About the Role

This is a special time at Blackbird. We've grown from 10 to more than 70 people in the last three years, and have just raised a billion-dollar fund to deploy. We’re looking for a Chief of Staff to be a strategic partner to Blackbird’s founders, Niki and Rick, as well as our Leadership Team. The role provides you with a unique vantage point across all teams, which will allow you to connect dots and become a force multiplier through:

• Creating leverage on Niki and Rick’s time. In any scaling organisation, the attention and focus of a leader is the most valuable asset, and your job will be to ensure Niki and Rick maximise the time they spend on the work that matters most. You’ll get to know them both, and their working styles and know how to synthesise their views and suggest a path forward by doing the deep work that executes the project. You’ll make Niki and Rick more accessible by attending meetings on their behalf and ensuring people feel heard. You’ll also prep external materials for them, including presentations, speaking notes and first drafts of strategy docs.

• Driving Strategic Planning. You’ll ensure our vision of Generational Ownership becomes a reality at Blackbird. We drive this vision forward by setting annual OKRs, and you’ll own the operating cadence that sets and reviews these. At the Leadership Offsites, you’ll ensure a high-quality prioritisation discussion to distil Blackbird’s long-term vision into an annual strategic roadmap and OKRs.

• Owning Internal Comms. You’ll become the connective tissue between Niki and Rick and the broader team, ensuring key info is shared across all levels of Blackbird. You’ll help surface any concerns from the team back up to the Leadership Team, directing their attention to any pressing issues or blind spots. Being a dispersed team, the moments when the whole company comes together are the most important. You’ll set the agenda and facilitate the weekly company-wide Town Hall meetings and the semi-annual Team Offsites.

• Steering the Leadership Team. You’ll run the Leadership Team day to day, developing productive relationships of trust with each member so that you know their priorities and concerns, and become trusted to advocate for each member of the team in any discussion.

  • Leadership Meetings: You'll set the agenda as you will know what’s on everyone’s minds, and you will develop a sensitivity for the entire Blackbird organisation that allows you to prioritise what matters. You’ll not only facilitate these meetings but you’ll also be expected to provide your own perspective based on your vantage point on key strategic initiatives and be willing to challenge the perspective of the leadership team.

  • Leadership Offsites: You’ll run two Leadership Offsites each year with the Partners + the Exec Group, drafting the agenda based on Blackbird’s needs and priorities, and ensuring the group has done the required pre-work to ensure productive discussion on the day.

  • Board Meetings: You’ll also work closely with our General Counsel/Company Secretary, Justine, and our Compliance & Risk Manager, Nina, to proactively draft the agenda, board packs and minutes for our quarterly Board Meetings and help support a strong governance and compliance culture.

• Owning Various Special Projects. You’ll complete special projects on behalf of the founders and Leadership Team. Each of them has a Top 10 list of priorities each day and inevitably, a few items at the bottom of those lists won’t get done. You’ll get them done on their behalf. 

This role is based in Sydney, with the option to work flexibly.

Want to find out more about the role? Join us at 9am on Wednesday 15 February for an AMA with our current Chief of Staff Soph Taylor, our Investments Chief of Staff Alex Gifford and our Head of People & Culture Carlene Kemp. You can register here and drop any questions you have for the team here.

Position Requirements

Your background is less important than the key skills needed in a CoS, including:

• Comfortable in Chaos. No task is too big, messy, or complex for you. You’ll be responsible for breaking down complex tasks for the team to understand and execute.

• Ownership Mentality. You have the ability to operate independently without specific direction on tasks, while also being highly collaborative and constantly sourcing feedback on the processes you’re implementing.

• Strategic Mindset. You have a mindset that can quickly switch between zooming in on details and zooming out to see the big picture strategy. Instinctively you’re able to identify what matters most, and how to prioritise the highest value use of your own time and the co-CEOs time, as well as evaluate what is urgent versus important.

• Raw Intellectual Horsepower. You’re the expert on multiple projects simultaneously and the ability to shift constantly from working in the business to working on the business. You can context switch multiple times a day, giving each problem or project full focus and velocity.

• Exceptional Communication Skills. You’re an influential communicator and collaborator in all contexts and are just as comfortable presenting to our investors and the board as you are presenting to the team at weekly Town Halls. 

• Integrity. Doing the right thing, even when it is the hard thing. A non-negotiable requirement of the role is treating confidential matters and private opinions as such.

Working at Blackbird

We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Blackbird’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home or leaving early to pick up the kids from daycare or school.

• Generous parental leave: Generous (and equal) parental leave: We know family comes first, and we are proud to offer 20 weeks of parental leave for all parents, with no minimum tenure. In addition, we offer IVF, adoption and surrogacy leave. We also continue to pay superannuation and vest carried interest for up to 12 months of parental leave, and offer a supportive return-to-work policy to help with the ramp back.

• Learning & Development Budget: Our team is hungry to continuously learn and you’ll receive a budget to spend on whatever you’d like to learn - from coding courses to meditation.

• Wellbeing: We think in decades not days. To support our Blackbirds over the long haul we offer a range of holistic wellbeing benefits including a monthly healthy living allowance, 24/7 access to wellbeing support, a home office allowance, personal kit-kat days, and more!

• Unplugged weekends: We work hard without letting work get in the way of life. We’ve implemented no Slack or emails on weekends, so you can switch off and enjoy yourself.

• Connection: While being big fans of a fully distributed workforce, we value our vibe and time to connect online and IRL through team and company offsites, monthly social activities, weekly lunches and our many social clubs (#fun-manis, #fun-fantasybookclub, #bb-craft just to name a few!).

• A share of Blackbird’s success: We think it is important to share successes with the whole team. All Blackbird employees receive carry in funds raised and ownership in management companies formed while they are at the firm.

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member —  we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community. Through Pledge 1%, we established the Blackbird Foundation to supercharge the creative capabilities of young people.

In 2021, we were recognised in top 5 technology workplaces in the AFR Best Places to Work List, as well as winning Best Employee Experience. In 2022, we became certified as one of Australia’s Great Places to Work.

About Blackbird

Blackbird is Australia's biggest venture capital fund whose mission is to supercharge Australia and New Zealand’s most ambitious founders. We do this by raising venture capital funds, investing into the best startup companies and helping them succeed. We have a portfolio valued at over $7B, including some of the most successful Australian and Kiwi startups such as Canva, Safety Culture and Culture Amp.

We are inspired by investment firms such as Berkshire Hathaway and Bridgewater Associates. Like the companies we back, we want to build a business that lasts for decades and produces excellent returns for our investors. Most of all, we want to support our region’s most talented founders build category-defining technology companies.

We’ve written a lot about what we love at Blackbird, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us. In particular, you should read about our mission and values, our Blackbird’s Operating Principles (BOPs) and what we look for in founders.