Chief of Staff

Lantern; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Office in San Francisco

Equity

Job summary

Lantern is seeking a Chief of Staff to work directly alongside the CEO across product, deployments, sales, recruiting, and fundraising. The role offers high ownership on a small team with direct influence on decisions that shape the company.

You will own priorities end to end, stand up new functions, run recruiting, and support fundraising while managing the operating cadence with metrics, board prep, and investor updates.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years in consulting, banking, venture capital, product, or an operating role at a high-growth startup.
• Proven ability to handle ambiguous, cross-functional work and deliver results.
• Strong analytical horsepower with ability to build models and test assumptions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with engineers, customers, investors.
• Experience with AI-enabled work and willingness to push frontier.
• Bias toward action and high standards.

Responsibilities

• Own Lantern's highest-leverage strategic priorities end to end.
• Stand up new functions, build the first version, scale what works, and hire the right leaders.
• Work across product and deployments to inform decisions and unblock live implementations.
• Run recruiting for critical hires from sourcing to close.
• Support fundraising with models, narrative, and diligence materials.
• Own operating cadence: metrics, meeting rhythm, board prep, and investor updates.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytical horsepower

Communication skills

AI-enabled work

Bias toward action

Job description

# Chief of StaffThe CEO's right hand across product, deployments, hiring, and fundraising.LocationSan Francisco, CA · In-officeExperience3–6 yearsCompensation~$200K base + equityApply for this role## The roleWe're hiring a Chief of Staff to work directly alongside our CEO across every part of the business: product, deployments, sales, recruiting, and fundraising. The central challenge is taking the company's most important open problems, the ones nobody owns yet, and driving them to a result. You'll own priorities end to end, from the first customer call through the analysis, the decision, and the number it moves. It's a high-ownership role on a small team, with a direct line to every decision that shapes the company.## What you'll do* Own Lantern's highest-leverage strategic priorities end to end, with real accountability for the outcome.* Stand up new functions from nothing and run them: build the first version, own the numbers, scale what works, and help hire the right functional leader at the right time.* Work across product and deployments, turning what distributors actually need into product decisions and unblocking live implementations.* Run recruiting for critical hires, from sourcing through close, and help set the bar for who joins this team.* Support fundraising by building the models, the narrative, and the diligence materials.* Own the operating cadence: metrics, meeting rhythm, board prep, and investor updates.## What you bring* 3–6 years in consulting, banking, venture capital, product, or an operating role at a high-growth startup.* Energized by time with customers. You'll spend real time with distributors, and you're at your best in those conversations.* A track record of taking on ambiguous, cross-functional work and driving it all the way to a result.* Strong analytical horsepower: you build the model, pressure-test the assumptions, and can defend the answer.* Excellent written and verbal communication, from a customer email to a board slide.* Exceptional with people. You earn trust fast with engineers, customers, candidates, and investors alike.* An extreme user of AI. Like the rest of our team, you sit on the frontier of AI-enabled work, and you help push that frontier further.* Bias toward action, high standards, and real ambition about what you want to build.## Nice to have* Prior Chief of Staff, BizOps, strategy, or early GTM experience at a seed to Series B company.* Exposure to supply chain, distribution, industrials, or B2B software sold to non-technical buyers.### What you'll get* A founding-era, high-impact role in a massive, under-served market.* Unfiltered exposure to how a company gets built: customers, board, hiring, pricing.* The clearest path we have to an executive seat, or to founding your own company.* Competitive compensation: ~$200K base + equity.* An office in San Francisco with a tight-knit founding team.### What we valueWe hire operators who own outcomes, combining sharp judgment with pragmatic execution and a willingness to do the unglamorous work. Hard work, humility, customer obsession, and pride in a job well done: the values our customers live by, and the values we hire for.### About LanternLantern is building the AI-native operating system for the $9T wholesale distribution industry. Billions of dollars sit tied up in stock, yet most distributors still buy on gut feel and spreadsheets. We partner with leading distributors to deliver precise, AI-powered purchasing recommendations that drive 30% leaner inventory, 10% higher sales, and 20+ hours saved per week per user. We've gone from $0 to $5M ARR in 8 months, raised $7M from top VCs, and are hitting hypergrowth.