Chief of Staff for Harish/ Founder's Office role

Update on Feb 22: we have closed this opening but as we bring more order to our chaos, we will be hiring for more roles to work closely with me/ Sirisha that are going to be similarly scary (in a BHAG-sense and not necessarily about who they will work with :)). And our process for hiring will be similar.

If you or anyone you know is interested in any of the following career paths:

1. Becoming a great Chief of Staff for any high-performing leader who is juggling multiple priorities
2. Becoming a founder who’s running something of their own
3. Getting on the consulting path carving out your own niche within ABD or any other consulting company

you should consider working with me.

Who am I and what do I do?

I, Harish, am a co-founder at Align By Design. We help ambitious leaders realise their team’s scaling potential by making culture an unfair advantage. We have taken on an insanely scary goal : by 2030, we want to help 1024 leaders build aligned teams.?

I’m responsible for org. building, growth, business development and I contribute to project delivery. So my typical work day could be a mix of one or all of the following:

• Write a chapter of our next book
• Content creation for social media (LinkedIn/ Twitter) to showcase our thought leadership
• Discovery call with a sales prospect and send them a proposal
• Talk to potential partners (funds, accelerators, training companies) - figure out win-win offerings and follow-up with a document detailing what we have agreed on
• Conduct market research on competitors
• Explore tech., academia and partners to continuously improve our offerings
• Record/ appear on a podcast
• Research on, connect with and nurture potential prospects, partners and employees
• Create and maintain internal systems and dashboards (growth, delivery excellence, strategy, finance etc.)
• Conduct some client employee interviews to gain insights into a client’s cultural norms
• Prepare for and facilitate a leader alignment workshop
• Advise a client on their People strategy
• Write job posts like these

I need someone to help me not just stay on top of all this but significantly improve what and how I do it so that we crack Mission 1024. And slowly and surely hive off these responsibilities to teams and people as we grow. For the sake of ABD, you and me, I should be doing only a fraction of these in 2025!

Mission 1024 is already scarily exciting. If you still want to be convinced about why you should consider working with me - check out our work and profiles (there's a reason why I'm not providing all the links - I expect you to do some research) Working with me will be intellectually stimulating! We were super fortunate to have had and continue to have great mentors throughout our careers. Often, our professional standards and work ethic is the secret sauce/ differentiator why we have such a rich network of well-wishers and interesting, great clients. The only way to compensate our mentors is to pay it forward - we will coach you to operate at our work ethic and professional standards, if not better! Yes - we will expect you to do the same with others over the years.?

And rest assured, we will learn all that you know that we don’t. This is not going to be a one-way street!

Job Description

Well, there is no job description. You will do whatever is needed to make Mission 1024 successful. The range of work will encompass note-taking, making PPTs, cold outreach, following up, plugging my gaps (I found out about Insta shorts and YT reels a few days ago!), managing lists, documents, creating systems using tools/ technology, reading, writing, watching, listening AND thinking!

Requirements

Diligence, accountability, excellent English communication skills, ability to manage multiple priorities, project management, understanding of the current zeitgeist of culture/work/people management/leadership/motivation/founders/personal knowledge management. Exposure to a previous workplace is not mandatory but will make your job easier. An MBA or formal degree in liberal arts/ economics/ business/ journalism is not mandatory but skills learned in such courses will put you in a stronger position when we chat.

Where will you work?

We are currently WFH but I’m happy to start working from a co-working space in Baner, Balewadi, Pimple Nilakh, Aundh areas of Pune if that works better for both of us. You will Bring Your Own Device.

How much will you be paid?

We will pay a fixed stipend of Rs. 50,000/- (deducting TDS of 10%) for the first 6 months. We should both be able to decide within the first 3 months if we are a good fit for each other or not.?

How do you apply?

Fill this form - there was going to be a catch, somewhere no!??

Here's the URL of the form: https://forms.gle/XXseDvU6WEcTVPmSA

P.S. I have deliberately used some jargon/ not given links to provide more information where required. If you ask, I will definitely provide the required info. I want to see how you will deal with such vagueness.