Business Operations Contractor, New Business Incubations

About the Role

A fast-growing consumer technology company is standing up a brand new business incubations team, and we are looking for a Business Operations Contractor to help bring it to life. This is a small, ring-fenced group of business, product, engineering, and finance people operating like an independent pod, with a single mission: rapidly ideate, prioritize, and test new business concepts to find the next big opportunity.

This is a hands-on, in-the-field role for someone who thrives in lean, resource-constrained environments. You will help shape the thesis behind early bets and, more importantly, get them off the ground. That means turning concepts into live tests in a matter of weeks, doing the fieldwork yourself, and being in the room when a test runs for the first time. You move fast with whatever is available, and you are comfortable doing work that does not scale yet, because that is how the team learns what to build next.

What You'll Do

• Own the logistics that turn a concept into a live test, including sourcing partners, scheduling, locations, and the details no one else is tracking.
  
• Show up in person where the test happens, whether that is a home, a market, or a partner site, and do the hands-on work to make it real.
  
• Pick up the phone to cold-call potential partners, meet with prospective customers and partners on the ground, and travel to other cities when a test calls for it.
  
• Keep several half-defined projects moving at once by tracking tasks, dates, and open items so nothing slips, and flag blockers early.
  
• Build basic financial models and business cases to pressure-test whether an idea is worth pursuing.
  
• Write up customer conversations and pilot results clearly and quickly, so the team can make a fast call on what to scale and what to kill.
  
• Own execution independently while receiving meaningful direction and macro-level guidance from the team lead.

Qualifications

• 6 to 10 years of experience with a clear track record of scrappy, fast-moving execution, and the ability to point to a specific role or project where you did exactly this kind of work.
  
• A business operations background focused on standing up or running customer-facing, financially driven initiatives, rather than internal functions such as learning and development.
  
• Experienced enough to operate independently, but still hungry to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty rather than manage a large team.
  
• Basic financial modeling and business case development ability, enough to put real thought into the numbers behind an idea, without needing to be a finance expert.
  
• A bias-to-action mindset: you would rather run a rough test this week than a perfect one next quarter, and you stay organized and calm when the plan changes.
  
• Clear, fast writing skills that let you capture what you learned so others can act on it.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a startup or in a special projects or incubations arm of a larger company, especially in lean environments where you had a few weeks and limited resources to prove something out.
  
• A background in a marketplace business, the kind that connects supply and demand and is known for moving quickly.
  
• Travel or hospitality experience, with a travel or hospitality marketplace startup background being ideal.
  
• Comfort with AI tools such as Claude, along with SQL or database skills to pull your own data for business cases.
  
• Strong Google Sheets and Excel skills, considered table stakes.

Key Details

• Start Date: September 2026

• Contract Duration: Approximately a 6 month contract running through March 1, 2027, with possibility of extension

• Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours per week

• Location: Full-time, approximately 40 hours per week, aligned to Pacific Time. San Francisco based candidates should expect to be in the office roughly 4 days per week to stay close to the team. Candidates based outside the Bay Area should be available to work on-site approximately one week per month, with some additional travel to other US cities for partner meetings and site visits as needed.

• Compensation: $65-$70 per hour (W2)