Chief of Staff the CEO

About Loyal

Loyal is developing drugs to help dogs live longer and maintain their quality of life as they age. Ultimately we hope to do the same for humans, taking the biological insights from dogs — one of the best models of human aging and age-related disease — to develop medicines to extend the healthy lifespan of humans, too. 

We are working to bring the first FDA-approved lifespan extension drug to market, and building a consumer brand around a pharmaceutical product. 

Loyal was founded in early 2020 and has raised over $60M from top investors including Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Collaborative Fund, Longevity Fund, Quiet Capital, and BoxGroup. We have a team of 50 scientists, veterinarians, engineers, and creatives.

You can learn more about Loyal on Jon Stewart, NYT, WIRED, our company blog and Celine’s blog.

About the role

We’re hiring for a Chief of Staff for our Founder and CEO, Celine Halioua. 

The meta goal of this role is to make Celine the most effective CEO possible. This means optimizing the operations of the CEO team and executing on the priorities of the CEO, whatever they may be in a given month. You’ll work on a wide range of special projects including building out new functions at Loyal and hiring people to run them.

Examples of previous projects and future projects include:

• Negotiating a venture debt line
• Negotiating an in-licensing deal with a public pharma company
• Forging and managing external partnerships
• Preparing external comms & supporting PR and consumer work
• Managing our budget and financial forecasts; connecting finance & company strategy
• Developing go-to-market strategy; building out the commercialization function
• Quarterbacking product expansion strategy

Ongoing work will include:

• Preparing board decks, memos and investor update emails 
• Preparing internal comms: decks for all paws (all hands), company workshops, etc.
• Keep on track of core company activities; supporting key internal meetings
• Supporting executive hiring
• Supporting fundraising

Running Team CEO:

You will work closely with Celine’s EA, Maria, to make the operations of the CEO run smoothly. This includes:

• Triaging communications
• Managing priorities and tasks to optimize Celine’s time
• Tracking key deliverables from the team/external partners
• Preparing Celine for key meetings

How you work and think:

• High EQ — you can read a room, navigate the nuances of representing the CEO, and build influence with soft power and strong relationships
• Concise communicator — you can convey the important information clearly and quickly
• Low ego — you’re motivated by working with others to find the right solution, instead of needing all the credit
• Self-directed — you are able to manage yourself and your priorities
• Candid — you’re comfortable pushing back on the CEO and giving hard feedback
• Growth mindset — you’re curious, quick to learn, open-minded, and seek out feedback
• Bias to action — you can effectively drive people and projects forward
• Ownership mentality — you think about what is needed for company success in a project, not just your role in it
• High quality bar — you pay attention to the details
• Comfortable with numbers — you are good at quantitative reasoning and modeling
• Highly organized — you are able to track many disparate things at once

Reasons you might not like this role:  

• You will do a significant amount of ‘administrative’ work 
• The hours can be unpredictable because of time-sensitive company priorities
• The role will continuously change as Loyal scales and priorities shift 
• The work can be ambiguous and unstructured
• We are a remote-first company with no current plans to become hybrid or in-person

What you will gain from this role:  

• Learn directly from the founder and CEO
• Experience building new functions from ground up in a rapidly scaling company
• Gain exposure to all different parts of the company
• Learn how to manage investor relationships and communications
• Be part of a working environment that is positive and thoughtful, with a diverse range of people to learn from

About you: 

We are looking for a strong COO-type operator. There are lots of different backgrounds that would do well in this role, but fundamental requirements include: 

• 5-10 years of experience, with some executive leadership experience
• Experience managing people and building teams
• Experience in a startup, or similarly ambiguous and fast-paced environment
• Preference to biological sciences background 
• Strong preference to someone based in or willing to move to San Francisco

Loyal Benefits:

• Full coverage health insurance (medical, dental and vision) for you and your dependents
• $1000 home office equipment stipend
• $250/month wellness budget (gym, cleaners, spa, food)
• $1200/year learning budget (books, courses, etc.)
• All 3-day weekends turned into 4-day weekends 🎉
• Unlimited vacation and paid holidays
• Paw-ternity leave — adopt a dog and get a day off with your new family member 🐶
• Annual company retreat at beautiful locations across the country (recently: Tahoe, Cape Cod)
• Flexible remote and hybrid work opportunities
• Competitive salary
• Equity options grant

Salary range: $150k - $200k

Loyal is founded and led by a first-gen, female CEO and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against applicants based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other applicable characteristics protected by law. 

Our Values

Lean into moonshots | We do not settle for incremental change. We have the bravery to take risks and shoot for the impact we want to have.

Opportunity is at the intersection | We lean into combining disciplines, expertises, and perspectives not normally adjacent. We design our organization to facilitate cross-pollination and cross-collaboration. We reject silos.

Expertise without ego | Titles do not determine who has a voice. We work on hard, technical problems and have a ton of fun while at it.

Learning by doing | Our path is novel and many things we are doing have never been done before. We lean into MVPs and are open to unexpected outcomes.

Transparency and rejecting paternalism | We value leading with context. We equip people with the context and background necessary to make their own decisions and act in the best interest of Loyal. Empower team to succeed.

Empathy and respect for all life | Our patients are not just numbers. Our work is intentional, thoughtful, and guided by respect for life. We take our responsibility to pets and pet parents seriously.

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