“I cannae change the laws of physics, Captain. But I can get the parts here by Thursday.”
With apologies to Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer
Captain’s log, stardate: now
Somewhere in Santa Clara, a deep-tech crew is building AI hardware that rips up the way chips have done the maths for decades. The physics is hard. The engineering is harder. And right now the founder is losing hours every week to shipping labels, vendor invoices and calendar invites instead of designing silicon.
That’s where you beam in.
This is the Scotty seat. The scientists invent, you keep the ship flying. Every order, every invoice, every new crew member and every loose wire runs through you, so the people building the future never have to look up from it.
Your mission
- Procurement and logistics: sourcing hardware and supplies, negotiating with vendors, shipping and receiving, tracking every board and cable, and chasing RMAs when something comes back dead.
- Finance ops: AP/AR, budgets, purchase orders and bookkeeping, working with the outside accountant, insurance broker and lawyers.
- Recruiting and people: running hiring end to end, from first scheduling to signed offer to onboarding, and keeping visa cases (O-1, H-1B) moving with immigration counsel.
- Founder support: calendar, travel and logistics, plus the odd off-world errand. Yes, sometimes that’s a trip to the mechanic.
- Investor relations: keeping the data room current and the follow-ups flowing.
- Bonus round, depending on you: setting up and testing compute, managing devices and accounts, and tightening security around some very valuable IP.
Day 90 transmission
The founder hasn’t touched a purchase order, vendor thread or RMA in weeks. Every piece of kit has a home and a record. New starters walk in to a working laptop, live accounts and finished paperwork. And when something slips, you’re the one who spotted it first.
Crew requirements
- You’ve owned a recruiting process or a set of vendor relationships end to end. Not assisted. Owned.
- 1 to 3 years in operations, finance or a similar seat at an early-stage startup, a hardware company or a research lab.
- Hands-on financial ops: AP/AR, budgeting and procurement.
- Scrappy by default. Ambiguity doesn’t stall you. You work out the right answer and execute it without anyone checking your homework.
- Technical literacy in AI and semiconductors. You won’t be designing chips, but you can hold your own when the conversation turns to ASICs, inference or tape-outs.
- Comfortable around hardware and happy doing unglamorous work, because that’s what buys the engineers their time.
- A STEM, finance or business degree is a plus.
- Extra warp speed: sysadmin, IT or security chops, or fundraising and IR experience.
Probably not your ship if
- Your operations experience has only ever been inside big corporates.
- You’re a sales, AE or GTM strategist at heart.
- Your recent years have been mostly independent consulting rather than embedded in one team.
The coordinates
- Santa Clara, CA. Fully on-site, five days a week. This is a hands-on, in-the-room role.
- Base $80K to $160K + equity, and you choose the mix. Dial the cash down, the equity goes up.
- Sign-on bonus on the table for the right person.
- US citizens and Green Card holders only. No visa sponsorship.
- Valid driver’s license required, as some missions involve wheels.
- Immediate start.
Make it so
Skip the cover letter. Send your resume with short answers to these:
- Tell us about an operation you owned end to end (a hiring process, a vendor relationship, a procurement pipeline) and the moment it nearly went sideways.
- Who were your last five managers, and what score out of 10 would each give you if we called them?
- Why an early-stage startup right now, rather than a bigger, safer ship?
- Be honest: which item on the mission list above would you happily hand to a robot?
- If money were no object, what would you be doing?
- Quick confirm: five days on-site in Santa Clara, US work authorization, and a valid driver’s license?
Engage.
