Chief of Staff (San Francisco)

Chief of Staff (San Francisco)

Who We Are:

Silicon Foundry, a Kearney company, is a boutique innovation advisory and corporate venture development firm. We sit at the intersection of emerging technology and corporate transformation, helping our Members—from Fortune 500s to forward-leaning public institutions—discover, connect, and co-create with the people and technologies shaping the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, we’re a small, elite team operating with startup agility and global influence.

What We’re Looking For:

We are looking for a Chief of Staff to join our team as we continue to scale and expand the scope of our business. This role will work directly with our CEO, Neal Hansch, on a wide range of initiatives - mirroring his day-to-day - from the pursuit of new business development opportunities, tackling operational elements as we refine our offering to the market, and executing an ever-changing number of strategic special projects. This is a unique opportunity to work very closely with our CEO and will afford the chance to contribute, learn and gain visibility across all aspects of Silicon Foundry’s business.

This person is someone highly proactive and organized, who can wear multiple hats, and loves to be involved in numerous impactful work streams at once. They thrive in a startup environment with significant flexibility, freedom, and responsibility. They have an endlessly positive and can-do attitude, attention to detail and with relentless drive.

Even if you do not meet all the requirements listed below, we still encourage you to apply for this position. While we strive to be thorough with our prerequisites, not everything about you as a candidate can be condensed into a list of bullet points.

Who You Are:

• You are excited to work closely with senior management - to quickly and continuously deliver impact by rolling up your sleeves to tackle a wide range of projects
• You have the ability to quickly grasp and use emerging technologies, product trends, cultural shifts, changing market dynamics, and understand how they can evolve, create opportunities, and shape the future.
• You are able to form thoughtful and considered perspectives on a breadth and depth of topics, supported by both objective evidence and strategic conviction.
• You have strong verbal and written communication and organization skills and experience interacting with senior stakeholders.
• You can work with minimal supervision and direction and proactively take ownership of tasks
• You want to work at a startup! And with that, you’re adaptable and eager to learn new skills. You love to wear multiple hats and manage several live projects simultaneously at any given point in time.
• You are empathetic, self-aware, and able to build strong relationships based on trust with both internal and external stakeholders.

What You’ll Do:

• Drive follow-through on key priorities: Act as an extension of the CEO, ensuring strategic initiatives move forward and no action items are left behind. You’ll track tasks, push for progress, and proactively surface risks and blockers.
• Stay Close to the Pulse of the Business: Build trusted relationships across the team, developing a deep understanding of what’s happening at every level of the organization. You’ll be a connector, communicator, and advisor who helps the CEO and leadership team stay informed and aligned.
• Special Projects: Mirroring and supporting a broad spectrum of activities that the CEO has a hand in and is responsible for across the firm, including interfacing with the Kearney partnership.
• Business Development: Work with the CEO to support business development activities to grow our Member network, from driving strategies for new prospects to pursue to funneling inbound opportunities across the team.
• Network building: Continuously build authentic relationships with startup founders and VC investors, while generating awareness and communicating our value proposition to the broader tech community - in partnership with the CEO and independently as appropriate.
• Experiences: Help orchestrate private events and executive briefings - crafting agendas and owning all aspects of these day-long immersive experiences for visiting C-suite executives.
• Logistics: In conjunction with Neal’s EA, coordinate strategic travel and event presence for Neal, including briefing documents, attendee mapping, schedule optimization, and real-time adjustments.

Desired Skills:

• 3-5+ years of proven performance in business or corporate development, venture capital, investment banking, or strategy consulting type roles
• Exceptional organizational skills, with a proven ability to manage multiple projects, track details, and ensure follow-through in a fast-paced environment
• Strong relationship builder who can earn trust across all levels of an organization and understand diverse team dynamics
• Excellent communication skills—both written and verbal—with the ability to synthesize complex ideas into clear, compelling presentations, proposals, and updates
• Strategic thinker with sound business judgment and the ability to anticipate needs, surface challenges, and proactively drive solutions
• Proven experience developing pitch decks, proposals, or client-facing materials that effectively tell a story and drive outcomes
• Highly adaptable, resourceful, and comfortable with ambiguity, thriving in environments where priorities shift and no two days are the same
• A self-starter with a strong sense of ownership and a bias for action—someone who’s always thinking two steps ahead and making sure the details don’t get lost
• Previous experience working closely with executives or leadership teams is a plus

Requirements:

• Role is for applicants currently in or willing to relocate (without assistance) to the San Francisco Bay Area. Note that a relocation budget is not available
• Role is based at our Hub in San Francisco and most weeks will be-4 days on-site
• Legally authorized to work in the United States (sponsorship for an employment visa is not available)

Why should you be interested?

• Unique individual role to collaborate with our senior leader(s) and core platform that spans exposure to venture capital, corporate development, business development, innovation, and strategic advisory
• Access to and relationship building with C-level executives from forward-thinking global corporates, top startup founders, and their venture investors
• Daily insight and exposure to a wide variety of sectors, including automotive, beauty, financial services, retail, industrial, etc
• Unique opportunity to build an early-stage start-up consultancy under the umbrella of a 100 year old top-tier consulting firm
• High degree of flexibility in managing personal time and schedule

Compensation & benefits:

• Benefits for your financial wellness
• Salary Range: up to $130,000
• Discretionary Bonus
• Pre-tax FSA and commuter benefits
• Mobile Communications Reimbursement Program for up to $150 per month for eligible expenses.
• 401(k) match - we contribute the equivalent of 3% of employee compensation (including bonuses) into a 401(k) plan, even if employee contributes nothing
• Benefits for your physical wellness
• Medical, dental and vision coverage with low monthly contribution for you and your dependents
• $100 monthly wellness stipend
• Benefits for your mental wellness
• Unlimited PTO Policy
• An annual 1 week company break between Christmas and New Year
• Hybrid-Office Model (for those residing in the San Francisco Bay Area)
• Education stipend of up to $5,000 per year per employee tuition or training requests of up to $5,000 per year per employee.
• Benefits for the Wellness of parents
• 12 weeks paid full parental leave
• Sparrow and Maven Clinic access (via Blue Cross Blue Shields Insurance)

Silicon Foundry, LLC,, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer- By Choice. We believe we are best equipped to help our Members, partners and colleagues to grow and navigate what’s next. We understand, respect, and value diversity - unique styles, experiences, identities, abilities, ideas and opinions- while being inclusive of all people.

About the company

Silicon Foundry, a Kearney company, is an innovation advisory firm that catalyzes opportunities and accelerates change to push the frontier of what’s possible.

We help our Members navigate new technologies and market shifts, discover and engage with key emerging leaders, and unlock high-impact customer, partnership, investment, co-creation, and acquisition opportunities. Our Members represent a diverse spectrum of corporations from across the globe, such as BP Innovation, NatWest, UPS, SK Innovation, Honda Innovations, the State of Michigan, and Southwest Airlines, and many more. Learn more at www.sifoundry.com.

Contact Person

Janina Lieser

janina@sifoundry.com