Founding Operator

Anthrogen; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity 0.1-0.75%

Job summary

Anthrogen in San Francisco is seeking a hands-on operations leader who can work directly with the founders to keep the company running as it grows. You’ll own critical fixes, recruit support, and build internal tools that save time.

You don’t need to arrive knowing protein design, but you should learn the research quickly, explain complex ideas clearly, and help tell Anthrogen’s story to the wider public with precision and impact.

Qualifications

• At least 1–2 years of startup operations experience with owned outcomes.
• Ability to handle uncertainty and make reversible decisions.
• Strong opinions on how startups succeed and culture.
• Coding ability to build small tools and automate workflows.
• Ability to learn technical domains and communicate with researchers.

Responsibilities

• Identify operational problems to tackle first and own resolution.
• Take on recruiting, onboarding, purchasing, external partners, facilities, and internal systems as priorities change.
• Build small tools and automations to remove repetitive work.
• Provide founders with clear recommendations on matters and options.
• Help shape public communications, making complex research clear and precise.
• Shape how the company works through hiring, communication, accountability, and time allocation.

Skills

Startup operations

Project management

Stakeholder communication

Coding small tools

Tools

Automation tools

Job description

About Anthrogen

Anthrogen is engineering post-modality biology. Today's modalities reflect historical contingencies in biological progress, not fundamental categories. We develop the AI systems that design modular biological machines and the experimental infrastructure to instantiate them. We're a small, high-density team in San Francisco building frontier AI and the biological systems to validate it, and we care most about people who move fast, go deep, and pick up whatever the problem needs.

The role

We want someone who intends to build a company and wants to help build this one first. You've spent at least a year or two in startup operations, seen what works and what doesn't, and are ready to own considerably more.

You'll work directly with the founders to make Anthrogen run. The work will change as the company grows: getting a critical hire across the line, working with external partners, building an internal tool, or fixing a process that is costing the team time. You won't get a complete task list. A large part of the job is figuring out what belongs on it, what can wait, and what we shouldn't be doing at all.

This requires learning what our scientists and engineers actually do. You don't need to arrive knowing protein design, but you should want to understand the research well enough to make good decisions about the company supporting it. You'll also help tell Anthrogen's story to the wider public, working with the founders and researchers to explain what we're building and why it matters.

What you'll do

• Identify the operational problems that most constrain the company, decide which to tackle first, and own them through resolution.

• Take on work across recruiting, onboarding, purchasing, external partners, facilities, and internal systems as priorities change, bringing in specialists when needed.

• Build small tools and automations that remove repetitive work, and check that they actually work for the people using them.

• Give the founders clear recommendations: what matters, what the options are, what you would do, and why.

• Help shape our public communications, making complex research clear and compelling without losing the precision that makes it worth sharing.

• Help shape how the company works through concrete decisions about hiring, communication, accountability, and where we spend our time.

Who you are

• You have at least 1-2 years of operations experience at a startup and can point to consequential work you personally owned, not just projects you participated in.

• You prioritize well under extreme uncertainty. You know when to get more information, when to make a reversible decision, and when a mistake would be expensive enough to slow down.

• You have strong, considered opinions about how successful startups are built and what makes a culture effective. You can explain where those opinions came from and change them when the evidence changes.

• You can code well enough to build useful tools and automate a workflow. AI-assisted coding is completely fine; you still need to understand what you've built, test it, and know when to ask an engineer for help.

• You have demonstrated that you can learn and work in technical settings, whether at a technical company, through your studies, or by building something yourself. No particular degree or industry background is required.

• You are ambitious, resourceful, and willing to do unglamorous work. You want responsibility for making the company work, not just proximity to its founders.

What comes next

You may want to start your own company in a couple of years. That's okay. We're looking for real ownership while you're here, not a promise to stay forever. If you go on to build something of your own, we'd be excited to be your day-one supporters.

Logistics

Full-time, onsite in San Francisco.

Compensation

Annual base salary: $100,000-$200,000.

Equity: 0.1-0.75%.