Head of Operations / COO

Clera; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Clera is seeking a Head of Operations/COO to own day-to-day operations, lead customer delivery, and build supplier and freight operations to enable serving more manufacturers. You will partner with founders on planning, finance, and company priorities while hiring and guiding the growing operations team.

You should bring senior leadership experience in operations, hands-on supply chain, and a track record of scaling services in early-stage environments, with a bias for building processes from

Qualifications

• Senior operations leadership experience at Head of Ops/COO/VP/Director level or similar.
• Hands-on supply chain, procurement, logistics, or manufacturing operations experience.
• Experience in early-stage startups or small teams with ability to build processes from scratch.
• Strong quantitative, systems design, and process design skills.
• Experience serving manufacturers (food, consumer goods, cosmetics, chemicals) is a plus.
• Freight brokerage, 3PL or startup experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own operations end-to-end: onboarding, order execution, supplier & carrier coordination, issue resolution.
• Build scalable processes, metrics, and playbooks for service delivery.
• Collaborate with engineering to automate workflows via AI agents.
• Manage supplier and freight ops, vendor relationships, and service quality.
• Hire and lead the operations team as the company scales.
• Partner with founders on planning, finance and priorities.

Skills

Ops leadership

Supply chain

Startup experience

Process design

Quantitative skills

Freight/logistics

Job description

About the Role

A seed-stage AI company serving manufacturers is hiring a Head of Operations / COO to own how the business runs day to day. Working closely with the founders, you will lead customer delivery and build the supplier and freight operations that help a small team serve more customers.

What You'll Do

• Own operations end to end, including customer onboarding, order execution, supplier and carrier coordination, and issue resolution.

• Build the processes, metrics, and playbooks needed to scale service for manufacturers.

• Partner with engineering to identify operational workflows that AI agents should automate next.

• Manage supplier and freight operations, vendor relationships, and service quality.

• Hire and lead the operations team as the business grows.

• Work with the founders on planning, finance, and company priorities.

What We're Looking For

• Senior operations leadership experience as a Head of Operations, COO, VP or Director of Operations, or in a similar role.

• Hands-on experience in supply chain, procurement, logistics, or manufacturing operations.

• Experience at an early-stage startup or on a small team, with a willingness to build processes from the ground up and stay hands-on.

• Strong quantitative, systems, and process design skills.

• Experience serving manufacturers in areas such as food, consumer goods, cosmetics, or chemicals is helpful.

• Freight brokerage, third-party logistics, or early startup experience is a plus.

Location

This is an on-site role in San Francisco, California, five days a week. Candidates may relocate from elsewhere in the United States.