About the Position

VP of Operations

Location

New York City

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

G&A Operations

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.

Responsibilities

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.

Requirements

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. Tools like Claude, Code, Codex, 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

VP of Operations

Job description