Instawork is on a mission to create meaningful economic opportunities for skilled hourly professionals in communities around the globe. Our AI-powered labor marketplace helps local businesses scale, and enables global technology companies to push the frontiers of robotics and AI. Backed by world-class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and others, we’re looking for exceptional talent to reimagine the way the world works.
We are moving beyond the era of buttons and screens. We believe the future of our marketplace isn't a better UI; it’s the disappearance of the UI. We are transitioning from an app-based marketplace to an agent-first ecosystem where intelligent entities negotiate, schedule, and execute on behalf of our Pros and Partners.
As the Director of Product Operations, you are the master architect of this transition. You won't just manage a team; you will define the technical infrastructure that allows our marketplace to run autonomously. You are a "Builder-Leader" who can debate model latency with engineers in the morning and present agentic ROI to the Board in the afternoon.
Your Mandate: The Three Pillars
Architectural Leadership (The "Agent-First" Blueprint)- Define the roadmap for transitioning from manual "point-and-click" workflows to intent-driven delegation.
- Oversee the design of the "Agentic Layer"—the middleware that translates user intent into marketplace actions.
- Ensure our "Ops" are not just efficient, but programmatic and self-healing.
- Lead the "Strike Team" that prototypes high-stakes automations. You are expected to be hands-on with Python/TypeScript, navigating Cursor or Replit to build the first 20% of a solution that proves a concept.
- Implement Reasoning-as-a-Service: Distinguish where LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Gemini) are required for nuance versus where deterministic logic provides the reliability a marketplace demands.
- Build automated systems to solve for liquidity balancing and real-time negotiation.
- Develop the telemetry needed to "debug" an agentic world. If an agent fails to close a deal, you need the data infrastructure to know why (Was it the prompt? The data? The logic?).
- The 10-Year Veteran: You have spent a decade at the intersection of Product, Engineering, and Operations. You’ve seen the shift from SaaS to Mobile, and you’re now leading the shift to AI.
- A Technical Polymath: You likely started in Engineering and moved into Product/Ops. You can read a PR, query a vector database, and build a LangChain/AutoGPT-style pipeline without hand-holding.
- Systems Thinker: You don't solve problems with more headcount; you solve them with better code and smarter agents.
- Bangalore Ecosystem Leader: You understand how to build and mentor high-performance technical teams in India's premier tech hub.
- 10+ years of experience in Product Operations, Technical Program Management, or Engineering Leadership (at least 4 years in a leadership role).
- Deep Automation Stack: Expert-level proficiency in Python or TypeScript. Experience with AI-native development environments and building with LLM APIs is non-negotiable.
- Marketplace Experience: Proven track record in high-frequency marketplaces (e.g., Ride-sharing, Food Delivery, Freelance platforms) where real-time matching is critical.
- Agentic Portfolio: You must be able to demonstrate (via GitHub or a portfolio) actual agents or autonomous workflows you have built—not just "GPT wrappers."
Our Values
Empathy, Trust & Candor
We put ourselves in the shoes of our colleagues and customers and don’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations, instead building trust through honest and direct feedback.Bias for Action
We practice high-velocity decision-making, clear-eyed that we often operate with incomplete information. Growing quickly means it’s OK to be wrong, so long as we learn from our mistakes and course correct!Always Be Learning
We’re a curious bunch, and with AI transforming our workplace we encourage everyone to learn from each other, compounding our knowledge and experience to help us change an entire industry.Act Like an Owner
We work long, hard, and smart, building products that delight our users and drive growth. Your ability to impact Instawork is limited only by your courage and conviction, not your job description.
About Instawork
Founded in 2015, Instawork is the nation’s leading online labor marketplace for food services, hospitality, light industry, and logistics, connecting more than 7M skilled workers with local restaurants, hotels, warehouses, stadiums, and more. Our AI-powered platform serves thousands of businesses across more than 50 major markets in the United States and Canada. We're not just helping fill shifts, we're supporting local economies—and we're just getting started!
Instawork has been featured by CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Forbes included us on their Next Billion Dollar Startups list; RetailTech Breakthrough named us Workforce Hiring Solution of the Year for 2025; and Inc. 5000 recognized us as one of the country's top 10% fastest-growing companies two years in a row. But what matters most is our impact. We're solving real problems for real people, and we’re doing it at scale.
Join our team to help us build something that matters! We’re looking for superstars who want to help us shape the future of work. With hubs in San Francisco, Bangalore, and Chicago, city offices in New York, Phoenix, and Singapore, we're back to working together in-person five days a week because we believe the best ideas happen when great people collaborate face-to-face. We also value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds.
Ready to make an impact? Learn more at www.instawork.com/about.
Personnel Privacy Policy
Instawork Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Instawork and has not been reviewed or approved by Instawork.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered visible upfront with posted hourly rates, and some shifts in busy markets or on peak dates can exceed local minimums. Quick access to earnings via Instapay provides fast cash flow when payouts process as expected.
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Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Performance tiers such as the Top Pro program provide early shift access and cash bonuses on select gigs. These rewards tie consistent reliability and ratings to better earning opportunities.
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Pay Growth & Progression — Company communications describe recent year‑over‑year wage increases and highlight surge opportunities at specific venues. This points to pockets of upward movement for certain roles and times.
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What We Do
Our digital marketplace connects thousands of businesses and more than six million workers, actively working to help bridge the labor demand/supply gap. Instawork helps businesses in food & beverage, hospitality, and warehouse/logistics industries fill temporary and permanent roles in more than 40 U.S. markets. We have been fortunate to be funded by world-class investors in Silicon Valley including: Benchmark (Bill Gurley), Y Combinator, Spark Capital, Google Ventures, Greylock Capital, Four Rivers Group, Craft Ventures, and many more. Leveraging our accelerated growth, we will continue to expand throughout the U.S. and globally in order to revolutionize the labor market. Instawork recently raised $60 million in Series D financing, bringing a total funding to over $160 million. The new funding round allows Instawork to accelerate investment in its AI-powered mobile app and platform that connects over 6 million skilled hourly workers with tens of thousands of businesses. Our values help us craft impactful products and be extraordinary colleagues to each other: Empathy, Trust, and Candor Being empathetic helps build trust in our community and company, and fosters successful decision-making. Always Be Learning We learn eagerly, from different teams within and outside the company. Respectful debate makes our company stronger. Act Like an Owner We have a strong ownership mentality. Every person on the team has the potential to make a huge impact. Bias for Action We practice high-velocity decision-making, despite encountering ambiguity frequently.
Why Work With Us
Our team is composed of talented individuals who are passionate about our mission, continuously learning from one another and encouraging each other to achieve their full potential. We believe that failure is not a setback, but an opportunity to learn and apply those lessons toward future growth. We also make sure to have some fun along the way.
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