AI-Native Founder’s Associate

Aonic; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Aonic is seeking an AI-Native Founder's Associate to work directly with the CEO on high-impact problems spanning operations, growth, and finance. You will design and implement AI-powered systems, turning ambiguous challenges into structured analyses and actions.

This role is broad, demanding, and aimed at someone early in their career who wants maximum learning, responsibility, and rapid exposure to strategic decision-making in a lean, execution-focused team.

Qualifications

• Degree from a top-tier university in engineering, science, math, business, or related field.
• Candidates with a business background must have taught themselves at least basic coding and demonstrate technical fluency.
• AI-native mindset with hands-on experience using AI tools, automation platforms, and low-code solutions.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability across operations, growth, and finance.
• Genuine interest in solving real-world business problems including production, supply chain, and customer experience.
• Extremely hungry and ambitious, actively seeking responsibility and steep growth.
• Strong work ethic and intensity, comfortable in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Support and improve day-to-day operations across fulfillment, customer experience, supply chain coordination, and internal workflows.
• Identify bottlenecks and design AI-driven solutions to remove inefficiencies.
• Own projects end-to-end from problem definition to execution.
• Use AI to scan the market for new products and ingredients, turning signals into a pipeline of sourcing opportunities.
• Build automated supplier discovery and outreach workflows at scale.
• Design AI-assisted negotiation workflows for pricing, MOQs, and terms.
• Support growth initiatives across marketing, experimentation, and performance tracking.
• Build AI-assisted workflows for reporting, analysis, and execution.
• Translate growth objectives into operational and financial implications.
• Support financial analysis, forecasting, and unit economics.
• Build and maintain models, dashboards, and AI-powered reporting tools.
• Help leadership make decisions based on contribution margin and real economics.
• Leverage AI, automation & low-code tools to improve speed and quality of execution.
• Build internal tools, scripts, and workflows to reduce manual work.
• Continuously seek opportunities to replace effort with systems.
• Tackle high-priority, ad-hoc projects directly with the CEO.

Skills

AI-native mindset

Analytical skills

High agency

Problem solving

Ambition

Strong work ethic

Education

Top-tier university degree

Tools

AI tools

Low-code platforms

Automation tools

Job description

Reports to: CEO

Compensation: $120,000 - $140,000 base + substantial equity (targeting 7-figure annual comp through upside)

Location: San Francisco (Jackson Square) - onsite, high-collaboration role

About Aonic

Aonic is deploying AI to drastically reduce the cost of living. We are building Aonic Club: the club contract Costco proved over four decades, rebuilt online and AI-native - an annual membership that gets Americans elevated everyday products at cost, starting with functional nutrition.

We make the products ourselves and run sourcing, content, forecasting and service with AI agents, which deletes the 30-40% of retail and marketing layers inside every consumer price. The savings go to members, not margins: under Kirkland wherever Costco competes, and on average 80% below the brands.

Our ambition is big: 1 million members and a $10 billion company within a few years, built by a handful of humans with extreme leverage - AI agents running the operations, a community as the channel, and the AI dividend delivered to everyday America.

You can find our company introduction here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y6DHqUCN-TJIfpi8D4ElOyDw_7cwXip3/view?usp=drive_link

The Role

As our AI-Native Founder’s Associate, you will work directly with the CEO on the highest-impact problems across operations, growth, and finance.

Your job is to take ambiguous, high-stakes problems and turn them into structured analyses, decisions, and execution - often by building AI-powered systems and workflows yourself.

This role is intentionally broad and demanding. It is designed for someone early in their career who wants maximum learning, responsibility, and exposure in the shortest possible time.

What You’ll Work On

Operations & Execution

• Support and improve day-to-day operations across fulfillment, customer experience, supply chain coordination, and internal workflows.
• Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies and help design AI-driven solutions to remove them.
• Own specific operational projects end-to-end, from problem definition to execution.

AI-Native Product Sourcing

• Use AI to continuously scan the market for new, innovative products and ingredients, and turn signals into a prioritized pipeline of sourcing opportunities.
• Build automated supplier discovery and outreach workflows that identify, qualify, and engage suppliers at scale.
• Design AI-assisted negotiation workflows for pricing, minimum order quantities, and terms, and take deals from first contact to signed agreement.

Growth Enablement

• Support growth initiatives across marketing, experimentation, and performance tracking.
• Build AI-assisted workflows for reporting, analysis, and execution.
• Help translate growth objectives into operational and financial implications.

Finance & Business Intelligence

• Support financial analysis, forecasting, and unit economics.
• Build and maintain models, dashboards, and AI-powered reporting tools.
• Help leadership make decisions based on contribution margin and real economics, not vanity metrics.

AI, Automation & Systems

• Leverage AI, automation, and low-code tools to improve speed and quality of execution across all functions.
• Build internal tools, scripts, and workflows that reduce manual work.
• Continuously look for opportunities to replace effort with systems.

Special Projects

• Tackle high-priority, ad-hoc projects directly with the CEO.
• Move fluidly between strategy and execution depending on what the business needs.
• Be comfortable owning problems that do not come with instructions.

Hard Requirements

To be successful in this role, all of the following must be true:

• Degree from a top-tier university in engineering, science, math, business, or a related field.
• Candidates with a business background must have taught themselves at least basic coding and demonstrate technical fluency.
• AI-native mindset, with hands-on experience using AI tools, automation platforms, and low-code solutions to drive real outcomes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability, with comfort working across operations, growth, and finance.
• Genuine interest in solving real-world business problems, including those involving physical operations such as production, supply chain, warehousing, delivery, and customer experience.
• Extremely hungry and ambitious, actively seeking responsibility and steep growth.
• Strong work ethic and intensity, comfortable operating in an environment that works 8-7 on Monday to Thursday and 8-5 on Fridays.

The Profile We’re Looking For

This role requires a rare mix of traits:

• Book-smart: Strong academic foundation and structured thinking.
• Street-smart: Practical judgment, prioritization, and commercial intuition.
• People-smart: Able to work across functions without ego and communicate clearly.
• AI-native: Naturally reaches for AI and automation as a first instinct.
• High-agency: Sees problems, takes ownership, and executes without waiting.
• Content-native (bonus): You love creating content and want to ride the wave of authentic storytelling with us.

Why Join Aonic?

Direct Founder Exposure

You will work side‑by‑side with the CEO on real decisions that shape the company.

Unmatched Learning Velocity

This role compresses years of experience into months.

Real Responsibility Early

You will own projects that matter, not shadow them.

Elite, Small Team

You will work with a tight group of highly driven operators in a no‑bureaucracy environment.

Modern Stack

We invest in the best AI and automation tools and expect you to use them aggressively.

Meaningful Upside

This role is designed as a launchpad into senior leadership roles over time.