Forward Deployed Operations

Harper; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Uber commuter benefits

Breakfast, lunch & dinner provided

Gym membership

Health, dental, vision insurance

Job summary

Harper, an AI-native commercial insurer in San Francisco, seeks a Forward Deployed Operations lead to embed with sales, service, underwriting, and carrier relations. You will surface friction, ship automation, and drive business impact through AI agents, tools, and dashboards.

You’ll operate hands-on in a fast‑paced environment, running the pipeline, handling follow‑ups, and turning operational pain into product specs for engineering. On‑site SF role.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years in a high‑pace environment with track record of shipping in production.
• Hands‑on with SQL and at least one of Python or TypeScript; AI coding tools experience.
• Strong written and verbal communication with technical and non‑technical audiences; SF relocation.

Responsibilities

• Find the leverage by sitting with operators and surfacing automations nobody built.
• Run the operation across underwriting follow‑ups, carrier communications, and deals in the pipeline.
• Build fast AI agents, internal tools, and workflow automations; prototype and ship.
• Instrument everything with dashboards and data to prove impact in business terms.
• Shape what gets built next by translating pain into product requirements.
• Move where it’s urgent with cross‑functional scope beyond org charts.

Skills

SQL

Python

TypeScript

Communication

Stakeholder mgmt

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

Job description

Forward Deployed Operations

Harper is an AI-native commercial insurance company in San Francisco. We’re not bolting AI onto insurance — we’re rebuilding the entire business as software, on a simple bet: turning expert human judgment into compute is one of the largest transitions left to make, and a trillion-dollar industry still run 90% by hand is the place to prove it. We’ve grown ~100x in the last year and we move at that speed — on-site, in person, long days, very high standards. Almost no one joins Harper for insurance; they join to build the company that replaces how it works.

The role

A trillion-dollar industry runs on knowledge nobody wrote down — what the data means, what the operation actually needs, what users are motivated by, and where the leverage hides. This role synthesizes those disconnected streams into one thing: a clear read on the most important problem to solve next. Then you build the thing that solves it.

You’ll embed with the operators who run Harper — sales, service, underwriting, carrier relations — learn the operation end-to-end, find the 20% of friction causing 80% of the drag, and ship the thing that removes it. One day you’re chasing a stalled quote with an underwriter. The next you’re shipping the automation that makes sure no quote stalls again. The day after, you’re on a customer call, feeding what you heard into a product spec. You run the operation and you improve the operation — both, always. It takes a curious, analytical mind, sharp product intuition, and genuine empathy for the people doing the work.

What you’ll do

• Find the leverage. Sit with operators, watch the work, and surface the automations nobody built because nobody knew they were possible yet.

• Run the operation. Underwriter follow-ups, carrier communications, customer calls, keeping deals moving through the pipeline. You’re in the work, not above it.

• Build fast. AI agents, internal tools, workflow automations — prototype in days, ship in weeks.

• Instrument everything. Write SQL, pull the data, build the dashboard. Prove what you shipped moved a number — in business terms, not feature terms.

• Shape what gets built next. Translate operational pain into product requirements. The patterns you spot become the things engineering builds next.

• Move where it’s urgent. Context-switch across functions based on what matters most this week. Scope doesn’t respect org charts here.

Who you are

• You’ve shipped internal tools or automations end-to-end — not just designed them.

• You’ve also run real operations: customer-facing, process-heavy, or both. You know what it feels like when a system breaks at 7 AM.

• You measure yourself in business outcomes: "conversion went up 15%", not "the feature shipped".

• You can walk into a room of non-technical operators, explain why a number moved, and have them trust you.

• You’d rather own a messy problem end-to-end than execute a clean task someone handed you.

• You’ve been exceptional at something before, and you’re looking for the place that finally matches your ceiling.

Requirements: 2–4 years in a high-pace environment (startup, operations, consulting, or engineering); a track record of building and shipping things that ran in production — internal tools, automations, workflows; comfortable in SQL and at least one of Python or TypeScript; hands‑on with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, or equivalent), not just aware of them; strong written and verbal communication with both technical and non-technical audiences; based in San Francisco or willing to relocate immediately.

Nice to have: LLMs, AI agents, or voice AI experience; a background in insurance, fintech, or another regulated, high‑stakes industry; prior startup or founder experience; solutions engineering, operations, or customer success experience.

The reality

This is on‑site in San Francisco, in person, long days, high standards. A real share of the week is follow‑ups, chasing, coordination, and cleanup — the operational backbone, done well. The system‑building is earned by doing the unglamorous work first.

Ambiguity is the job, not a phase. Scope shifts week to week. If you need a fixed lane and a clean spec, you’ll be uncomfortable here.

The ceiling is high and real. People who are exceptional here go on to run functions, lead teams, or start companies — because they’ve seen how the whole business works. That’s the payoff, and it’s on the other side of the grind.

Compensation & logistics

• Salary: $125,000–$170,000 depending on experience + performance bonuses & equity

• Location: San Francisco, in‑office. Based in SF or willing to relocate.

• Schedule: Monday–Friday, very early morning start, in‑office five days a week.

• Benefits: Uber commuter benefits; breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided; snacks, drinks, and coffee daily; free gym membership; health, dental, and vision insurance.

Process

1. 15‑min founder call — alignment on mission and pace.

2. Technical screen — a real operations and build problem; we want to see how you diagnose and what you’d ship.

3. Super Day on‑site — meet the team, sit in on the operation, do real work alongside us.