Founders Associate / Operations Manager (m/w/d)

We are looking for someone who sees a problem, gets the information themselves, builds a solution and implements it without being told how to do so. This is exactly the right role for you!

We are an independently financed startup in the renewable energy sector with 36 employees and currently scaling up to 70+. You will work directly with the COO and take over operational projects across the company: HR, Recruiting, Strategy, Legal, Accounting, B2B Sales. Don't analyze, solve.

This is not a role for people who just want to arrive. This is the role for people who deliver from day one and want a steep learning curve.

Why this role, why now

We are currently rebuilding our operations team to lay the foundation for further growth. A new colleague will start in Berlin soon. However, there are so many projects that we want to strengthen the team with top talent to be able to set priorities later.

The role reports directly to the COO. No intermediate level, no feedback loop

Aufgaben

• SOLVE PROBLEMS, DON'T MANAGE THEM – HR, Legal, Accounting, Recruiting, B2B Sales. You won't get a briefing, but a challenge. You break it down, build the solution and implement it. In days, not weeks.
• BUILD PROCESSES FROM SCRATCH – Many things are still done by voice. You turn them into repeatable systems: contract templates, recruiting funnel, quality gates, checklists. Then it will run without you.
• KEEP THE THREADS TOGETHER – Two locations, external service providers, internal teams. You hold the threads together, ensure that commitments are kept and nothing is left lying around.
• PREPARE DECISIONS – KPI reports, cost comparisons, action options. So prepared that the COO can decide in 5 minutes instead of 2 hours.
• FILL GAPS – Nobody will tell you where a gap is. You find it yourself and act. Without approval process, without feedback loop at every step.

Qualifikation

• IMPLEMENT WITHOUT GUIDANCE – You've already built something from scratch. A process, a system, a structure. Without template, without manual. You don't need a briefing to get started.
• OWNERSHIP – If something is left lying around, it bothers you more than your boss. You drive topics through until they are completed, not until they are handed over.
• TEMPO – 80% today beats 100% next week. New topic in 2 hours digested, reliable recommendation given, directly implemented.
• KI AS A TOOL – You use Claude, ChatGPT or similar tools daily productively to solve problems, produce texts, calculate options.
• CLEAR TEXT – You write so that decisions are made. Problem, options, recommendation, done.

A completed degree in any field is required. First operational experience in a startup, scale-up or dynamic mid-sized company is a plus. Internship or work student counts if you really moved something.

Benefits

• – Your own topics, your own decisions. You get projects from day one that move the company forward. That's the level where you start.
• DIRECT NEXT TO THE COO – No team lead in between, no feedback loop. You sit at the source where strategy is born and implement it directly.
• CLEAR MEASURABILITY – You will be measured by what you deliver. Not by attendance, not by sympathy. Your hiring scorecard defines what we expect. Then results count.
• GROWTH THROUGH OUTPUT – We have scaled from 6 to 36 employees in 12 months. Whoever delivers here grows with it. No career stages, but real responsibility that grows with it.
• FLEXIBILITY – Offices in Nuremberg and Berlin, partly remote possible. What counts are results, not attendance hours.