FIRST ORDER EFFECTS
Chief of Staff
Infrastructure for the Autonomous Era · First in. First up.
On-site · Austin, TX
A company moving this fast generates a mountain of work that is not the mission: hiring, finance, legal, operations, compliance. Someone has to own all of it so the founders and the engineers do not. That someone is you. You take it off their plate, you run it, and you build the teams that will run it after you. This is not a support role. It is leverage, and it is yours.
Who We Are
First Order Effects (FOE) is building America's Infrastructure Prime for the robotic era. Autonomous ships, drones, and robots are rewriting how the world moves, fights, and builds - but none of them work without infrastructure to power them, connect them, and launch and recover them. That's what we build.
We've Built Cutting Edge Systems at Legendary Companies
Our team comes from SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, Lockheed Skunk Works, Forterra, and Fuse Energy. Before founding FOE, we built satellite ground stations that closed a national comms gap in days, deployed multi-megawatt power systems at commercial speed, and shipped autonomous surface vessels into Navy fleet production. We've built infrastructure at lightspeed before - now we're applying that playbook to an entire company.
The Role
Own the founders' office: the operating cadence, priorities, meetings, decisions, and the follow-through that makes them real.
Own People and HR: recruiting operations, onboarding, benefits, payroll, policies, and the culture as we scale.
Own Finance and Admin: bookkeeping, spend, vendor and contract management, corporate records, and office and facilities.
Own Legal and Compliance coordination: contract intake and corporate housekeeping with outside counsel, and the government-contracting and export-control posture (FAR/DFARS, ITAR/EAR, CMMC) a defense company lives on.
Own Operations: the systems, tools, and processes the company runs on, plus whatever is most on fire that week.
What You'll Do
Run the operating rhythm and prepare the founders for board meetings, investor updates, and key customer and government engagements.
Stand up and run recruiting, onboarding, benefits, and payroll for a fast-growing team, and protect the culture while you do it.
Keep the books, spend, vendors, and corporate records clean, current, and audit-ready.
Coordinate legal and compliance with outside counsel and help stand up the GovCon and export-control posture.
Build the functions you first run solo, then hire and lead the teams that own them.
Take on the special projects the founders need done and can't hand to anyone else yet.
What We're Looking For
You've owned real operational outcomes end-to-end - as an early-stage Chief of Staff or operator, or from management consulting, banking, the military, or another environment that demands ownership under pressure. Slope matters more to us than pedigree.
Ruthlessly organized, high-output, and low-ego. You close loops without being chased.
Comfortable with ambiguity and breadth - you can go from an HR question to a financial model to a vendor contract in the same afternoon and do all three well.
An excellent communicator, written and verbal, trusted with sensitive information and complete discretion.
A bias to action. You'd rather ship an imperfect fix today than a perfect one next month.
You want to build the function and then lead it, not stay a coordinator forever.
Bonus: time at a company known for speed and ownership (Anduril, Saronic, SpaceX, Tesla, Anthropic, or OpenAI, or the equivalent bar somewhere less obvious); defense, aerospace, or GovCon exposure and familiarity with FAR/DFARS, ITAR/EAR, or CMMC; fluency with modern finance, legal, and HR tooling; and pre–Series A experience.
Compensation
Competitive base + equity + benefits.
ITAR requirement
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations (ITAR/EAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). Candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance; active clearance not required.
FOE is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with FOE is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Sovereignty is built, not declared - come build it with us.
Skills Required
- End-to-end ownership of operational outcomes as an early-stage Chief of Staff, operator, management consultant, banker, military professional, or equivalent
- Strong organization, high output, low ego, and ability to close loops independently
- Ability to operate effectively across HR, finance, vendor contracts, legal, and business operations
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, discretion, and ability to handle sensitive information
- Bias toward action and comfort working in ambiguity
- Desire to build operational functions and later lead the teams responsible for them
- U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or protected-individual status under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)
- Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance
- Defense, aerospace, or government-contracting experience and familiarity with FAR/DFARS, ITAR/EAR, or CMMC
- Experience at a high-speed, ownership-oriented company such as Anduril, Saronic, SpaceX, Tesla, Anthropic, or OpenAI
- Fluency with modern finance, legal, and HR tools
- Pre-Series A experience
What We Do
First Order Effects (FOE) is building infrastructure for the autonomous era, serving the United States and its allies. The company develops and deploys physical systems that power, connect, launch, and recover autonomous ships, drones, and robots. Its work includes MESH Box and SURGE systems and draws on experience in satellite ground stations, power systems, autonomous surface vessels, and defense-oriented engineering.
