Who are we?

Coastal Carbon is a seed-funded startup on a mission to create positive impact through earth observation and AI. Founded at the University of Waterloo by a team of PhDs and engineers, we’re backed by some of the best AI and climate tech investors like HF0, Inovia Capital and Propeller Ventures, angels like James Tamplin (cofounder Firebase) and Sid Gorham (cofounder OpenTable, Granular), and partners like Amazon AWS and the United Nations.

What do we do?

We’re building multimodal foundation models for the natural world. We believe there’s more to the world than the internet + more to intelligence than memorizing the internet. Our models are trained on satellite remote sensing and real world ground truth data, and are used by our customers in nature conservation, carbon dioxide removal, and government to protect and positively impact our increasingly changing world. Our ultimate goal is to build AGI of the natural world.

About the role

We’re seeking a Chief of Staff & Director of Business Development to join our founding management team. We see this as a critical role in helping shape the future of our company.

Working closely with our CEO, you will be focused on shaping our commercial strategy, team build out, and systems + processes as we scale rapidly. You will also assist in our upcoming fundraise, developing material and supporting relationship building.

Outcomes, months 0-6:

1. Commercial Strategy Development:

• Collaborate closely with the CEO and stakeholders to drive development of our commercial roadmap and case studies.

• Define and prioritize markets, pricing, partnerships, and conduct outreach.

2. Operational Excellence and Performance Monitoring:

• Support development and implementation of a dynamic reporting system used to track team performance against key goals.

• Support monitoring of our Objectives and Key Results (OKR) to track progress towards goals and drive visibility and performance across the company.

3. Team Building and Management:

• Support the build out of a high-performing team including optimization of our hiring processes to ensure we bring in A Players who can deliver exceptional return on investment.

• Oversee HR functions including onboarding, performance reviews, and compensation processes.

4. Stakeholder Management and Fundraising:

• Assist the CEO in the building and maintaining of relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including board members, investors, partners, clients, and suppliers.

• Support fundraising efforts through material generation

5. G&A:

• Oversee project budgets and finances, including financial performance reporting and budget projections.

• Handle routine correspondence and manage the CEO’s day-to-day schedule.

• Identify and resolve operational challenges to ensure smooth project management.

Outcomes, on-going:

• Operational Management: Manage cross-functional efforts involving our accounting, legal, and business partners to refine financial projections, commercialization strategies, and operational tactics.

• Strategic Analysis and Reporting: Efficiently organize and dissect complex business issues, swiftly producing detailed financial models and presentation decks to facilitate informed decision-making and strategy formulation.

• Customer Success: Oversee customer interaction strategies to enhance product adoption and satisfaction, playing a critical role in our long-term customer engagement plans.

• Representation and Advocacy: Act as the voice of the CEO and Coastal Carbon, ensuring alignment between executive decisions and operational execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree, with an MBA preferred but not required.

• 5+ years of experience in tech, VC, consulting, finance, or operations in a high growth startup environment (your expertise will be invaluable)

• Location wise, strong preference for in-person in Waterloo. We are an entirely in-person team, but are willing to consider remote for exceptional candidates.

Nice to have

• Scrappy, get shit done (“bias for action”) mentality

• Willingness to coach and be coached. Our team aims to learn from one another. No ego, just helping each other grow and become our best selves.