Founder’s Generalist Operator
Somewhere
Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants
This fully remote full time position at Somewhere explicitly welcomes applicants based in South Africa. The estimated monthly salary is R27,750 – R55,500 ZAR. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.
Job Description
______________________________________________________________________
Role:Founder’s Generalist Operator
Priority Location: Latin America and South Africa
Working Hours: 9am - 5pm (Mon - Fri) US Pacific Standard Time
Salary Range: $1,500 - $3,000 USD ($) base salary per month with commission (depending on experience, seniority, and level of autonomy)
(The final offer is at the client’s discretion and depends on the candidate’s interview result, skills, and experience.)
Type of contract:Independent Contractor
Type of job:Remote
About the Role:
The Operations Assistant will work closely with the company’s Founder & CEO across a broad range of operational, administrative, recruiting, and business priorities. This role sits somewhere between an Executive Assistant, Operations Associate, and junior Chief of Staff.You’ll work directly with the Founder & CEO across a wide range of priorities—managing follow-ups and projects, coordinating contractors and team members, helping source and screen engineering candidates, organizing the recruiting pipeline, researching vendors or business questions, building processes and systems, supporting payments and basic finance administration, preparing information for important decisions, and taking ownership of new initiatives as they arise. The goal is not simply to complete assigned tasks, but to identify what needs attention, figure out how to solve it, and drive it through to completion with minimal supervision.
The successful candidate will initially work closely with the CEO to learn the company, his decision-making style, current priorities, and operational rhythms. The client is willing to invest significant one-on-one time in training and onboarding; however, the expectation is that this investment will translate into increasing independence and autonomy relatively quickly.
Rather than waiting for a daily task list, this person should be able to ask: “What is currently taking the founder's time that I can own, improve, organize, or solve?”
The long-term goal is to create leverage for the founder by reducing context switching and ensuring that important operational priorities continue moving without requiring his constant involvement.
Key Responsibilities:
Executive Support & Strategic Leverage
* Act as a trusted operational extension and "second brain" to the Founder/CEO, developing a deep understanding of their priorities, working style, and decision-making framework.
* Proactively identify bottlenecks, time sinks, and surface opportunities before they become urgent, stepping in to take ownership without requiring repeated oversight.
* Translate ambiguous, high-level ideas into clear, executable action plans and drive them to completion.
* Help organize, track, and execute concurrent strategic initiatives to minimize founder context-switching.
General Operations & Process Building
* Operationalize and document core processes currently held in the founder's head to make company workflows scalable.
* Research complex problems, evaluate options, and present concrete recommendations instead of simply escalating questions.
* Drive miscellaneous operational projects, coordinating deadlines and follow-ups across internal teams and external contractors.
* Build structure and bring clarity to new initiatives with evolving or loosely defined scopes.
Recruiting & People Operations
* Manage candidate pipelines and coordinate interview logistics for technical and engineering hires to reclaim founder bandwidth.
* Assist with candidate sourcing, initial screening, and communication.
* Support onboarding workflows and contractor coordination as the team expands.
Finance & Administrative Operations
* Oversee accounts payable, process contractor payments, and maintain accurate financial records.
* Manage QuickBooks-related administrative tasks and light finance operations (or coordinate with external finance partners).
Required Qualifications & Skills:
The ideal candidate is a highly intelligent, resourceful generalist who thrives in an early-stage environment where responsibilities are not always neatly defined.
* They should have:
* Exceptional critical-thinking and problem-solving ability.
* High cognitive horsepower and strong business judgment.
* A strong bias toward action and execution.
* The ability to operate effectively in ambiguity.
* Excellent prioritization skills.
* A proactive rather than reactive working style.
* Strong ownership and accountability.
* The confidence to identify problems and propose solutions independently.
* Excellent organizational and follow-through skills.
* Strong written and verbal English communication.
* The maturity to work directly with a founder in a fast-moving startup.
* An interest in learning across multiple functions rather than remaining within a narrow job description.
* A long-term mindset and desire to grow alongside the company.
Nice-to-Have:
* Previous experience supporting a founder, CEO, or entrepreneur.
* Startup
Tips for South African Applicants
Timezone Advantage
South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.
Salary in Context
At R27,750/month, this role is on par with the average South African remote salary. The USD equivalent ($1,500/mo) benefits from the favourable exchange rate.
Application Tips
Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.
Load Shedding Preparedness
If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.
Related remote job searches
About Somewhere
Somewhere is a company in the Recruitment & Staffing industry that hires remote workers from South Africa. They currently have 1632 open positions on Hirezar. View all Somewhere jobs →