Chief of Staff to the Founder

Aevum•Long Beach, CA

About The Position

Aevum is developing capabilities to provide enterprise and government customers with on-demand delivery anywhere on Earth and in space. We design, build, and operate heavy-lift unmanned aircraft and the supporting infrastructure required for rapid air cargo, point-to-point logistics, humanitarian response, and orbital payload delivery from runways. Our mission is to democratize access to air and space and deliver time-critical capability when it matters most, using autonomous vehicles and AI to reach those in need faster than anyone else can, including in environments where traditional systems can’t operate or won’t respond. Aevum is hiring a Chief of Staff to the Founder to own execution across our external facing operations and founder-priority initiatives. This is a high-agency role for someone who can run sensitive, high-context workflows end-to-end: maintaining momentum with investors, partners, and key customers; managing NDAs and controlled information sharing; coordinating follow-through across stakeholders; and keeping critical threads moving without consuming founder attention. You will operate as the founder’s execution proxy in ongoing external threads—driving responsiveness, organization, and forward motion—while the founder remains focused on engineering, flight-critical milestones, and customer proposals. This is not an administrative support role. It is a judgment role: you will be trusted with confidential information, expected to act independently within clear boundaries, and measured by closed loops, clean execution, and disciplined external coordination. You will work at the center of high-stakes conversations and time-critical execution across aerospace, autonomy, and enterprise/government stakeholders. Your job is to protect the founder’s focus by owning the operational back-and-forth—so the work that matters most ships faster. This is a high-trust, high-impact role for someone who thrives on pace, precision, discretion, and follow-through.

Requirements

7+ years experience in roles requiring high ownership and external-facing execution, such as: Chief of Staff in Founder Office roles, Business Operations, Strategic Operations, Partnerships, enterprise deal operations, or program leadership with heavy coordination and follow-through, corporate development support, diligence/process heavy roles, or investor/external stakeholder operations (execution oriented).
Demonstrated ability to run complex external workflows end-to-end (multiple stakeholders, shifting priorities, sensitive information)
Experience handling NDAs and agreements, controlled document sharing, and coordination with legal teams
Strong executive communication: can produce concise, high-quality drafts and correspondence that move threads forward (with founder approval on final messaging)
High judgment and discretion; comfortable operating with confidential information and ambiguous situations
Proven loop-closure: you reliably track threads, push momentum, and deliver outcomes without constant reminders
Active Secret clearance preferred; must be eligible and willing to obtain/maintain a clearance

Nice To Haves

Experience working with technical founders or in deep-tech environments (aerospace, defense, robotics, hardware, AI, or regulated domains)
Familiarity with investor relationship operations (touchpoints, updates, follow-through, coordination across stakeholders)
Comfort building lightweight systems: pipeline tracking, dashboards, templates, repeatable processes
Experience interfacing with counsel on contracts/NDAs and managing redline workflows

Responsibilities

Own day-to-day coordination and follow-through with investors, strategic partners, and other external stakeholders
Run structured relationship management (target lists, touchpoints, follow-ups, scheduling, next steps)
Draft and negotiate NDAs using company templates; route non-standard exceptions to counsel as needed
Manage controlled information sharing: access to materials, permissions, versioning, and audit-friendly workflows
Maintain a clean pipeline of external conversations with clear next actions, owners, and deadlines
Prepare periodic investor communications (e.g., quarterly updates) from founder-provided inputs; manage distribution logistics and track replies/action items
Ensure founder involvement is reserved for high-leverage moments (closing conversations, key inflection points)
Take ownership of founder-delegated initiatives that are time-consuming, tactical, or coordination-heavy
Drive tasks to completion across internal and external parties (vendors, counsel, customers, investors, contractors)
Package decisions for the founder: context, options, tradeoffs, recommendation, and next step
Track commitments made by the founder and ensure follow-through—nothing disappears in email, meetings, or side conversations
Identify blockers early and resolve them independently where possible; escalate with a proposed solution
Prepare founder-ready drafts for external correspondence (emails, follow-ups, updates) for founder review and approval
Maintain communication cadence and follow-through across external stakeholders; ensure responsiveness and clarity
Prepare concise briefing notes for high-stakes meetings (objective, participants, history, desired outcome, agenda, next steps)
Capture decisions and action items from critical conversations and drive execution immediately after
Maintain discretion and information hygiene: need-to-know sharing, clean channels, disciplined handling of sensitive content
Step into urgent efforts that don’t fit neatly into one person’s scope (customer coordination, partnership process, internal execution pushes)
Create lightweight operating structure when necessary (tracking, cadence, accountability) without adding bureaucracy