Jellyvision is looking for a Chief Operating Officer

Who we are
Jellyvision is the proud parent of ALEX®, an interactive employee communications platform that makes tricky decisions—like choosing and using employee benefits—easier and more enjoyable. The success of ALEX has exceeded our wildest work-related dreams, which has led to more and bigger dreams, which is why we need a Chief Operating Officer to help smoothly navigate Jellyvision’s next phase of growth. 

How you'll help
We’re looking for a proven operator at scale to help us build, run, and improve an “operating system” that works for a company with a mature, market-leading product and several new initiatives in flight.  COO roles can vary wildly from company to company so we figured it would help if we were specific about what this job is, and isn’t.  Let’s dive in.

Our COO will helm the teams that build and deploy our products, which represent about 200 of our 350 employees.  Specifically, this includes Product, Technology, Creative/Design, and Operations department, which includes the groups that configure and implement our software for customers (which include both employers and brokers), as well as our Project Management Organization.  You’ll be tasked with leading the leaders of each of these teams across both our existing and emerging lines of business.  The goal of this role is to help improve our prioritization, focus, and operational resilience, so we can more quickly and effectively collaborate, communicate, problem-solve, and innovate.  You’ll be the senior-most executive in charge of 1) what we build, 2) how we build it, and 3) the investments we make in tools, teams, tracking, and processes to make parts 1 and 2 more effective and efficient.

What you'll do
You and your teams will build and implement: 

• A clear strategic framework - 3 year vision + road map, annual cross functional priorities, and quarterly OKRs (our chosen goal-setting mechanism)
• A team-based org structure that is a destination for top talent to join and grow – in particular, we need help building the right sized cross functional teams, reducing internal complexity and creating freedom for these teams within a framework, better balancing employee empowerment and operational consistency and discipline than we have over the last five years of rapid growth and expansion.
• Data-driven process for planning, prioritizing and optimizing that maximizes ROI of resources
• Reporting mechanisms to improve visibility and accountability for progress against goals 
• Proper tools and platforms for efficiency and scale
• A methodology for identifying, prioritizing, and solving operational problems

Additionally, you will:

1. Lead, teach and coach our functional leaders, their managers, and individual contributors.  
2. Lead the focus on each product’s lifecycle, creating value for the long-term while also getting stuff out to market in the short-term.
3. Communicate, communicate, communicate to create clarity and alignment not just for your teams but for the company as a whole.

Our COO will be a member of Jellyvision’s Senior Leadership Team, reporting to our CEO, and will collaborate closely with, but not own, our revenue, finance, and support (HR, legal, admin) functions who are led by people really quite lovely in their own right.  To sum it up, we’re hoping to find a partner who can help guide Jellyvision into a new era of innovation, productivity, and data driven decision making.

Experience & skills you’ll need
Experience
Let’s be direct:  we’re more interested in what you can do for us than what you’ve specifically done in your past, so we value adaptive self-learners and chemistry above resumes.  But the scope of the role as we’re defining it would lend itself well to an executive who has:

• Led technical and product teams at scale.  There’s a difference in how companies innovate with 5 people vs 50 people vs 500 vs 5000.  We love entrepreneurial thinkers but will gravitate more quickly to candidates who have operated successfully with teams at mid-stage growth companies and larger.
• Experience in the healthcare tech industry. There’s an incredible amount of innovation happening where we play at the intersection of healthcare and tech right now, and having a good bead on who is building what will help. Being a student of the total marketplace is required, so having healthcare tech chops already is a big plus.
• Led an agile transformation or two and has the scars (and wisdom) to prove it.
• Proven ability to lead teams that deliver valuable, salable well designed products 
• Experience analyzing whether to build, buy or borrow for multiple initiatives. 

Skills
We’re looking for someone who is:

• A bit of a change agent, able to quickly identify opportunities, inspire support, and rapidly execute
• An excellent communicator.  We are constantly striving to do a better job of moving fast while keeping everyone in the loop with as little burden on the listeners as possible.
• Strategic but tactical.  This is a job entrenched in execution and measurable results.
• Driven and results-oriented.  This role isn’t for the faint of heart.  There are a lot of moving parts and pieces and we have big plans. 
• A great manager, coach, and teacher.
• And also a student, particularly of behavioral science.  
• Adaptable and disciplined.  We have some unique quirks but luckily most of our challenges are the usual ones. We’d love a leader who has run several different playbooks and can help us design and stick to the one that will work best for us.
• Fun to work with.  We take the work seriously but still try to surround ourselves with interesting, interested humans with great senses of humor. 

Anything else?

Yes. We share a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere, so we only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard.  Our credo is a simple one: be helpful. And we think we can be most helpful if our workforce is as diverse in thought, perspective, and culture as the millions of people who use our products. We are looking to add amazing folks to our team who will bring diversity across many lines, including race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, sex, and country of origin. And while we’re headquartered in Chicago, we’re evolving to a “Flexible First” approach to work.  Several of Jellyvision’s Senior Leaders (your future peers, we hope) are permanently remote, so residence in the Chicago area is NOT required.

 Thanks for your interest in Jellyvision!