Elayne

Estate settlement, from verified discovery to distribution

About the role

We’re looking for a Founding operations lead to own the post-loss family experience and build the operating system behind it, reporting directly to the CEO.

Here's the job in one example: A family thought they'd found everything their dad left behind, but couldn't be sure. So we chased it by hand: called institutions, pulled records, followed the paper trail until we found an account nobody knew existed. For that family, it was proof they hadn't missed something their dad meant for them to have. Then we mapped how we did it and turned it into a system that has now surfaced over $5M families didn't know they had. That loop, working by hand alongside families, systematizing what we learn, turning it into product, is the entire role, run across dozens of workflows: death certificates, court filings, institution outreach, escalations.

This is not customer success, support, or back-office CS Ops. Some days you're on the phone with a grieving executor untangling a court's requirements. Some days you're writing the SOP so nobody improvises that call again. Some days you're with product and engineering turning it into software. The right person wants all three days and doesn't rank them, because they're the same job: every family you help by hand teaches the system to help the next thousand.

Why this role matters

Estate settlement is complicated, but it is not unknowable. Beneath the emotional complexity are patterns, rules, decision points, and recurring moments where users struggle. Elayne’s opportunity is to understand those patterns deeply enough to turn a confusing process into a guided, scalable system.

This role sits at the center of that work. You will be close enough to users to understand what they actually need, and structured enough to translate those insights into workflows, service standards, escalation paths, product requirements, and automation opportunities.

The goal is not to solve every case as a one-off. The goal is to identify the branches that matter, systematize the repeatable work, and make sure humans are present for the moments that require judgment, empathy, and trust. Done well, every family we support makes Elayne smarter, more consistent, and more capable of delivering care at scale.

What you’ll build

• Be the human for families in confusing, high-stakes moments: explain what's next, set expectations, handle escalations personally
• Do the unglamorous work by hand first, so you understand the process before you systematize it
• Turn what you learn into SOPs, decision trees, and escalation paths
• Translate operational reality into product requirements that ship: where software does more, where AI cuts manual work, where human judgment stays
• Build the function's foundations as we grow: quality bar, metrics, training, and eventually the people

Location and expectations

This is a full-time role based in New York City.

This is not a passive 9-to-5 role. We are not looking for performative intensity, but want to be upfront that there will be moments when families, partners, or internal priorities require responsiveness outside typical working hours. The right person is energized by meaningful, high-ownership work and is willing to do what it takes with judgment and care.

What you’ll bring

• 5 to 10 years in customer operations, product operations, complex case management, or services-plus-software, with at least one Seed or Series A experience
• You can point to a messy manual process you personally worked, documented, and turned into a system: that loop is the interview
• Judgment where money, grief, privacy, and family dynamics collide
• Experience with regulated workflows (legal, financial, healthcare, insurance) a strong plus

Equal opportunity

Elayne is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants based on ability, experience, and potential, and do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic under applicable federal, state, or local laws.