Special Forces

Crane Venture Partners; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

In-person culture

Holiday allowance

Learning budget

Trips to prospects/conferences

Company lunches

Social events

Job summary

Encord, the universal data layer for AI, seeks a hands-on operator to work with the co-founders on strategic priorities across GTM, engineering, growth, and operations. You will support key accounts, research markets, evaluate vendors, and help shape external communications.

This is a fast-paced, mission-driven role requiring strong analytical skills, exceptional communication, and a proven ability to manage multiple workstreams in a startup environment.

Qualifications

• Own ambiguous briefs and drive to a clear outcome with minimal hand-holding.
• Thrives in high-velocity environments and can prioritise across workstreams.
• Strong numerical and data-driven decision abilities (Excel/Sheets).
• Adept at producing concise, polished decks and memos.
• Bonus: exposure to GTM functions (marketing, sales ops, or customer success).

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with co-founders on strategic priorities across GTM, engineering, growth, and operations.
• Support key account relationships from scoping to issue resolution.
• Research markets and competitive landscapes to inform strategy.
• Evaluate vendors/partners and recommend what goes into production.
• Plan and attend events, including speaker or sponsor outreach.
• Support executive communications and external content strategy.
• Build trackers and dashboards to inform decisions across data types.

Skills

End-to-end ownership

Strategic thinking

Analytical skills

Excellent communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

About us

Encord is the universal data layer for AI that helps 300+ AI teams train and run models on the right data. Our platform indexes, curates, annotates, and evaluates data across the full AI lifecycle, from development through production.

Trusted by Woven by Toyota, AXA, UiPath, Zipline, and more. We're an ambitious team of 100+ working at the frontier of AI and have raised $60M in Series C funding from Wellington Management, CRV, Next47 and Y Combinator.

The role

This is a unique opportunity for an ambitious, driven individual who wants to see the inside of a fast-paced scale-up while working closely with the co-founders and senior team. The ideal candidate is someone willing to work hard, roll up their sleeves, and support the founders' priorities while learning every aspect of the business; ideal for someone who can execute at a high level across a wide range of responsibilities.

You will work directly with the co-founders and company leadership with direct visibility into an exciting, high-growth, mission-driven business.

What you'll do

• Work directly with the co-founders on strategic priorities across GTM, engineering, growth, and company operations, including how the leadership team runs (reporting cadences, business reviews, etc.)

• Support key account relationships alongside the commercial team as engagements evolve, from scoping to resolving commercial issues

• Research the market and competitive landscape to inform decisions, from customer research to competitive positioning

• Assist in vendor and partner evaluation and make recommendations on what moves into production

• Plan, execute, and attend events. From company offsites to industry conferences. Responsibilities can include speaker, sponsor outreach, and more.

• Support executive communications and external-facing content strategy

• Build trackers and dashboards that help the team make decisions across a variety of data types

Who we're looking for

• A do-er who is comfortable rolling up your sleeves for anything from an internal slide deck to a client demo, and energized by building something from the ground up

• You take end-to-end ownership of broad, ambiguous problems and think from first principles to get to a result, without needing hand-holding

• Obsessed with outcomes: you work best when given a goal and the autonomy to find a way there, iterating scrappily and resourcefully until it's done

• Entrepreneurial and comfortable context-switching rapidly: a candidate interview, an Excel model, and a vision-pitch draft might all land in the same afternoon

• Detail-oriented and proactively communicative. You and your team are always up to date, things rarely slip, and you're already thinking three steps ahea

Experience requirements

• 2+ years in a high‑intensity, high‑velocity environment — early-stage startup (founding team or first 20 employees), top-tier management consulting, investment banking, private equity, or a similarly demanding, execution-focused setting

• Demonstrated ability to take an ambiguous brief, structure the problem, and drive it to a high-quality output end-to-end

• Strong analytical and quantitative skills — comfortable building Excel or Google Sheets models, analysing product usage data, tracking growth metrics, and drawing actionable conclusions from numbers

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce polished decks, memos, and external-facing materials quickly and to a high standard

• Proven track record of managing multiple workstreams simultaneously without dropping the ball

• Bonus: prior exposure to B2B SaaS or AI/ML; experience supporting a founder or C-suite executive directly; familiarity with GTM functions such as marketing, sales ops, or customer success

What we offer

• Competitive salary, commission, and equity in a hyper-growth business

• Strong in-person culture: most of our team is in the office 4x/week

• Generous holiday allowance + public holidays

• Annual learning and development budget

• Paid trips to visit prospects, attend conferences, and host events across the UK, Europe, and US

• Company lunches twice a week

• Monthly socials & bi-annual off-sites