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Founders Operations Associate

Papaya

Papaya

Operations
Barcelona, Spain
Posted on Sep 11, 2025

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.