Senior Project Manager

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

AI is moving faster than the people who govern it. Boards, regulators, and Fortune 500 leaders need a new generation of AI experts — and the infrastructure to develop, deploy, and trust them. We are building that infrastructure.

This is a founding-team role. You are not employee #200 at a Series C. You are the first dedicated operations hire at a platform that has the strategy, the IP, and the network — and now needs the operational backbone to bring it to market.

If you are tired of executing other people's plans and want to be the one who turns strategy into reality, this is the seat for you.

ABOUT KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS

Knowledge Networks (KN) is building an integrated platform that develops, monetizes, and governs AI experts across their entire career arc — from authored thought leadership through keynote speaking, expert testimony, and board governance. The platform is supported by proprietary technology infrastructure spanning regulatory intelligence, governance simulation, and trusted scoring systems.

Our affiliated programs include RegulatingAI (a 501(c)(3) with a 90,000+ subscriber newsletter and podcast) and CAIO Connect (a 501(c)(3) Fortune 500 Chief AI Officer network), alongside partnerships with Club de Madrid (representing 100+ former heads of state). Our work has appeared at UNGA, Davos, the India AI Impact Summit, and major AI summits worldwide.

KN is at an inflection point: a thoroughly thought-through strategy is in place, foundational IP is being filed, and the platform is moving from planning to execution. We are looking for the operational backbone who will help turn that strategy into reality.

THE ROLE

This is a first dedicated hire for the platform — a founding-team role reporting directly to the Founder & Chairman. You will be the operational backbone that turns the strategy into reality across multiple revenue lines, a proprietary technology substrate, and a sequenced launch plan with specific milestones and gating criteria.

This is not a status-meeting-and-Gantt-chart job. It is a zero-to-one orchestration role that requires you to make things happen across functions: standing up vendor relationships, running the hiring funnel for our growing team, coordinating outside IP counsel through a substantial filing portfolio, building the operating cadence the rest of the team will inherit, and protecting the Founder's bandwidth for the work only he can do.

Trajectory: This role is positioned to grow into Chief of Staff to the Founder or VP of Operations as the platform scales. The first 90 days are about establishing trust, demonstrating cross-functional execution, and shaping the role around your strengths.

YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS

Specific, measurable, and shaped by what's already in motion. The strategy, brand architecture, and IP roadmap are built. Your job is to make execution real.

Days 1-30 — Onboarding and orchestration

▪     Stand up operating cadence: Weekly leadership meeting, monthly Founder review, quarterly board update. Templates, agendas, action-tracking.

▪     Engage outside IP counsel: Run the selection process, negotiate engagement letters, and coordinate the start of trademark and patent filings.

▪     Audit the hiring pipeline: Confirm JD readiness for upcoming roles. Identify which need executive search, which can be sourced direct. Schedule Founder time for senior candidates.

▪     Build the cross-functional dashboard: Revenue, pipeline, hiring, IP filings, key milestones — one view, updated weekly.

Days 31-60 — Execution acceleration

▪     Drive the first senior leadership hire: Most important early hire. Reference check, compensation negotiation, onboarding plan.

▪     Stand up CRM and contract workflow: From discovery call to signed engagement letter to invoice — one system, one workflow, all business lines.

▪     Domain and digital infrastructure: Coordinate domain registrations through corporate registrar. Confirm DNS, redirects, and trademark-watch coverage.

▪     Conference and partnership operations: Coordinate KN's positioning at major industry events and partnership conversations.

Days 61-90 — Operating rhythm at scale

▪     Senior leadership onboarded: Each new hire with a 30-60-90 plan you've built with the Founder.

▪     First wave of trademarks filed: Priority marks submitted to USPTO; counsel managing prosecution.

▪     Q1 board update delivered: Full P&L, pipeline, hiring status, IP filing progress. You build the deck; Founder presents.

▪     Year-2 planning kicked off: Coordinate the cross-functional planning process for next-year initiatives.

WHAT YOU BRING

Required

▪     7-12 years of progressive experience in project management, chief of staff, business operations, or strategy consulting roles. McKinsey/Bain/BCG/Accenture/Deloitte alumni a strong fit; tier-1 corporate strategy or PE-backed operations roles equally so.

▪     Demonstrated cross-functional execution in environments where you owned outcomes across legal, marketing, operations, and product simultaneously. You can credibly cite specific initiatives where you turned strategy into results in compressed timeframes.

▪     Founder/CEO partnership experience — you've worked directly with a founder, CEO, or division GM and understand how to extend their bandwidth without overstepping. References from prior principals will be requested.

▪     Vendor and counsel orchestration — you've coordinated outside law firms, marketing agencies, search firms, or technology vendors and understand how to keep them accountable to deliverables and budgets.

▪     Excellent written communication — you can draft a board memo, an investor update, a client email, and an internal Slack post all in different voices. The Founder writes in short declarative sentences with no preamble; you'll match that style for routine correspondence.

▪     Operational systems thinking — you instinctively look for the workflow, the checklist, the dashboard, the recurring meeting that turns a one-off into a system. You can stand up CRM, project tracking, and reporting infrastructure without needing it built for you.

▪     Bachelor's degree in business, public policy, economics, engineering, or related field. MBA welcomed but not required.

Strongly preferred

▪     Familiarity with AI policy, AI governance, or the responsible-AI ecosystem — you don't need to be a technical AI expert, but you should understand the difference between EU AI Act and NIST RMF, know who NACD is, and follow the AI governance conversation.

▪     Experience with IP processes — you've worked with outside IP counsel on trademarks, patents, or both. You understand USPTO mechanics at a working level.

▪     Nonprofit or 501(c)(3) experience — KN's affiliated programs include 501(c)(3) entities; compliance and governance for nonprofit-adjacent operations differ from for-profit work in ways you should be familiar with.

▪     Network in AI policy or governance circles — relationships across policy, regulatory, government-affairs, or AI thought leadership communities are an asset given KN's policy-adjacent positioning.

▪     Event and conference operations — you've helped run executive events at scale (NACD, Aspen Ideas, Concordia, similar) and understand the operational complexity.

Personal attributes that matter here

▪     High agency. You don't wait for instructions. You see what needs to happen and start doing it. The Founder will trust you with significant autonomy from Day 1; you have to earn that with judgment, not seek it through approval-seeking.

▪     Comfort with ambiguity. Early-stage means the playbook is being written as we go. You bring structure to unstructured situations without imposing rigidity that the business hasn't earned.

▪     Discretion. You'll see Founder calendar, financials, candidate compensation, partner negotiations, and internal disagreements. Confidentiality is non-negotiable.

▪     Bias to action over deliberation. We move fast. A B+ decision executed Tuesday beats an A decision executed three weeks from Tuesday. You'll know when to escalate vs. when to decide; we trust your judgment.

▪     Genuine interest in the mission. AI governance is consequential work. The platform's clients are board chairs, general counsels, regulators, and litigators making decisions that affect millions of people. If that doesn't energize you, this is the wrong role.

WHAT WE OFFER

Compensation

▪     Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, with details discussed during the interview process.

▪     Performance bonus tied to Year-1 platform milestones.

▪     Founding-team equity participation through KN's affiliated for-profit operating structure (details discussed in final round).

▪     Comprehensive benefits including health, dental, vision, 401(k) with match, generous PTO, and professional development budget.

Career trajectory

This role is positioned to grow into Chief of Staff to the Founder or VP of Operations as the platform scales. We are looking for someone who wants to grow with the company, not someone who wants this exact title for the next five years.

HOW TO APPLY

Send the following to [Confidential Information] with the subject line Senior Project Manager — [Your Name]:

1. Resume. PDF preferred.

2. A short cover letter (half a page, no longer) addressing two questions: (a) describe a specific cross-functional initiative you owned end-to-end, what got done, and what you'd do differently; (b) why this role at this stage of KN.

3. Three professional references — at least one of whom should be a founder, CEO, or executive you reported to directly. We will not contact references without your explicit permission.