Founders Associate, North America

Chicago, Chicagofull_timePosted 29 May 2026

About the role

<div> <h1 style="margin-top: 24pt; margin-bottom: 6pt;">Founder’s Associate, North America</h1> Reports to: Chris Berry, Managing Director, North America Location: Los Angeles or Chicago, Hybrid Compensation: USD $70,000 to $100,000 base, plus equity, depending on experience We’re up to something big. Zen’s mission is to fully staff classrooms, so all children can thrive and educators avoid burnout. We do this by combining a product that schools and educators love with a hard-working, education-obsessed team. Since launching in North America, we’ve been growing 4x year over year. That kind of growth creates hard, complex, urgent problems across the business. We’re now looking for a Founder’s Associate, North America to work closely with our leadership team as we scale. This is a role for someone energized by these challenges. Someone who can move quickly, create clarity from ambiguity, and turn rapid growth into better systems, sharper decisions, and stronger execution. The right person will be able to operate at both altitude and ground level, shaping strategy, doing sharp analysis, and getting deep into frontline processes when that is what the business needs. <h3 style="margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 4pt;">Why Zen</h3> There is a staffing crisis in education. Too many teachers are leaving the profession, not enough are coming in, and school leaders are being forced to manage daily staffing gaps with limited budgets and limited visibility. That’s why Zen exists. We’re building a better way for schools to find, vet, and manage temporary educators. Our platform gives school leaders more control, more transparency, and better access to great educators, while helping reduce wasted spend in education. Zen is now a 500+ person team operating across the UK, US, and Canada. We’re venture backed, well funded, and building toward a national rollout across North America. We’re also a certified B Corporation, which matters to us. It reflects the company we are trying to build: one that grows quickly, performs exceptionally, and stays deeply accountable to schools, educators, children, and the communities we serve. We’re trying to do really well by doing good. <h3 style="margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 4pt;">Why this role exists</h3> We’re scaling fast, and the work is outrunning the org chart. You’ll work directly with the North American leadership team, owning the operating cadence, driving key cross-functional projects, and jumping on problems that do not yet have a clear owner. It is a broad remit by design. The business needs someone who can move fast across functions, bring structure to ambiguity, and make important work happen. You’ll report to Chris Berry, Managing Director, North America, who made a similar move from consulting into startup revenue and operations. That means you’ll get close coaching from someone who understands the transition and will push you to grow quickly. <h3 style="margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 4pt;">What you’ll do</h3> No two days will be the same. You might be working on things like: - Partnering with leadership to refine strategy and priorities - Driving projects across Growth, Operations, Customer Success, Finance, and People - Supporting new market launches and commercial rollout plans - Building the operating cadence, dashboards, and decision-making systems we need to scale - Turning ambiguous problems into clear plans, owners, and outcomes - Jumping into urgent business problems when there is no obvious owner yet The pace will be high. The work will be hands-on. The ownership will be real. <h3 style="margin-top: 18pt; margin-bottom: 4pt;">What we’re looking for</h3> We’re looking for someone early in their career with exceptional slope. This is likely a fit for someone with 2 to 5 years of experience in consulting, investing, startups, strategy, operations, finance, marketplaces, revenue, or another demanding analytical or generalist environment.  This is an ideal role for someone looking to move from a generalist, high-performance environment into startup leadership. We care less about the exact path you have taken than your slope, judgment, and evidence that you can ramp quickly, take ownership, and operate well in fast-moving environments. You do not need to have done a role like this before, but you do need to have shown that you can take on hard problems, create clarity and momentum, and drive real outcomes. Traits that usually correlate with success in this role: - Relentless drive to deliver outcomes - Endless curiosity - Strong analytical judgment - Clear, logical, compelling communication<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"

Apply for this role

Generate a tailored application kit with a matched cover letter, interview prep, and CV highlights — in under 60 seconds.

Generate Application Kit

Free account required — sign up in 30s

Company

Zeneducate

View all open roles →

Similar roles

Founders and Tech Executive Tax Senior Manager

WithumSmith+Brown

East Brunswick

Founders & Tech Executive Tax Supervisor

WithumSmith+Brown

Los Angeles

Founders Scouting Lead

talentsafari

Kigali