Chief of Staff, R&D

Description

• Strategic Partner to the Head of R&D - Serve as a thought partner and trusted advisor to the Head of R&D - helping shape priorities, prepare for key decisions, and drive alignment across the organization.
• Represent R&D leadership in cross-functional forums, escalations, and strategic initiatives as needed.
• Proactively surface high-impact opportunities to improve business processes across both the R&D org and the company as a whole.
• Own the operational cadence of the R&D org: leadership team meetings, quarterly planning cycles, OKR tracking, roadmap reviews, and all-hands.
• Design and continuously improve the processes that keep teams aligned, accountable, and unblocked.
• Ensure decisions are captured, owners are assigned, and follow-through actually happens.
• Act as the primary connective tissue between R&D and the rest of the business - Finance, People Ops, GTM, and Corporate Engineering.
• Partner with other Chiefs of Staff and functional leaders to ensure cross-organizational alignment.
• Facilitate cross-functional initiatives, surface dependencies early, and ensure R&D's priorities and progress are clearly communicated company-wide.
• Maintain clear dashboards and narrative updates so R&D leaders see progress, risks, and trade-offs in one place.
• Stay on top of the metrics that matter most: engineering velocity, product delivery, headcount and capacity, and investment allocation.
• Translate data into clear, actionable recommendations for leadership.
• Lead high-priority, often ambiguous initiatives that don't fit neatly into an existing team's charter - from org design to M&A diligence support to new capability buildout.
• Operate at a tactical, strategic, and operational level, handling oversight of projects that fall between departments or leadership areas of responsibility.
• Draft and own key R&D communications including executive memos, board and investor materials, all-hands co