VP of Operations

Shelf; United States; On-site; USD 260,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Very meaningful equity

Flexible PTO

Comprehensive health coverage

Job summary

Shelf seeks an experienced operator to lead and scale the company’s AI-native operating system and operational engine. You will work directly with the founders to make Shelf faster, smarter, leaner, and more effective, challenging current practices and bringing external ideas to optimize the business monthly.

You’ll own Sales Ops, RevOps, Marketing Ops, People Ops, recruiting, legal and vendor negotiations, adapting to the company’s evolving needs as new fires arise.

Qualifications

• 16+ years building and scaling high-growth technology startups.
• Growth, funnels, KPIs, unit economics, experimentation, and first principles.
• AI-native company focus with tools like Claude, Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT, n8n, Salesforce, HubSpot, Attio, Clay, Rippling, Ramp, Tabs, Snowflake, Fivetran, SQL, Sigma, Hex, Python.
• Exceptional leadership: accountability, cross-functional execution, alignment and high impact.

Responsibilities

• Build an AI-native operating system for Shelf and own AI leverage across functions.
• Optimize internal workflows, tooling, vendor relationships and process efficiency.
• Be the GTM partner with Sales and Marketing on funnel analytics, pipeline health, RevOps, and pricing strategy.
• Own a broad range of operational needs including Sales Ops, RevOps, Marketing Ops, People Ops, recruiting, legal and vendor negotiations.

Skills

Experience 16+ years

Growth & Analytics

AI & Systems

Leadership

Tools

Claude

Claude Code

ChatGPT

Salesforce

HubSpot

Attio

Clay

Rippling

Ramp

Snowflake

Fivetran

SQL

Sigma

Hex

Python

n8n

Job description

The ultimate Swiss Army knife leader. Fight fires. Help us grow. Optimize everything. Work directly with our founders and department heads to eliminate bottlenecks, solve the company's hardest problems, and build an AI-native operating system that makes every team dramatically more effective.

About Shelf

Everyone is talking about agentic AI. One problem: but nobody is handing the keys to an agent that still guesses. One hallucination in a 20-step workflow, and everything breaks.

The real bottleneck isn't the model. It's deterministic answers. Deterministic answers require an enterprise knowledge vault. We've spent the last eight years building exactly that.

Now we're building the rest of the stack.

What You’ll Own

This is one of the most important leadership hires we'll make.

You'll work directly with our founders to make Shelf faster, smarter, leaner, and more effective. You'll challenge how we work, bring the best ideas from outside the company, and continuously improve how the business operates.

Your job is simple: make Shelf better every month.

• Build an AI-Native Operating System — Own how Shelf leverages AI across every function. Continuously evaluate the latest tools, agents, workflows, and platforms, then implement the ones that make us faster, smarter, and more efficient. If there's a better way to operate, you'll find it first.

• Optimize Everything — Continuously improve how Shelf operates. Eliminate manual work, redesign workflows, improve internal tooling, negotiate better vendor relationships, and make every team faster and more effective.

• Be the GTM Partner — Partner closely with Sales and Marketing on funnel analytics, pipeline health, RevOps, Marketing Ops, campaign performance, territory planning, pricing strategy, and the operational engine behind growth.

• Own Everything In Between — Jump into whatever the business needs most. Sales Ops, RevOps, Marketing Ops, People Ops, recruiting, legal, vendor negotiations, operational projects, or the next fire that needs putting out.

Ideal Candidate

• Experience — 16+ years building and scaling high-growth technology startups, ideally from Seed through Series B/C, as a founder, COO, Chief of Staff, VP of Operations, strategy leader, or senior operator.

• Growth & Analytics Guru — You naturally think in dashboards, funnels, KPIs, unit economics, experimentation, and first principles. You know how to turn messy data into clear business decisions and operational improvements.

• AI & Systems Guru — You're obsessed with building AI-native companies. Claude, Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT, n8n, Salesforce, HubSpot, Attio, Clay, Rippling, Ramp, Tabs, Snowflake, Fivetran, SQL, Sigma, Hex, Python, and whatever comes next are already part of your toolkit. You're constantly evaluating what's new and asking, "Should Shelf be using this?"

• Exceptional Leader — You raise the bar for everyone around you. You're comfortable holding leaders accountable, influencing without authority, making difficult decisions, and driving cross-functional execution. You create alignment, build trust, and make teams better.

Why Join Shelf

• Build the Future of Enterprise AI — Help define how AI-native companies will operate over the next decade.

• Industry Leader — We've spent the last eight years becoming a leader in enterprise AI knowledge. Now we're building the next chapter.

• Backed by World-Class Investors — Join a company supported by leading investors and trusted by many of the world's largest enterprises.

• Accelerate Your Career — You'll wear more hats, own more projects, and gain more exposure in a year than most people get in several. There are very few places where you'll learn this much, this quickly.

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation — $260,000-$300,000 base salary + very meaningful equity

• Flexible PTO

• Medical, Dental & Vision — Comprehensive health coverage