Special Forces

Crane Venture Partners; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Growth opportunities

In-person culture

Learning budget

Health coverage

Job summary

Encord is seeking an ambitious, driven professional to join a fast-paced scale-up in San Francisco. You will work closely with the co-founders and leadership, shaping priorities across GTM, engineering, growth, and operations while learning every facet of the business.

The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, cross-functional collaboration, and building data-driven dashboards and external communications to inform decisions as the company scales.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in a high-intensity, high-velocity environment (startup, top-tier consulting, investment banking, private equity)
• Ability to structure a vague brief and drive it end-to-end
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills; comfortable building Excel/Google Sheets models
• Excellent written and verbal communication; produce polished decks and memos quickly
• Proven track record of managing multiple workstreams simultaneously
• Bonus: experience with B2B SaaS or AI/ML; familiarity with GTM functions such as marketing, sales ops, or customer success

Responsibilities

• Work directly with the co-founders on strategic priorities across GTM, engineering, growth, and company operations
• Support key account relationships from scoping to resolving commercial issues
• Research the market and competitive landscape to inform decisions
• Assist in vendor and partner evaluation and make recommendations on what moves into production
• Plan, execute, and attend events including speaker and sponsor outreach
• Support executive communications and external-facing content strategy
• Build trackers and dashboards to help the team make data-driven decisions across diverse data types

Skills

Strategic thinking

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Project management

Startup experience

Problem solving

Tools

Excel/Sheets

Job description

About us

We're solving AI's hardest problem: alignment.

Encord is the data layer for Physical AI and enterprise, serving as core infrastructure for 300+ of the world's leading AI teams, including Woven by Toyota, Hitachi, Skydio, AbbVie and Dyna, Walden and Agility Robotics. From autonomous vehicles and robotics to sports and healthcare, we're solving AI's hardest problem: turning complex, real-world data into production-ready intelligent systems.

We're a team of founders, scientists, quants, researchers, and former Olympians, who’ve helped build some of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley, and alumni of MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial. We’ve raised $110M from legendary technology investors, early backers of companies like Databricks, ElevenLabs and Vercel, and we’re growing at an extraordinary pace.

We're looking for exceptional people who want to help build a category-defining company, operating with high urgency and taking real ownership to help shape the future of AI.

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

Why Encord

• Competitive salary, commission, and meaningful equity in a high-growth startup

• Clear, accelerated growth opportunities as the company scales rapidly

• Strong in-person culture: 4 days/week

• Daily team lunches & dinners

• Annual learning & development budget

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage

• US employees: 18 paid vacation days plus US public holidays

• UK employees: 25 paid vacation days plus UK public holidays

• Frequent travel opportunities across the U.S., London, and Europe

• Bi-annual company offsites & monthly socials

Operating principles

High agency

You see something broken, you fix it or find the person who can. We celebrate the people who solve 90% of a problem before anyone asks.

Build with care & urgency

We bear-hug the customer. Former founders and people from fast-moving, high-stakes environments thrive here.

Self-aware & hungry

We stay warm, self-aware, and genuinely hungry. We elevate our peers, and ego doesn't last long.

Invent in real time

We move toward the ambiguity. We’re pragmatic, resourceful, energized by the fact that there's no playbook.

If you're looking to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who push you to be better, we'd love to meet you.