Strategic Cross-Functional Operations Lead

River AI Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 380,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

River AI Inc. in San Francisco is seeking a high-agency, versatile operations leader to work across research, engineering, product, hardware, and go-to-market. You will move from idea to execution, reducing friction and creating connectivity so information and decisions flow where needed.

The role emphasizes shaping strategy, untangling problems, building new operating rhythms, and hands-on delivery. Compensation includes a base pay range of $200,000–$380,000 USD per year plus equity, with

Qualifications

• Significant experience in operations, strategy, program management, or chief of staff.
• Experience operating in a fast-paced startup or high-growth technology environment.
• Exceptional problem-solving and judgment, with the ability to quickly assess a situation and determine a practical path forward.
• Comfortable with significant ambiguity and able to create structure where none exists.
• Strong cross-functional instincts and the ability to build relationships and alignment across teams.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to distill complexity into clear decisions and actions.
• High agency, strong ownership, and a bias toward action.
• Comfortable moving between strategic thinking and hands-on execution.
• Strong data fluency and technical curiosity.
• Strong fluency with modern AI technologies and tools, including LLMs, agents, and AI-powered productivity.

Responsibilities

• Partner directly across the founding on the company’s highest-priority problems and initiatives.
• Turn ambiguity from “what’s going on?” to “here’s what we should do” to “here’s how we’ll make it happen.”
• Build connectivity across research, engineering, product, hardware, and go-to-market, legal, HR, finance, IT, and security, ensuring teams have the context and clarity needed to move quickly.
• Establish low-friction operating mechanisms that improve decision‑making, communication, and execution as River scales.
• Serve as a trusted thought partner, bringing clear analysis, sound judgment, and actionable recommendations.
• Anticipate needs and connect dots across the organization and surface opportunities, risks, and dependencies that may not be visible within a single function.
• Leverage AI tools to research, analyze, synthesize, automate, and execute faster.
• Execute to drive important work forward.

Skills

Operations leadership

Strategy execution

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Ambiguity management

Written and verbal communication

Data fluency

Ownership

Strategic thinking

AI literacy

Tools

LLMs

Automation tooling

Job description

River AI Inc. in San Francisco is seeking a high-agency, versatile operations leader to work across research, engineering, product, hardware, and go-to-market. You will move from idea to execution, reducing friction and creating connectivity so information and decisions flow where needed.

The role emphasizes shaping strategy, untangling problems, building new operating rhythms, and hands-on delivery. Compensation includes a base pay range of $200,000–$380,000 USD per year plus equity, with