Chief of Staff - SF Bay Area

About Bright Money

Bright Money is a Consumer FinTech for middle-income consumers. It brings together SaaS products that help consumers build credit, manage their debt, and access suitable loans and credit cards - the major financial needs of middle-income consumers living paycheck to paycheck.

Bright is a profitable, India-built, U.S.-market Consumer FinTech, with a revenue trajectory to $100M in the coming 12 months. The business model combines subscription revenue with financial services marketplace revenue from loans, credit cards, and credit-building tools.

Bright has launched an AI money assistant and AI agentic UX flows for access to credit. It will be the first AI-driven Consumer FinTech for middle-income consumers.

The Bright product suite has potential for global markets beyond the US. The market size is 100M global middle-income consumers, with a revenue pool opportunity of $15B.

Bright is backed by three top global venture capital firms and leading tech angel investors in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

Bright was established in 2019 by a leadership team drawn from McKinsey’s Banking Practice (Petko Plachkov and Avi Patchava) and InMobi’s Data Sciences organisation (Varun Modi and Avi Patchava). The core team is ex-InMobi Engineering and Data Sciences, joined more recently by senior leaders from McKinsey.

Bright has a data-driven, fast-paced execution culture, and is building a global Consumer FinTech with all functions operating from India.

What is the role about?

Chief of Staff to the CEO · San Francisco Bay Area · Full-time · Hybrid · Two-to-three-year commitment

We’re hiring a Chief of Staff to work directly with Bright’s co-CEOs. Bright is an AI-native fintech that is profitable and growing quickly, and AI shapes both the product and how the company runs. For someone a few years into their career, this is a rare chance to work alongside the co-CEOs to scale an established FinTech company.

The core of the job is supporting the CEOs on special projects that cut across product, engineering, operations, partners, and finance, and that need one person to own them from start to finish. You’ll bring structure to open-ended problems, work with the CEOs based in the US and India, and see each project through to completion. As you build trust, you’ll represent the co-CEOs with bank partners, other commercial partners, and investors.

Because the co-CEOs and the team are split between the US and India, you’ll be the link between the two. That means daytime hours with US partners and regular evenings with the India team. This is a high-ownership operating role, not an executive-assistant role. You’ll take on responsibility that usually comes much later in a career, and your scope will grow as you do.

What will you do?

• Drive special projects: Work with the CEOs and leaders in the US and India on strategic questions and company priorities, from a partner launch to a new product to a vendor process. Bring structure to open-ended assignments and follow through to completion.

• Connect the US and India: Keep context and decisions moving between the US and India teams in both directions, so nothing waits a day for the time zones to line up. This is especially relevant for Product and Operations.

• Work with partners: Prepare the CEO for conversations with bank partners, lenders, and other commercial partners, track what each side has committed to, and over time lead those conversations yourself.

• Support investors and the Board: Help prepare investor updates and Board materials, and join investor conversations when needed.

• Keep work moving: Anticipate needs, prepare for meetings, and make sure decisions have owners and follow-through.

• Learn how the CEO thinks: Understand the reasoning behind their decisions so that you can make calls on their behalf, and know when a decision should be theirs.

• Contribute independent judgment: Question assumptions, disagree constructively, and be clear about what would change your mind.

• Build with AI: Use AI tools to automate reporting, meeting preparation, and project tracking, so that coordination keeps pace with the company without adding people.

Ideal candidate profile

The ideal candidate has 4+ years of experience in a demanding environment-consulting, investment banking, private equity, or venture capital - and wants to move into an operating role at a fintech while learning to run multiple projects at once in a fast-growing technology company. What you’ve taken on matters more than your title.

Experience & Background:

• Experience: 4+ years in consulting, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, or another demanding environment.

• Analytical ability: You can build a financial model, work with imperfect data, and turn analysis into a recommendation that fits on a page.

• Commercial sense: You’re comfortable with external stakeholders and understand what a partner, a bank, or an investor needs to hear. Experience in fintech, lending, or another regulated business is a plus.

• Fluency with AI tools: You use them every day and have built at least one automation you’d be happy to show us.

• Alternative backgrounds: Candidates from high-growth startups, business operations roles, or companies they have built themselves are equally welcome; a previous Chief of Staff title isn’t required.

• India exposure: Experience working with teams in India is a plus.

Mindset & Operating DNA:

• Judgment and range: You’ve taken ownership of difficult, ambiguous work and can learn an unfamiliar area -consumer credit, bank partnerships, or a product line - quickly.

• Disciplined execution: You’re organized, detail-oriented, and reliable. You manage competing priorities, anticipate what’s needed, and deliver in an unstructured environment.

• Ownership: You’re comfortable making decisions with incomplete information, and no task is too small—whether it’s a Board memo or a spreadsheet fix.

• Clear communication: You write precisely, run meetings well, and work comfortably across cultures and time zones - with a bank partner in the afternoon and an engineering lead in India in the evening.

• Integrity, composure, and low ego: You handle confidential information with care, stay steady under pressure, and give routine coordination the same attention as important decisions.

Non-Fit Profiles

• Candidates looking for an executive-assistant or scheduling-focused role; this is an operating role with project ownership.

• Those who want a purely advisory or analytical seat, without responsibility for follow-through and delivery.

• Candidates unable to commit to regular evening hours with the India team, or to a two-to-three-year chapter.

• Those who need a settled organisation, defined scope, and established processes to work effectively.

A two-to-three-year chapter

This role is designed as a two-to-three-year commitment. You’ll learn how a fintech is run from the top - across product, partners, capital, and a two-country organisation - and we’ll plan the next step with you from the start, whether that’s a leadership role at Bright or something you go on to build elsewhere.

Practical expectations

• Location: Based in the San Francisco Bay Area; Hybrid.

• Hours: Regular evening hours, several nights a week, to work with the India CEOs and team, alongside US daytime hours with the US co-CEO and partners. This requires real-time flexibility and will suit someone who wants the responsibility that comes with it.

• Travel: Occasional travel to India.

• Commitment: A commitment of two to three years.

• Work authorization: Authorization to work in the United States.

• Compensation: Competitive, including equity.

What Bright Offers?

• A profitable sub-unicorn with U.S. market scale – liquidity potential at $1–3B valuations.

• Real ownership: You own projects end to end, from an open question to a decision that ships.

• Wealth creation: Equity at an inflection stage of scale.

• A data-driven, high-cadence culture that combines consulting rigor with FinTech speed.

• Benefits: Excellent benefits package in line with sector best practice.

Disclaimer

Bright is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.