Operations Associate, Founders Office

Why this role exists
Two founders and a small team currently run a grant portfolio with real reporting obligations, a growing set of contracts and corporate records, a pilot scale-up and our public presence. This role takes that weight and runs it properly rather than reactively. Success is simple: the founders stop spending their time on it, and nothing slips. You will see fundraising, IP and commercial negotiations up close. Grant administration and reporting

What you will do

• Own grant administration: deadlines, Mittelabruf, Verwendungsnachweis and the reporting calendar.
• Assemble funder reports with the technical team and coordinate consortium deliverables.
• Keep the audit trail complete. The founders write the applications; you keep the funds cleanly managed.

Finance, legal and corporate administration

• Be our day-to-day interface with counsel, Steuerberater, bank and insurers.
• Maintain the monthly reporting pack, budget vs. plan, cost files and Finanzplan updates.
• Keep corporate records in order: contracts, shareholder documents and related obligations.

Supply Chain and critical partnerships

• initiate and maintain relations with critical partners in our supply chain.
• manage stakeholders and coordinate follow-ups, deliverables and site-visits.
• own obligations and facilitate their fulfillment.

Events and communications coordination

• Own our presence at conferences, cluster events, awards and forums, start to finish.
• Brief and manage agency, design and PR partners. 
• Keep public material current and on narrative.

Operating rhythm and the company record

• Run our meeting rhythm, weekly to quarterly: agendas, actions, follow-through.
• Own our CRM and the company record: decisions, documents, commitments.

What success looks like after six months

• Every grant deadline is met without a founder tracking it; the reporting pack arrives on time.
• Counsel, Steuerberater and bank come to you first and to a founder only for real decisions.
• Any founder can ask the status of any obligation and get an accurate answer on the spot.
• Founders are fully focused on company and commercial strategy due to your role.

An operations generalist, likely from an early-stage company or consulting, with two to five years of experience and a track record of owning the unglamorous work that keeps an organization running. You are:

• Organized in a way that survives contact with others: your systems run without you.
• Comfortable with financial documents – budgets, reporting packs, cost files.
• Reliable under parallel deadlines, and honest early when something is at risk.
• Discreet. You will handle IP, unpublished data, contracts and salary information from week one.
• Fluent in German and English – advisors, bank and grants in German; Team in English.
• Technically curious – no engineering background needed, but you can talk shop with those who have one.

Experience with German public funding instruments is a real advantage, not a requirement.

A small team with high trust and high accountability, based in Germany with an administrative center in Stuttgart and R&D in Hamburg. 
Full visibility into how a deeptech materials company is financed, protected and built, and a scope from day one that most people reach years later. As we move towards industrial scale, this role grows with the company.