Chief of Staff at sprucesystems

SpruceID builds privacy-preserving, standards-based digital identity and credentialing solutions that give individuals control of their information while enabling governments and enterprises to deliver secure, interoperable services. We partner with public-sector organizations to modernize how identity is issued, verified, and used. We are pre-product-market-fit, growing fast, and operating at the intersection of technology, policy, and public trust.  The Chief of Staff will make the CEO dramatically more effective by managing bandwidth and priorities. The ideal candidate will be able to operate as a proactive player-coach hybrid. Strategic enough to sit in on a pricing discussion or a legislative briefing and add real value. Tactical enough to make sure every follow-up actually happens. Willing to draft a policy memo at 9am and clean up CRM data at 2pm. The through-line is judgment, ownership, and the ability to context-switch throughout the day. To facilitate face-to-face work and build internal trust with the CEO, preference will be given to candidates located in the NY metro area. Remote candidates willing to travel frequently will be considered, but local is strongly preferred. A Note on Work Style The CEO travels frequently and sometimes keeps unpredictable hours around customer deadlines and conferences, but that's his calendar, not yours. The role is demanding because of its breadth and pace, not because we expect you to be on-call around the clock. That said, the person who will thrive in this role will be a self-starter who spots what needs doing and moves on it without waiting for direction. What You'll Do • Deal & Pipeline Support - Government sales cycles are long, complex, and unforgiving. You'll own CRM hygiene, prep the CEO for meetings (pulling background on agencies, legislators, and procurement officers), draft follow-up emails, and track where every opportunity stands. Nothing falls through the cracks between a conference handshake and an RFP response. • AI-Driven Process Improvement - You'll have a standing mandate to find places where AI can create velocity. That might mean building a monitoring pipeline that auto-summarizes new state-level identity legislation, setting up AI-assisted meeting prep workflows that pull relevant context before every government call, or creating drafting tools that let the CEO review and ship content in a fraction of the time. • Strategic Research & Synthesis - In govtech and digital identity, the landscape shifts fast: new NIST frameworks, state-level legislative changes, competitor moves, procurement shifts. You'll proactively monitor these developments, synthesize them into digestible briefs, and flag what matters to the CEO. • Communications & Content Leverage - The CEO frequently represents the company as a thought leader and public face, speaking at conferences, writing policy memos, and briefing legislators. You'll draft, edit, and polish these outputs. Turn a rough voice memo into a polished one-pager. Prep speaker notes. Ghost-draft blog content that positions the company in the market. • Cross-Functional Gap-Filling - Running a hiring process one week, managing event prep the next, jumping into a partner integration workstream after that. The willingness and ability to move fluidly across these contexts will be critical to success in this role. • Travel - Based in the U.S. (NY metro preferred) and willing to travel as needed to meet with government clients and attend company events Qualifications • 5-8+ years of experience in some combination of strategy, operations, consulting, business development, or a high-ownership role within a technology company. The exact path matters less than the pattern: you've consistently been the person others rely on to make things happen. • Exceptional written communication: You'll be drafting on the CEO's behalf regularly - emails, memos, briefs, public content. • AI-native: More than just “uses ChatGPT,” you think in terms of workflow automation, monitoring pipelines, Slack integrations, and using AI to create leverage across the org. You see AI as a way to do the work of three people. • Comfort with ambiguity and context-switching: The scope of this role changes week to week. Agility, judgment, and the ability to prioritize and compartmentalize will serve you well. • Familiarity with government or regulated industries: Understanding procurement cycles, the pace of government decision-making, and how to navigate bureaucratic stakeholders is a major plus. You don't need to be a policy expert, but you shouldn't be intimidated by a FISMA briefing or a state legislative session. • High agency, low ego: Comfortable doing unglamorous work but capable of contributing meaningfully in a strategy session. No task is beneath you; no conversation is above you. At SpruceID, we value diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or veteran status.