Virtual Operations Manager

About Hermessi

Hermessi recruits, trains, and places AI-enabled Chiefs of Staff and Operations Managers with founders and CEOs running high-growth businesses in the US. We find exceptional talent, invest in their development through continuous training and AI upskilling, and match them with executives who need more than an assistant — they need someone to run the business.

Our candidates go through rigorous vetting and a structured bootcamp before being placed. Once matched, you don't support the founder. You become the operator who runs the business so the founder can be the visionary.

The Role

This is not an executive assistant role with a fancy title. This is the person who operates the business day-to-day.

You'll be placed directly with a founder or CEO (based on the US) as their Business Operator. The founder sets the vision and makes the calls that only they can make. You handle everything else. You run the business, manage the team, own the metrics, deal with fires, and only escalate the decisions that truly require the founder's judgment.

The goal is simple: the founder should be able to step away from daily operations entirely and trust that you've got it.

What You Own

Operations & Accountability

• Run the operational rhythm of the business — meetings, priorities, follow-through, deadlines. You own the cadence.

• Track and own key business metrics. Distill them down for the founder in clear, actionable updates. Keep the team accountable to those numbers.

• Filter everything before it gets to the founder. Problems, requests, decisions — you handle what you can and only pass through what genuinely needs their input.

• Deal with fire drills. When things break — and they will — you solve them. You don't escalate problems, you escalate solutions.

Strategic Projects & Execution

• Take strategic projects from idea to completion. Founder says "we need to fix onboarding" or "figure out our hiring plan for Q3" — you scope it, build it, ship it, report back.
• Manage cross-functional initiatives that don't have a clear owner. The stuff that sits between departments and dies because nobody owns it — that's yours.
• Prepare the founder for high-stakes moments — investor calls, board meetings, key client presentations, partnership negotiations. Research, briefing docs, talking points, follow-ups.

People & External Relationships

• Manage team members and direct reports. Push accountability, run standups, ensure deliverables ship on time.
• Own the recruiting funnel end-to-end — write job descriptions, screen candidates, manage the pipeline, and only bring the final shortlist to the founder for decision.
• Handle client-facing and external communications on behalf of the founder — customers, vendors, partners, investors. You represent the founder when they're not in the room.

Budget & Financial Operations

• Own or manage budget decisions — approving vendor spend, negotiating contracts, managing contractor payments, tracking expenses.
• Handle financial operations like invoicing, expense reporting, and vendor management so the founder never touches it.

AI, Automation & Systems

• Document existing workflows and SOPs across the business. If they don't exist, create them.
• Identify manual, repetitive processes and build automations using Make, Zapier, Claude Code, and other AI tools to eliminate them.
• Monitor and optimize existing automations and AI workflows — ensure they're running at 100% and adjust when things change.
• Continuously look for new opportunities to use AI and automation to increase the business's capacity without adding headcount.

What We're Looking For

Operational experience in fast-moving environments. 3+ years in a role where you ran operations, managed projects, and supported a senior leader directly — Chief of Staff, Head of Ops, Director of Operations, Business Operations Manager, or similar. Startups, SMBs, agencies, consulting — anywhere you've had to figure it out without a playbook.

You think like an owner, not an employee. When something breaks, you fix it. When a process is slow, you rebuild it. When a decision needs to be made, you make it — and you know which ones to escalate. You don't wait for instructions.

Comfortable with AI tools and automation. You're actively using ChatGPT, Claude, or similar tools in your work today. Experience with Make, Zapier, Notion, Airtable, or equivalent is a strong plus. You don't need to be a developer, but you need to be someone who sees a manual process and immediately thinks "this should be automated." Willingness to learn vibe coding and AI agent management is essential — we train for this.

Strong communicator in English. Written and verbal. You'll be the bridge between the founder and everyone else — their team, their clients, their investors. If you can't communicate clearly and concisely, nothing else matters.

You handle pressure without drama. Fire drills, ambiguity, competing priorities, difficult conversations — these are your daily life. If you need clear direction before you can act, this isn't the right role. If you thrive in chaos and bring order to it, keep reading.

Metrics-driven. You think in numbers. You track KPIs, you hold people accountable to targets, and you distill complex operational data into clear insights the founder can act on.

This Role Is NOT For You If…

• You prefer to be told what to do rather than figuring it out yourself.
• You see yourself as a "pure strategist" who doesn't do hands-on operational work.
• You're uncomfortable making decisions without checking with the founder first.
• You avoid difficult conversations with team members or external partners.
• You need perfect information before you can move forward.
• You don't want to deal with the messy, unglamorous parts of running a business — the fire drills, the broken processes, the problems nobody else wants to touch.

Requirements

• A suitable work-from-home space
• Minimum internet connection: 30 Mbps minimum
• Excellent command of the English language, both spoken and written
• Willingness to work full-time (40 hours/week) at a time that suits your client (often US timezone hours)

Why Join Us:

• Paid 6-week bootcamp
• Performance and impact-based cash bonuses
• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Opportunities for professional development and growth.
• Work from anywhere – we are a 100% remote team.

Our values:

1. We are here to develop long term relationships - How to create a long term relationship with my client? Understand them more, do more of their work, and understand more about their personal details, how do you become indispensable?
2. Highest quality of service, scale our clients productivity and accomplishing their goals - How can I help my client be more productive, and get to their goal faster?
3. Hyper-focused on continuous up-skilling (Unlock human potential to its fullest) - How can I get better delivery faster with higher quality? How can I help my client upskill themselves?
4. Communication is oxygen - How can I ensure that all communications are super clear, over-communicated, timely and with expectations all set.

Our application and training process:

Here is the application and training process:

1. Send your resume and answer initial questions
2. Perform an online test
3. Perform a live task test
4. Final interview
5. 6 Week bootcamp training
6. One week shadowing, one week working directly with our CEO
7. Placement with your executive

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.