecting data across the organization for ground-truth insights and analysis of business performance
• Track progress across teams on key initiatives and follow up consistently to ensure work gets done
• Take ownership of outcomes end-to-end, even when work requires coordination across multiple teams
• Identify bottlenecks and actively resolve them
• Prepare materials for leadership, board, and investor conversations
• Take on ad hoc projects across the business and deliver concrete outputs on tight timelines
• Support the CEO directly across both strategic and operational work, including scheduling, prioritization, and execution
• Act as a utility player, taking on whatever work is needed, from high-priority initiatives to basic operational tasks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees