Head of Ecosystem & Chief of Staff - 12 month contract

About Airtree

Airtree is a venture capital firm with a mission to back the most ambitious Australian and Kiwi founders who are building the iconic technology companies of tomorrow, right from the start. As one of the largest and most active funds in Australia and New Zealand, our portfolio consists of 125+ exciting startups and includes 9 of the top 10 most valuable private technology companies in the country. We are lucky to have partnered with the likes of Canva, Airwallex, Employment Hero, Linktree, Go1, Eucalyptus, Safety Culture, Immutable, Legora and many more.

We manage over $2bn and recently announced our fifth vintage of funds totalling $650m. Over half of the capital in Fund V comes from tier-one global institutional investors - backing Australian Venture for the first time. Our portfolio companies span early stage, pre-product companies to late stage growth companies. 

There has never been a more exciting time to be in Venture, with an explosion of disruptive, AI-native companies coming on the market. In parallel, Airtree is highly focused on building AI capabilities across the team, with a genuine investment in developing this expertise at every level.

This role is a 12 month fixed term contract covering parental leave.

The Opportunity
This is a senior, high-impact role that sits across two equally important parts of the business, leading the Ecosystem team, while also serving as Chief of Staff.

The Ecosystem team is the firm's connective tissue, collaborating closely with the investment team, and running the programs, relationships, and community that keep Airtree plugged-in to the best founders and operators in ANZ. You lead that team: shaping strategy, nurturing founder relationships, and delivering a large-scale event that sits at the heart of what we do.

Alongside, you will work closely with senior leadership in a Chief of Staff capacity, shaping the firm's operating rhythm, driving the annual strategic planning cycle, and maintaining a cross-functional view of the business to ensure we're always moving in the right direction.

You will report directly to one of the partners, and collaborate closely on the Ecosystem side with the Head of Marketing and the Investment team. 

This is a dynamic role where priorities shift to meet the market. More than anything, we're looking for someone who can handle almost anything: a half-formed idea, a messy problem, a gap in the business, and run with it. We need someone who is high-agency, action-oriented, and comfortable holding the big picture in one hand and the execution details in the other.

The ideal candidate has likely thrived in an operations or growth role at a high-growth startup; someone who has worn many hats, moved fast, and built things from scratch with little direction. A baseline understanding of venture capital helps, whether that comes from working at a VC or inside a VC-backed company.

What You Will Do

No two days are the same, however here is a taste of some of the projects you will work on: 

On the Ecosystem side: 

• Manage a high-stakes event for delivery in April 2027, collaborating with our events agency. 
• Collaborate closely with the Head of Marketing & work closely with our investment team to incubate new concepts and launch MVPs. These could be events, programs, data initiatives, or creative investment initiatives.
• Drive the top-of-funnel Ecosystem team strategy, articulate that strategy to the partners and the organisation, and drive outcomes across your team.
• Onboard new portfolio founders and serve as the main point of contact for ad-hoc requests.
• Manage direct reports, ensuring a high operating standard within the function.
• Own Airtree's partnerships, managing sponsorship allocation, and spotting opportunistic moments to deepen those relationships over time.

On the CoS side: 

• Work with senior leadership to own and continuously improve the firm's operating rhythm: how the team meets, makes decisions, tracks priorities, and shares information day-to-day.
• Work with the senior leadership team to drive the annual strategic planning cycle, turning the firm’s vision into clear, lightweight plans the team can execute against.
• Own how the team measures and reports progress against goals, setting the standard and holding people to it.

• Maintain a cross-functional view of the business, staying close enough to each team to spot gaps, flag issues early, and jump in on projects that may need extra hands. 

• 8+ years experience, you've likely been an Ops Lead, Chief of Staff, or Growth Lead at a fast-moving startup. You've led varied projects spanning new initiative launches, to high-stakes events.
• You thrive on deadlines and have a proven ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects where precision and momentum are critical.
• Highly articulate and confident to lead meetings with founders and partners.
• You excel at navigating complex internal and external relationships, keeping partners, direct reports, internal teams, and founders aligned.
• You’re keen to experiment with AI tools to improve your own efficiency.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Some familiarity with Venture Capital, either you've worked at a VC, or worked at a startup backed by a VC.

Mindset & Approach

• High agency: you don't wait for a perfect brief, you pick up ambiguous problems, ask the right questions, find a way through, and bring stakeholders along for the journey. 
• Process-oriented & proactive: you see inefficiencies and think "how can I improve this?"
• Detail-obsessed: data hygiene and follow-through are non-negotiable.
• Resourceful: high initiative, & self-directed. 
• Adaptable: comfortable with ambiguity and changing priorities.
• A natural people-person: you build genuine relationships with ease, bring out the best in the people you manage, and treat every founder interaction with warmth and care.

Airtree's headquarters is based in Sydney, but our team enjoys a hybrid, supportive and family-friendly work environment. We also offer:

• 5 weeks of leave: 4 weeks annual leave plus 1 bonus week of lifestyle and wellbeing leave.
• A range of health and wellness benefits including EAP, mental health first aid training, skin checks, flu vaccines and more.

We celebrate and value diversity and are committed to being equitable and inclusive in the way we hire and work together. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to apply even if you are not sure you fit all of the criteria we've mentioned above. All of our roles involve a range of skill sets and we recognise that everyone has different strengths and experiences that can add value to our team.