Databases are the beating heart of every business in the world.

Cockroach Labs is the creator of CockroachDB, the most highly evolved cloud-native, distributed SQL database on the planet that scales fast, survives anything, and thrives anywhere. We created CockroachDB to unshackle teams from the constraints of their database. Join us on our mission to enable every developer to build world-changing applications!

About the Role

Cockroach Labs is looking for a business leader to join the team as our first Chief of Staff to the CEO. In this high-visibility role, you will partner with the CEO and the executive team to ensure effective alignment, decision-making, execution, and communication strategies are deployed across the company. You will develop strong relationships to understand and highlight the challenges experienced by the CEO's organization at all levels. Ideally, you have experience in change management, operations, and strategy, allowing you to become an extension of the CEO and executive leadership team, which will ensure their time and attention are focused on the highest impact initiatives. As the CEO's 'trusted counsel,' the role requires a highly resourceful individual with strong emotional intelligence, self-motivation, and strong analytical skills. You must be willing to use your power and influence to lead from behind.

You Will

• Act as a go-to liaison, helping the CEO execute the company’s highest priorities on a given day or week while working on longer-term special projects and strategic initiatives.
• Develop and maintain an inventory of critical path projects that implement the CEO’s strategy and/or for which their awareness and involvement is essential.
• Run the annual and quarterly planning process, working with extended leadership to align their objectives and team communications in support of the CEO’s strategy and ensure progress is being made timely and that any input needed from the CEO is obtained.
• Keep CEO updated on project status and variations from schedule or scope, which includes updating and scoring of the company’s objectives.
• Build and run cadence for Exec meetings, board meetings, and leadership offsites.
• Establish an operational cadence of the business by bringing all the data and metrics in a common set of dashboards for the executive team.
• Initiate the development of upcoming communications, content, and materials independent of the CEO when possible or in partnership with the CEO—including weekly all-hands, presentations, videos, announcements, speaking engagements, etc. for both internal and external audiences.
• Communicate with investors while helping to prepare board materials (e.g., briefing, decks, etc.), investment decks, executive presentations, and other high-value collateral.
• Substitute for the CEO in key internal meetings or client onsites by facilitating, participating, and/or listening in these meetings (estimated travel expectation is one trip per month).

The Expectations

In your first 30 days, you will work closely with the CEO and the executive team to better understand the company’s strategy and how each division supports the company’s objectives. You will work closely with each executive to create strategies and actionable steps to crystalize their objectives and key results for the company. Your background in working in an operational capacity across teams will give you a strong foundation to understand how to effectively partner with both executives and managers. You will spend much of your first 30 days listening and learning, while elevating the CEO to focus on furthering the vision of Cockroach Labs.

After your first 30 days, you will continue to look for areas to drive executive efficiency, while removing barriers for the CEO by representing their voice and being their ears in internal meetings. These engagements will give you the ability to start solving problems, mediating disputes and dealing with any matters before they are brought to the chief executive. You will further cement your relationship with the executive team by acting as a sounding board to help them with any challenges they are facing.   

Across your first few months at Cockroach Labs, you will take on management of a variety of engagements and projects that crystalize the strategic vision of the business to be shared across the company, the board, and externally. 

You Have

• 8+ years of demonstrated success in a Chief of Staff, Business Operations, Strategy Consulting-related or equivalent role.  
• Ability to navigate through, communicate complex ideas effectively, build trust, and network at an executive level - verbally, in writing, and in presentations
• Advanced decision-making skills and ability to exercise good judgment, including the ability to be proactive and adapt quickly
• Leads, by example, create a sense of urgency, energy, and ownership
• Apply creative solutions based on new insights to make organizational improvements
• Able to deeply question and investigate the reasoning and logic of ideas and approaches
• Actively seeks solutions to problems before being asked or directed
• Questions the way a process is done and suggests changes
• Looks for new ways to contribute to the business
• Detail-oriented, organized, and able to manage multiple complex projects/programs simultaneously
• Strong sense of self-awareness, can relate well, learns quickly, and adapts to changes while remaining calm under pressure

The Team

Spencer Kimball - Co-founder & CEO

Spencer strives to maintain a delicate balance between his love for programming distributed systems and the excitement of helping the company grow smoothly. He first cut his teeth on databases during the dot com heyday, and had a front row seat at Google for a decade’s worth of their evolution. His best part of leaving work is stepping out into the brilliant and always exciting life of Manhattan with his daughter and Carl (his dog).

Our Benefits

• 100% health insurance coverage (for you and your dependents!)
• Paid parental leave (with baby bucks)
• Flex Fridays
• Flexible time off & flexible hours
• Education reimbursement
• Relocation support

Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at [email protected].