Founders Operations Associate
Papaya
Join Papaya – Work Side-by-Side with the CEO
Papaya is rethinking the fleet management industry, building the first AI Copilot for fleets to reduce downtime, cut CO₂ emissions, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). We’re a lean and ambitious startup with huge opportunities ahead.
This is a rare chance to work directly with the CEO. You’ll be in the room for critical decisions, have a hand in running the company, and get unmatched exposure to the reality of building an early-stage startup.
Our Team 🌍
We’re a lean, fun, international team with very different paths into tech. We don’t care about degrees, fancy titles, or big-company logos on your CV. What matters is passion for building, ownership, and making an impact to transform an industry from the ground up.
Everyone Has a Voice 🎤
We work in an environment where you can actually make change happen. If you have an idea for a feature or process, you run with it. Our mindset: strong opinions, loosely held.
Iterate to Move Fast 💨
We believe in shipping value, not endless meetings. Build small, ship fast, learn, and improve. We launched our MVP in 1 month (with 2 engineers), signed our first customer right after, and raised our first round within 3 months. That’s how we roll.
The Role
We’re hiring a Founder’s Operations Associate to help run Papaya day-to-day. This is a hands-on role that mixes operations, admin, and strategic projects.
You’ll:
- Work directly with the CEO on both operations and strategy.
- Own the essentials: payroll, onboarding/off-boarding, HR docs, accountants coordination.
- Maintain our P&L and support quarterly financial reporting.
- Build customer and investor decks, proposals, and quarterly updates.
- Lead market research and validation: competitor scans, market sizing, interviews, analysis.
- Draft crisp communications: investor updates, customer emails, team strategy memos.
- Support hiring: sourcing, scheduling, onboarding.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and commercial teams.
- Be a sparring partner to the CEO: test ideas, challenge assumptions, bring solutions.
- Solve problems with a solution-oriented mindset and keep things organised.
Who you are 🙋
- Proactive and hungry - you see gaps and fill them.
- Problem-solver with a solution-oriented mindset.
- Highly organized and comfortable juggling many threads.
- Excellent communicator in English (written and spoken).
- Strong with Excel/Sheets and presentations (Slides/PowerPoint).
- Thrive in fast-moving, uncertain environments; early-stage startup mentality.
- Self-aware, coachable, and a true team player.
What you’ll get 🚀
- Work directly with the CEO, gaining unmatched exposure to startup leadership.
- A front-row seat to a company going from 0→1 and beyond.
- Steep learning curve: touch finance, ops, strategy, product, and growth.
- Flexibility: autonomy to shape your journey, with trust to work flexibly as soon as you deliver outcomes.
- Team socials, access to events, mentorship, and a collaborative culture. We work hard and have fun!
Who this role is not for 🚫
- If you want a pure strategy role with no admin - this isn’t it.
- If you need lots of structure and process - we don’t have that yet.
- If you can’t switch between payroll spreadsheets and customer decks in the same day - you’ll struggle.
- If work is just “work” for you and not a passion - this won’t be the right fit.
- Equity stake, everyone gets a slice of the pie.
- Competitive compensation.
- A vibrant HQ in Norrsken Impact House in Barcelona, right by the beach, with a young, international team.
- Be part of a defining early-stage startup backed by world-class investors.
- Real impact, contribute to redefining an entire industry.