Chief of Staff, Co-CEO

Madrona Venture Labs; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Runway seeks a Chief of Staff to the Co‑CEO to drive clarity, execution, and scale within the organization. This executive role focuses on owning critical initiatives, shaping relationships, and delivering impact across teams from GTM to Product.

The role requires strong strategic thinking, communication, and the ability to operate with high ownership in a dynamic setting. Based in New York City, this hybrid position places you alongside the Co‑CEO and leadership, translating goals into

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience across investment banking, consulting, finance, or strategy & operations.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Executive presence and ability to hold your own with senior leaders.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with ownership.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Co-CEO and Executive Team to drive strategic initiatives forward.
• Translate high-level goals into clear action plans with defined scope, owners, and timelines.
• Capture customer insights and translate into structured asks and follow-ups.
• Maintain a single source of truth on top-priority initiatives for visibility.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and drive progress on key initiatives.
• Work cross-functionally across GTM, Partnerships, Product, Research, Engineering, and Finance.

Skills

Executive presence

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Tech fluency

Job description

We are seeking a Chief of Staff to the Co‑CEO to serve as a high‑leverage operator working directly with him to drive clarity, execution, and scale within the organization and for the company. You’ll help shape how every relationship the Co‑CEO builds is developed and sustained over time. This is not a purely coordination role. This is an execution‑heavy position for someone who wants to build, take ownership of critical initiatives, and help scale a generational company.

This role is a hybrid role based out of our NYC HQ office.

What you’ll do

• Partner closely with the Co‑CEO and Executive Team to drive strategic initiatives forward
• Champion and translate high‑level goals set by the Co‑CEO into clear action plans by defined scope, owners, and timelines
• Translate customer insights from the Co‑CEO’s conversations into structured asks and follow up
• Maintain a single source of truth on top‑priority initiatives so the Executive Team has visibility
• Identify operational bottlenecks and ensure consistent follow‑through on key initiatives
• Work cross‑functionally across GTM, Partnerships, Product, Research, Engineering, Finance, and others to shape opportunities for execution
• Develop a deep, functional and technical understanding of our products and future roadmap, with a keen sense of where Runway sits in the market

What you’ll need

• 4+ years of overall experience across some combination of investment banking, consulting, finance, or strategy & operations at early‑stage startups
• Motivated by the opportunity to build new systems in a high‑growth environment, with a focus on quality, scale, and automation
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to surface issues early and keep the right people informed before being prompted
• Executive presence and communication, with the ability to hold your own with a studio chief, a CTO, and a Runway research lead in the same week
• Ability to work in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities with expansive ownership
• A strong bias towards action and belief that no task is too small for you
• High technical aptitude for understanding complex technologies, tools, systems, and issues
• New York City based

Runway strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity for our team. Our salary ranges are based on competitive market rates for our size, stage and industry, and salary is just one part of the overall compensation package we provide.

There are many factors that go into salary determinations, including relevant experience, skill level and qualifications assessed during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below is a general expectation for the function as posted, but we are also open to considering candidates who may be more or less experienced than outlined in the job description. In this case, we will communicate any updates in the expected salary range.

Lastly, the provided range is the expected salary for candidates in the U.S. Outside of those regions, there may be a change in the range, which again, will be communicated to candidates.

Working at Runway

We’re committed to creating a space where our employees can bring their full selves to work and have equal opportunity to succeed. So regardless of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, origin, ability, age, veteran status, if joining this mission speaks to you, we encourage you to apply.