Chief of Staff, CEO

depthfirst; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary with meaningful equ

Health, vision, and dental insurance

401k

Office lunch and dinner (SF office)

Ownership and room to grow

Job summary

depthfirst is seeking a Chief of Staff to the CEO in San Francisco. You will operate at the center of the company, turning strategy into execution, running cross-functional initiatives, and handling high-stakes decisions with clarity and speed.

You will drive company-wide initiatives, prepare board materials, lead analyses, and help ensure leadership moves with credibility. This is a high-trust role offering significant growth as the company scales.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a mix of strategy consulting, banking/PE, or an operating role at a scaling startup.
• Bachelor's Degree from a top university.
• Direct startup experience is strongly preferred.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and building credibility with functional peers.
• Speaks the language of Eng, Finance, and GTM well enough that each trusts your judgment as an extension of their own.
• Demonstrated ability to work through unstructured problems and drive them to outcomes independently.
• Strong written and verbal communication.
• Ability to move fluidly between strategic thinking and tactical execution in the same day.
• High judgment and discretion, given regular access to sensitive company information.

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor and extension of the CEO, turning priorities into structured plans (OKRs, board materials, investor updates, decision memos).
• Lead high-priority cross-functional projects such as competitive analysis, AI automation efforts, and ad-hoc analyses.
• Own the company's operating cadence: leadership meetings, all-hands, planning cycles, and keep cross-functional initiatives on track.
• Develop integrated views of product economics, market dynamics, and business performance that span multiple functions.
• Act as an extension of the CEO in communication with functional leads, customers, board members, and investors.

Skills

Strategy & ops experience

Cross-functional leadership

Executive support

Strong communication

Ambiguity navigation

Education

Bachelor's Degree from a top university

Job description

About depthfirst

We believe that software is the foundation of modern civilization. Yet vulnerabilities threaten its integrity, security, and resilience. We are on a mission to secure the world's software.

depthfirst is building intelligence to detect and remediate critical software vulnerabilities. We are training and scaling security AI agents to discover zero-day vulnerabilities across large customer codebases and popular open source software.

Our founding team brings deep expertise in data, infrastructure, security and AI, with leaders from DeepMind, Databricks, Square, and Faire. We're looking for thoughtful, driven people excited to work at the intersection of AI, Security, and Infrastructure.

About This Role

As Chief of Staff to the CEO, you'll operate at the center of the company working directly with the CEO and executive team as the company scales through one of the most important growth phases of the company. You'll act as a leverage point for the CEO, turning strategy into execution, running the initiatives that don't have a natural home in one function, owning the hardest cross‑functional problems, driving the highest‑stakes decisions, and ensuring leadership operates with clarity and speed.

Some days you'll be driving company‑wide initiatives. Other days you'll be preparing board materials, leading strategic analyses, solving organizational bottlenecks, or jumping into customer conversations.

This is a high‑trust, high‑visibility role for someone who wants broad exposure to how a fast‑growing AI security company is actually built and run.

You're excited about this role because you will…

• Act as a trusted advisor and extension of the CEO, turning priorities into structured plans (OKRs, board materials, investor updates, decision memos), and proactively close gaps, see around corners, and resolve problems before they reach the CEO's desk
• Lead high‑priority, cross‑functional projects that don't sit neatly in one department such as competitive analysis, AI automation efforts, and ad‑hoc analyses
• Own the company's operating cadence: leadership meetings, all‑hands, planning cycles and keep cross‑functional initiatives on track
• Develop integrated views of product economics, market dynamics, and business performance that no single function owns, driving alignment and decision making that span Product, Eng, Finance, and GTM
• Act as an extension of the CEO in communication with functional leads, customers, board members, and investors

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a mix of strategy consulting, banking/PE, or an operating role (GM, biz ops, or functional lead) at a scaling startup
• Bachelor's Degree from a top university
• Direct startup experience is strongly preferred
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and building credibility with functional peers
• Speaks the language of Eng, Finance, and GTM well enough that each trusts your judgment as an extension of their own
• Demonstrated ability to work through unstructured problems and drive them to outcomes independently
• Strong written and verbal communication
• Ability to move fluidly between strategic thinking and tactical execution in the same day
• High judgment and discretion, given regular access to sensitive company information

Bonus Points For

• Experience at a high‑growth startup or early‑stage company
• Hands‑on experience with AI tools, agents, or automation to increase analytical and operational velocity
• Familiarity with security, infrastructure, or developer tooling markets

What We Offer

• Competitive salary with meaningful equity
• Health, vision, and dental insurance
• 401k
• Office lunch and dinner (SF office)
• Ownership and significant room to grow as the company scales

depthfirst is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law.

To all recruitment agencies: depthfirst does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to depthfirst employees. depthfirst is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third‑party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with the Company.