Business Operations Lead

Salient is pioneering voice AI solutions to transform consumer loan servicing and compliance. Our initial focus: the $1.5T U.S. auto lending market. In under two years since our launch Salient has seen rapid market growth, including:

• Scaling to more than $10M in ARR

• Partnering with some of the largest consumer lenders in America

• Cash flow positive

• Raising $65m in funding from top-tier venture capital investors

• Interfacing with more than 2 million unique US consumers

• Processing over $150M in cash transactions

• Preventing $30M in fraud and 35k+ CFPB violations

• In-person office culture in San Francisco, CA

About the role

As Salient’s Business Operations Lead, you’ll be a strategic force multiplier embedded across product, engineering, go-to-market, leadership and beyond. You’ll lead the charge on our most critical cross functional initiatives, stepping in where ownership is unclear but impact is critical. This role goes far beyond analysis or project management: you’ll help architect and drive the systems and processes that drive our execution at scale. Reporting directly to the Co-Founder & CEO, you’ll operate with a rare blend of visibility, influence, and autonomy, helping shape how Salient grows and thrives.

Responsibilities

• Help drive critical company initiatives end-to-end (e.g., pricing, resourcing, growth ops, hiring process design, strategic planning)

• Build and refine our operating cadence, including team planning, goal tracking (OKRs), and cross-functional communications

• Own internal reporting and dashboards for company KPIs and business health metrics

• Identify operational bottlenecks and proactively design scalable solutions

• Partner with leadership to prepare board materials, investor updates, and hiring plans

• Help define and maintain systems and processes as we scale from 20 to 50 people and beyond

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in business strategy and operations within a high-growth startup, investment banking, consulting, or similarly fast-paced, data-driven environment

• Analytical mindset with experience structuring ambiguous problems and solving them in a swift and data-driven way

• Exceptional project management skills; you keep complex efforts on track without losing track of tasks

• Strong written and verbal communicator with working experience with key tools like Notion, Rippling, Google Suite and Salesforce

• Startup mentality with a bias toward action, comfort with ambiguity, willingness to roll up your sleeves and jump into tasks outside of core responsibilities

• Comfortable working across functions and at varying levels of abstraction (strategic to tactical)

• Prior experience working with technical and product teams

Nice to Have

• Experience scaling operations at a high-growth startup from Series A to C

• Background or strong interest in AI and enterprise software

As an early-stage company building at the frontier of AI, we work with high intensity and commitment. While schedules can vary by role/team, many weeks will demand extra focus, flexibility and time particularly during major launches and high impact sprints. We're seeking those who are aligned to and able to commit to that expectation which includes 4 days per week in our San Francisco Office.