About the Role

Blackbird is looking to hire a Chief of Staff to help the investment team continually improve in response to our growing portfolio, and the evolving demands of the founder market.

Position Requirements

We’re looking for someone who is as passionate as us about building an iconic investment business. You must have a high ownership mentality and the ability to take responsibility for goals and outcomes.

This role is full-time, based in Sydney/Auckland/Melbourne with the flexibility to work from home.

Potential activities within the scope of the role include

• Investment Process: Continually evolve the investment process so that it maintains the right balance of speed for founders, and integrity in the decision making process. The investment process spans first contact with a founder, right through to the Founder Academy.

• Investment Planning: Deliver more clarity on our investment planning processes - getting ahead of which companies will be raising follow-on rounds, being proactive about reserves planning, and portfolio allocations.

• Reporting: Build, maintain, and continually upgrade our internal reporting - founder NPS over time, time from term-sheet to wiring, and many more.

• Hiring: Run our hiring processes end-to-end for new Investment team roles.

• Communication: Continually upgrade our internal communications processes - our Investment Committee meetings, our Investment Team meetings, Investment Team offsites, and our contributions to Town Halls, and Blackbird offsites.

• Founder Success: Work hand-in-hand with Founder Success to ensure they are involved in every step of the journey, from community efforts initiating relationships with founders, to building out programs to better support founders as they scale to Series B and beyond.

• Programming: Ensure we are supporting, and sunsetting the right programs, in the right way - Giants, Wild Hearts, Wild Futures, and any new programs we launch.

• LP Upgrades: Work with Jas to ensure the Investment Team is delivering an experience to LPs that is special.

• Learning: Build the internal discipline to draw down on the years forecasting data we have to improve our individual and collective decision making.

• Partnership: Be the eyes, ears, and heart of the Investment Team, picking up on small shifts in the team, and responding to them before they become blockers, or problems. Be a trusted partner to Associates, Principals, Partners, and the rest of the Blackbird team.

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.

• 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.

• A share of Blackbird’s success: We think it is important to share successes with the whole team. All Blackbird employees receive carry in our funds and are owners in the management company.

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.

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 $10B, 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 master plan, and what we look for in founders.