The Role
Chief of Staff to the CEO who will run the company operating cadence, drive strategic cross-functional initiatives, manage board and investor preparation, support fundraising, shape organizational design, and lead the CEO Office team. The role requires executive judgment, strong analytical and communication skills, people leadership, financial modeling, discretion, and the ability to prototype internal tools with AI.
Summary Generated by Built In
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Role: Chief of Staff to the CEO
Department: CEO Office
Reports To: CEO
Location: Gurugram
Work timings: 3pm IST to 12am+ (Half US overlapping hours)
Team Stage: Series B
Team: Leads the CEO Office (Program & Strategy Managers, Founder's Office Associates)
Key Partners: CEO, Executive Team, Board & Investors, Product, Engineering, GTM, Customer Success, Finance, People
About Spyne
Spyne is building the AI operating system for automotive retail. It started with visual merchandising and has expanded into conversational AI. Spyne helps dealers move inventory faster, respond to buyers instantly, and run more of the dealership stack with AI. Founded by operators from Amazon, Cox, and OYO, Spyne has grown 30x in under three years and now powers 1,500+ dealerships across the US. Its products, Studio AI and Vini AI, are coming together into a full-stack Retail AI platform for modern dealerships.
- Rooftops live: 2,000+
- Growth: 2.5 to 3x a year for 3 consecutive years
- Revenue from the US: 80%+
- Net revenue retention: above 110%
- Integrations: 70+ across CRM, DMS, inventory, service and finance
- Team: 200+, primarily India-based
- Capital raised: $25M+ from Accel, Vertex Ventures and Storm Ventures
Why This Role Exists
Spyne is scaling faster than its operating system can keep up. The CEO's time is the company's scarcest resource. It is split across fundraising, US dealer groups, product bets and a fast-growing leadership team. We need a Chief of Staff who extends the CEO's reach. That means someone who runs how the company makes decisions, sets priorities and follows through, so the CEO can spend their time on the few things only a CEO can do.
This is not an executive assistant role, and it is not a pure strategy role. You will be the CEO's thought partner and the company's operating backbone. You will own the leadership cadence, drive the most important cross-functional bets from start to finish, and lead the CEO Office team. On many issues you will speak for the CEO, so the leadership team and the board must trust your judgment.
In the last 6 months, this seat would have meant:
- Designing and running the company's operating rhythm: annual and quarterly planning, OKRs, weekly exec staff and monthly business reviews across every function
- Owning board meeting preparation from start to finish: the board deck, pre-reads, metric definitions, and follow-through on board asks
- Leading the fundraising workstream alongside the CEO: the investor narrative, the data room, diligence management and investor updates
- Building the business case and 12-week launch plan for a new product line, covering pricing, pilot selection, vendor contracts and the handoff to a GM
- Designing the ESOP distribution framework across ~200 employees and working through leveling and compensation questions with People and Finance
- Running the org design and senior hiring process for new leadership roles, from role scoping to closing candidates
- Framing M&A-adjacent and partnership questions (build vs. buy vs. partner) deeply enough for a CEO decision
- Running competitive research deep enough to reposition a product against incumbents
- Prototyping internal tools with Claude Code or Cursor, such as leadership dashboards and planning trackers, instead of writing a spec and waiting
Some weeks you're in spreadsheets pressure-testing unit economics before a board meeting. Some weeks you're on calls with US dealer groups or investors. Some weeks you're sorting out a stuck decision between two exec team members. Some weeks you're shipping a v0 of something yourself because that's faster than briefing a team.
What You'll Do
- Be the CEO's force multiplier. Triage what reaches the CEO, prepare them for high-stakes meetings, and make sure every decision they make has an owner, a deadline and follow-through. Represent the CEO in forums they can't attend, and make calls on their behalf within agreed limits.
- Own the company operating system. Run annual and quarterly planning, OKRs, exec staff meetings, business reviews and the leadership offsite. Define the metrics the company runs on and keep one version of the truth across Finance, GTM and Product.
- Drive exec team alignment. Spot misaligned priorities between functions early. Sales, Product, CS and Finance often optimize for different things, and most failures happen at the handoffs between them. Bring disagreements to a decision instead of letting them drag on.
- Run board and investor work. Own board meeting preparation, board materials and investor updates. Co-lead fundraising with the CEO and Finance: the narrative, the model, the data room and diligence.
- Lead the company's highest-priority initiatives. A new SKU launch touches product, legal, sales and data partnerships. You own the outcome, find the blocking dependency early, and hand it to a permanent owner once it runs on its own.
- Do the analysis behind big decisions. Market sizing, pricing models, build-vs-buy calls, M&A screens, org design. Your output goes straight to the CEO and often to the board, so it has to be right and it has to be readable.
- Shape the organization. Partner with People on org design, senior hiring, leveling, ESOPs and leadership onboarding. Help the company grow the leadership bench it needs for its next stage.
- Own internal and executive communication. Draft or shape all-hands content, CEO memos, strategy docs and company-wide announcements, so that 200+ people across India and the US understand the priorities and the reasons behind them.
- Build and lead the CEO Office. Hire, manage and develop the Program & Strategy Managers and Founder's Office Associates. Decide which problems the office takes on, and graduate its projects into the business.
- Build with AI tools. Spyne sells AI software and runs on it internally. Set the standard for how the leadership team uses AI, from automated reporting to prototyping internal tools in a weekend.
Who does well here
- 6–10 years of experience, including a mix of top consulting (MBB or equivalent, ideally at Engagement Manager level or above) and operating roles in a high-growth startup: Chief of Staff, Founder's Office, BizOps, or leading a function
- A track record of operating at the executive level. You have run a planning cycle, prepared board materials, or managed a leadership team's operating cadence
- Evidence you've shipped something end to end, not just advised on it: a product, an internal tool, a new function, a launch
- You have managed people and can lead a small, high-output team
- The judgment and discretion to handle confidential information on fundraising, compensation, people and M&A
- The executive presence to earn the trust of the leadership team and push back on them, including the CEO
- Genuinely fluent with AI tools. You'll be asked in the interview what you've built with them
- Strong with numbers. You can build a model from scratch and defend every assumption in it in front of a board
- Exposure to B2B SaaS, US markets, or automotive retail is a plus, not a requirement
- Comfortable with ambiguity and speed. Priorities shift weekly; you'd rather have that than a roadmap
- Willing to work India hours that overlap with US time zones, since customers, investors and many counterparties are in the US
Why this seat
You'll be a direct partner to the CEO across every part of a Series B company: the board, fundraising, pricing, hiring, product strategy, M&A and org design. This seat sees the whole company, and the highest-leverage problems land here first. People who do this well typically go on to run a business unit, a major function, or company-wide strategy as Spyne scales.
Skills Required
- 6-10 years of professional experience
- Experience in top-tier consulting, ideally MBB or equivalent at Engagement Manager level or above
- Operating experience in a high-growth startup, such as Chief of Staff, Founder's Office, BizOps, or functional leadership
- Experience operating at the executive level, including planning cycles, board materials, or leadership operating cadence
- Track record of delivering a product, internal tool, new function, or launch end to end
- People management and ability to lead a small, high-output team
- Judgment and discretion handling confidential fundraising, compensation, people, and M&A information
- Executive presence and ability to earn trust while constructively challenging senior leaders and the CEO
- Fluency with AI tools and experience building with them
- Strong quantitative skills, including building and defending financial models
- Comfort with ambiguity, rapid change, and a high-growth startup environment
- Willingness to work India hours overlapping with US time zones
- Exposure to B2B SaaS, US markets, or automotive retail
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The Company
What We Do
One of the biggest pain points for any online seller is to showcase their products in the best possible manner to grab customer attention and increase conversions. Spyne is transforming the way businesses create their catalog using state-of-the-art AI technology. No studio. No photography skills. No complex processes. Just Spyne to create stunning catalogs that drive 40% better conversions. We are building first-of-its-kind AI that would transform the way businesses will create high-impact catalogs without the need for a physical studio. We are building computer vision and AI technology to automate image processing workflows. This will help any business or marketplace shoot, edit, and publish product visuals at scale, at a fraction of the cost, and time. We are helping large e-commerce marketplaces in the automotive, food, fashion, real estate, and retail industry create and upgrade high-quality visual catalogs at scale. Founded in 2018, Spyne is headquartered in Gurugram, India serving 80+ customers across 15+ countries including Amazon India, Karvi, OLACars, and The Luxury Closet Dubai. We are backed by Accel Partners, Storm Ventures, and other marquee investors.
