Founding Chief of Staff at Retell AI (W24)
$150K - $230K  •  0.20% - 0.70%
Supercharge Your Contact Center Operations with AI Phone Agents
San Carlos, CA, US
Full-time
1+ years
About Retell AI

Retell is building the new standard for automating call center communications, including sales, support, customer engagement, and retention calls.

Backed by Altman Capital, Y Combinator, and top investors, we've raised a $4.7M seed round and hit $7M ARR in 12 months.

Check us out on the Top Lean AI Native Companies Leaderboard at leanaileaderboard.com.

About the role
Skills: Machine learning

Retell AI - API That Turns Your LLM Into A Human-Like Voice Agent

Retell AI Basics: Everything You Need to Start Building Voice Agents

Vision

Twenty years ago, every business found itself needing a website, the new gateway to the world. Platforms like WordPress and Squarespace rose to become the standard for getting businesses online.

Today, a new revolution is here. Every business that relies on phone interactions can now have an AI voice agent of their dreams. A tireless and empathetic receptionist, salesperson, debt collector, or appointment reminder that works 24/7. Operational bottlenecks vanish overnight. Doubling your business no longer means doubling your team. Customer experience no longer suffers. (Ever tried calling an East Coast bank after 3 p.m. PT?) But companies aren't ready. Platforms don't exist.

At Retell, we're pioneering the new standard for building AI voice agents. With seamless UI, comprehensive toolkit, effortless integrations, thriving builder community, we're creating everything businesses need to deliver exceptional phone interactions on every single call.

Join us—because the future of AI voice agents is coming anyway, so why not be the one who defines it?

Role Overview

As our Founding Chief of Staff, you’ll play a critical role in scaling Retell across every dimension—owning high-leverage projects across hiring, product, sales, and operations. You’ll work closely with the founders to drive key initiatives forward, from managing recruiting pipelines and ensuring products ship on time, to negotiating contracts with vendors and customers, and maintaining close communication with our top investors. This role is ideal for an entrepreneurial generalist who thrives wearing many hats and wants broad exposure to what it takes to build a category-defining company.

Position: Founding Chief of Staff

Job type: Full-time 70hr/week (50 hr/week onsite with flexible hours + 20 hr/week work from home)

Salary: $150K - $230K

Equity: 0.2% - 0.7%

Bonus: $15k - $100K

Location: San Carlos, CA, US

US visas: Sponsors Visa & Greencard

Benefits: 100% medical, dental, vision insurance covereage. Unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Gym, daily communte fee reimbursed. Internet, phone bill covered.

Your Impact

You'll play a pivotal role across recruiting, sales, and business operations, adapting dynamically as Retell scales and priorities evolve:

Recruiting Operations

  • Own and continuously improve our recruiting funnel across all roles
  • Source candidates, coordinate interviews, and draft offer letters
  • Manage relationships with external recruiters and agencies

Sales Operations

  • Track every step in the sales pipeline and ensure timely follow-ups
  • Draft and manage contracts—from pilots to enterprise deals—and coordinate redlines with legal
  • Handle enterprise security questionnaires and compile supporting documentation
  • Manage relationships with certified partners, track implementation metrics, and lead regular syncs

Product & Business Operations

  • Keep product timelines on track by working across engineering, design, and GTM
  • Plan and execute events and conferences end-to-end
  • Own non-technical customer support issues and ensure a smooth experience
  • Coordinate legal, vendor, and customer contracts with external counsel

Who You Are

  • Communication: You can clearly express your thoughts and feelings.
  • Organization: You track every task and nothing slips through. Every task ends up done, delegated, or deprioritized.
  • Crackedness: You’re the most cracked person you know and prefer working at a chaotic, fast-paced startup over bureaucratic organizations.
  • Process-savvy: You love engineering better processes and making the organization run more efficiently.

Preferred Qualifications

You have experiences in more than one of the areas below

  • You've used LLMs to streamline business processes.
  • Experience with startups
  • Experience with technology companies
  • Experience at a top-tier consulting firm (e.g., McKinsey, BCG)
  • Experience at a top-tier PE/VC/IB
  • Technical background

Interview Process

Introduction

We'll begin by introducing ourselves and learning about each other’s background. We'll also take time to answer any questions about the role. The session will conclude with a mini mock project: three questions to research and prepare.

Phone Interview 1

A 30-minute interview focused on communication, conflict resolution, and judgment. This will be conducted using a collaborative document and will involve working through a hypothetical scenario.

Phone Interview 2

A 30–45 minute interview centered on tool use. You may be asked to use a SaaS tool to demonstrate how you would implement automations or drive efficiency within a company.

Onsite

This step involves 1–4 hours of interviews, conducted onsite in the San Francisco Bay Area. For candidates located outside the Bay Area, the interviews may be conducted virtually.

Please bring a computer for hands-on tasks during the interviews.

There are up to two interview rounds:

  • A practical session assessing organizational skills, process thinking, prioritization, and the ability to set up efficient workflows.
  • A research session focused on exploring a product to demonstrate your communication style, thought process, and product sense.

Other jobs at Retell AI

internUS / Remote (US)$25Junior and above

fulltimeRedwood City, CA, US$140K - $180K0.10% - 0.30%1+ years

fulltimeSan Carlos, CA, US$150K - $310K0.20% - 1.00%1+ years

fulltimeSan Carlos, CA, USFull stack$200K - $310K0.50% - 1.00%1+ years

contractRemote (US)Web design$36KAny (new grads ok)

fulltimeSan Carlos, CA, USFull stack$200K - $310K0.50% - 1.00%1+ years

fulltimeSan Carlos, CA, USFull stack$200K - $310K0.20% - 0.70%1+ years

fulltimeSan Carlos, CA, USBackend$200K - $310K0.50% - 1.00%1+ years

fulltimeSan Carlos, CA, US$150K - $230K0.20% - 0.70%1+ years

Hundreds of YC startups are hiring on Work at a Startup.

Sign up to see more ›