Strategic Operations Associate

ABOUT ALPHA ORIGIN

Alpha Origin is a profitable, bootstrapped resilience engineering firm for critical infrastructure. We find where systems can be compromised or fail, work alongside customer teams to engineer improvements, and test them again.

Our work spans data centers, financial services, telecom and energy. Our team brings experience from Special Operations, the intelligence community, national laboratories and infrastructure operations. We work across vendors and technologies, focused on what makes the customer’s systems more resilient.

THE ROLE

You’ll take day-to-day ownership of a major client relationship and coordinate its delivery. Working with our engineers and client stakeholders, you’ll turn agreed scopes into clear plans, keep work moving and bring recommendations when priorities, risks or dependencies change.

You’ll report to our Head of Strategic Operations and work directly with the founding and executive team. Your work will span client delivery, commercial priorities and internal operations, with broader responsibility as you demonstrate judgment and dependable execution.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Turn scope into delivery. Build plans with clear workstreams, owners, milestones and dependencies. Coordinate engineers and client stakeholders, and track commitments through completion.
• Keep priorities clear. Manage multiple client, commercial and internal workstreams. Identify risks and blockers early, explain the tradeoffs and recommend what to do next.
• Own preparation and follow-through. Prepare analysis, slides and written updates; participate in meetings; record decisions; and make sure next steps happen.
• Build technical understanding. Learn the work well enough to ask useful questions, understand dependencies and explain progress accurately. Bring in engineers for technical judgments.
• Improve how AO operates. Fix recurring bottlenecks and dropped handoffs. Build better processes and tools, and use AI across research, analysis, client work and internal execution.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• Experience in management consulting, client delivery, business operations, technical programs, banking or finance. Consulting experience is especially useful alongside hands-on operating or technical work.
• Examples of taking an unfamiliar problem from ambiguity through implementation, coordinating people with different priorities and adapting when plans change.
• Clear writing, useful slides and confidence working with clients and senior stakeholders. You can turn complex information into a concise update or recommendation.
• The ability to learn technical subjects quickly, ask good questions and recognize when a decision needs engineering expertise or senior input.
• A hands-on approach. You’re comfortable doing the analysis, preparing materials, maintaining the plan and closing the loop yourself.

Cybersecurity experience is not required. We care about what you’ve personally owned and delivered, and the judgment, curiosity and follow-through you bring, more than a particular firm or career path.

WHY AO

AO is small and high-trust, with few layers between decisions and execution. You’ll work directly with senior leaders and clients, own consequential work and help shape how the company operates. There is a path into strategic operations leadership as your scope and responsibility grow.

COMPENSATION + BENEFITS

Base salary is $140,000–$160,000, depending on experience. Benefits include profit sharing from day one, participation in long-term company upside, healthcare and other benefits, and unlimited PTO.

This is a hybrid role based at our D.C. headquarters. Washington is strongly preferred; candidates prepared to relocate will be considered.