Chief of Staff

San Francisco, CA

Full-time

51-200

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The Role

Kargo is scaling quickly with enterprise deployments while the CEO remains a central point of cross-functional alignment. As the company grows its leadership layer and operating cadence, it is important to reduce communication overhead without adding unnecessary processes.

The Chief of Staff will be a strategic, execution-oriented partner to the CEO. This role focuses on creating leverage, improving coordination across teams, and driving the company’s highest-impact priorities to completion.

This is not an EA role. It is a high-context position for someone who can operate independently, create clarity amid ambiguity, see around corners, and help the organization scale thoughtfully.

Key Responsibilities

Create leverage for the CEO

Act as an extension of the CEO by capturing context, synthesizing decisions, and turning priorities into execution.
Own the CEO’s operating rhythm including agendas, pre-reads, follow-ups, decision tracking, and accountability.
Proactively identify risks, gaps, and bottlenecks and drive resolution.

Reduce cross-functional “communication tax”

Design and run lightweight mechanisms that improve coordination across Sales, Engineering and Software, Hardware and Operations, Finance, and People Operations.
Translate across functions when necessary, without becoming a permanent intermediary.
Ensure the right stakeholders are aligned on priorities, dependencies, and timelines, especially when the CEO is traveling.

Drive strategic initiatives and special projects. Examples include:

Organization design and leadership layering initiatives
Internal systems for planning, prioritization, and execution that remain practical and lightweight

Help scale the leadership layer and operating model

Partner with the CEO and Head of Talent on hiring strategy for critical roles, interview design, and candidate calibration.
Support leaders in adopting clear operating principles focused on ownership, speed, and customer service.
Help ensure the company continues to prioritize individual contribution and execution as it adds leadership capacity.

Reinforce culture and values as the company scales

Support a culture of low ego, high ownership, and fast, high-quality decision making.
Help operationalize the belief that customer service is a competitive advantage through responsiveness standards and escalation paths.

Success Metrics

The CEO is no longer required to personally manage day-to-day cross-functional alignment.
Fewer surprises and faster decisions with clear ownership.
A consistent operating cadence is in place with meetings that matter and follow-through without intervention from the CEO.
Leaders operate with greater shared context and reduced reliance on the CEO as the central connector.

Who You Are

High judgment and high velocity
Low ego and strong sense of ownership; you optimize for outcomes, not credit.
Exceptional communicator with strong written and verbal skills
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and turning it into action
Systems thinker; you build simple mechanisms that scale (no process theater)

Relevant Experience

At least 3-5 years in relevant roles like Chief of Staff, BizOps/RevOps, product/program management, strategic operations, or startup leadership roles with heavy cross-functional scope
Comfort working in technical environments and communicating effectively with engineers, product teams, and operations leaders

Nice to have

Experience in supply chain, logistics, industrial technology, or AI-enabled products
Experience working closely with a CEO or founder in a growing B2B company
Exposure to enterprise customers and complex deployments