Global Operations Manager

WindBorne Systems•Palo Alto, CA

1d•$80,000 - $130,000•Onsite

About The Position

WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather forecasts with a unique proprietary data source: a global constellation of next-generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. We design, manufacture, and operate our own balloons, using the data they collect to generate otherwise unattainable weather intelligence. Our mission is to eliminate weather uncertainty, and in the process help humanity adapt to climate change, be that predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. We are building a future in which the planet is instrumented by thousands of our microballoons, eliminating gaps in our understanding of the planet and giving people and businesses the information they need to make critical decisions. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top-tier investors, including Khosla Ventures and Footwork VC. We’re scaling our global operations fast. Today we launch and navigate 500 balloons a month; within 2 years, we want 4000. We need someone with real experience scaling global logistics in high-growth environments to take us from 0–1 to 1–100. You’ll bring structure, foresight, and discipline to our global operations—turning one-off launches and site setups into standardized, repeatable processes. We need someone who: Spots blind spots before they become issues—legal, financial, regulatory, or operational. Proactively creates materials, playbooks, and systems to make scaling easier. Evolves our launch site model from “what works now” to “what will scale globally.” Open to traveling to our international launch sites as necessary (~15% of the time) You get things done. Even if they are on the other side of the globe. This is a chance to shape the backbone of our global footprint and set the foundation for long-term growth.

Requirements

5+ years of experience scaling logistics operations across multiple countries.
Deep expertise in at least one relevant domain (legal, financial, or regulatory) with enough breadth to manage across all. You might come from regulatory affairs, international contracting, or global supply chain — but you're not lost when the conversation shifts to insurance requirements, aviation law, or financial controls.
Comfortable with ambiguity and complexity. You've worked with international regulatory bodies. You're not scared of a bilingual contract or a form written in a language you don't speak.
A documentation instinct. You don't just solve problems — you write down how you solved them so the next person (or the same problem in a new country) doesn't start from scratch.