Founders Associate

kaizenlabs; United States; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & dental insurance

Vision insurance

One Medical membership

Fertility and family-building support

401(k) with company match

Parental leave and PTO

Job summary

Kaizen is seeking an Executive Assistant to support the founders in a fast-growing govtech environment. You will manage inboxes, calendars, and pre-meeting research, traveling with the founders to DC and sitting in on federal agency meetings.

You will coordinate with the team, track follow-ups, and drive strategic projects from draft to completion. You must be able to handle incomplete information, adapt to shifting priorities, and produce concise briefs under tight timelines.

Qualifications

• 2 to 4 years of experience in a startup, consulting, banking or a role where you supported a founder or senior executive, or equivalent experience (including having started something yourself)
• Bias to act first and check in after: you figure out what needs doing and move, then loop the founders in at the right moment
• Comfort operating with incomplete information and shifting priorities
• Tight, clear writing under time pressure; your briefs get read, not edited
• Willingness to travel on short notice and to work from the NYC office 4 days a week

Responsibilities

• Run the CEO's inbox and calendar with judgment: decide what gets their time, draft the replies, and surface what they need to see
• Produce pre-meeting research and advance briefs for investor, partner and government meetings: what matters, what is decided, what needs a call
• Travel with the founders to DC, sit in on meetings with federal agency leadership, and turn notes into next steps that actually happen
• Coordinate across the team on the founders' behalf so decisions reach the right people and nothing stalls waiting on a founder
• Track investor, partner and customer follow-ups so nothing the founders promised slips
• Take on strategic projects that land on the founders' desks with no obvious owner, from first draft to done
• Use AI tools to draft, research and synthesize so the founders get finished work, not raw material

Skills

Startup experience

Executive support

Clear writing

Travel readiness

Research skills

Coordination

Job description

Government technology has failed citizens, veterans, public servants, and service members for decades.

Kaizen powers America's application layer. We replace the legacy systems federal agencies run on with modern software, built with craft. The ticketing platform a resident uses to visit a presidential library. The marketplace DoW uses to procure counter-drone systems to protect lives and critical infrastructure. The system a Veteran uses to access benefits. We build systems of record, of national consequence. Our AI-native modules and harness allow us to do so in weeks, not years.

Location

New York, NY (hybrid, 4 days a week in office), with frequent multi-day travel to Washington, DC and occasional travel to San Francisco.

The Role

The founders of Kaizen spend their weeks moving between investors, federal agency leadership, customers and the team, and the strategic layer underneath them has to hold. That layer is this role. You will work directly with the founders, run their inbox and calendar with judgment, do the research before every meeting that matters, coordinate across the team, and track every follow-up until it is closed. This is not a personal assistant role. It is a crash course in how a fast-growing govtech company is actually run, and the work you produce is often what the CEO reads before a high-stakes conversation.

What You'll Do

• Run the CEO's inbox and calendar with judgment: decide what gets their time, draft the replies, and surface what they need to see
• Produce pre-meeting research and advance briefs for investor, partner and government meetings: what matters, what is decided, what needs a call
• Travel with the founders to DC, sit in on meetings with federal agency leadership, and turn notes into next steps that actually happen
• Coordinate across the team on the founders' behalf so decisions reach the right people and nothing stalls waiting on a founder
• Track investor, partner and customer follow-ups so nothing the founders promised slips
• Take on strategic projects that land on the founders' desks with no obvious owner, from first draft to done
• Use AI tools to draft, research and synthesize so the founders get finished work, not raw material

What You'll Bring

• 2 to 4 years of experience in a startup, consulting, banking or a role where you supported a founder or senior executive, or equivalent experience (including having started something yourself)
• A bias to act first and check in after: you figure out what needs doing and move, then loop the founders in at the right moment
• Comfort operating with incomplete information and shifting priorities
• Tight, clear writing under time pressure; your briefs get read, not edited
• Willingness to travel on short notice and to work from the NYC office 4 days a week

Strong Candidates May Also...

• Have worked with or alongside federal agencies, defense stakeholders or public sector partners
• Use AI tools as a core part of how you work, not as a novelty
• Have earned real trust from a founder or senior executive before, and can say what that person came to rely on them for

The founders are building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. The person in this seat is how they stay fast enough to do it.

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam - all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents
• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA
• One Medical membership, on us - same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city
• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot
• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents
• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)
• Closed for all federal holidays
• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas
• Company offsites throughout the year

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees
• $50/month commuter benefit (company con