Business Operations Associate

The most important scientific discoveries of our time won’t happen in a traditional lab. We’re an AI and physical sciences company building state-of-the-art models to accelerate breakthroughs across materials, energy, and beyond. Backed by world-class investors and growing rapidly, we operate at the pace the frontier requires. Our team brings deep expertise, genuine ownership, and an insatiable drive to push the boundaries of what’s scientifically possible.

About the Role

Periodic Labs is scaling fast, and the systems, decisions, and operations that underpin our growth need to scale with us. As a Business Operations Associate, you’ll work at the center of the company — supporting our leadership team, driving cross-functional initiatives, and solving problems that don’t yet have playbooks. You’ll work directly with our founders and senior leadership across strategy, planning, finance, and operations.

This is a role for someone who is extraordinarily high agency, learns at an uncommon pace, and brings genuine intellectual curiosity to the work. A background in physics or quantitative science is a strong signal — not because the work is technical in the traditional sense, but because the mindset it develops is exactly what we’re looking for: comfort with ambiguity, rigorous first-principles thinking, and the ability to model complex systems. You’ll grow quickly here, take on real ownership early, and have a front-row seat to building a company at the frontier of AI and physical science.

What You’ll Do

• Partner directly with founders and senior leaders on strategic planning, operational priorities, and high-stakes decisions — context-switching across the full breadth of the company’s needs

• Own and manage critical cross-functional projects end-to-end, from scoping through execution and retrospective, often operating with a high degree of ambiguity and no prior template

• Build frameworks, models, and analyses that drive company decisions — headcount planning, resource allocation, OKR tracking, vendor assessments, and more

• Support the operating cadence of the company: leadership meetings, board prep, offsites, and key internal communications

• Identify process gaps and inefficiencies across the organization and design lightweight systems to address them — acting as an internal consultant and operator simultaneously

• Support finance and business operations: budgeting, vendor contracts, spend tracking, and coordination with legal and finance partners

• Assist in preparing external materials — investor updates, partnership decks, and strategic narratives — with precision and polish

• Take on ad hoc research and analysis across scientific, market, or operational topics, synthesizing findings into clear recommendations for leadership

You Will Thrive in This Role If You Have

• A degree in physics, mathematics, engineering, or another rigorous quantitative discipline from a top university — or an equivalent track record that demonstrates the same caliber of thinking

• 7+ years of experience in a high-velocity environment: a startup, investment firm, consulting practice, research lab, or similarly demanding setting

• Exceptional analytical ability — you can build a model, stress-test an assumption, and communicate the answer clearly in the same afternoon

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; you write with clarity and economy and can synthesize complexity into something leadership can act on

• High agency and a bias toward action — you identify what needs to happen, pick up the context you need, and get it done without waiting to be asked twice

• Comfort with ambiguity and a track record of creating structure where little exists

• Genuine curiosity about science, technology, and the mission of Periodic Labs — you don’t need a PhD, but intellectual range matters

• Impeccable discretion and professionalism when working with sensitive information at the executive level

Especially Strong Candidates May Also Have

• A physics, chemistry, or materials science background with research experience — you understand how scientific organizations think and operate

• Prior experience in management consulting, investment banking, venture capital, or a high-growth startup in an analytical or operational role

• Experience building financial models, running quantitative analyses, or supporting strategic planning processes

• Exposure to AI, deep tech, or research-driven companies and familiarity with the rhythms of a technical team

• Demonstrated ability to move from 0 to 1 on a project — you’ve built something from scratch and seen it through

Mechanics

• Minimum education: Graduate degree or an equivalent combination of education and training or experience

• Location: Our lab is located in Menlo Park and we prefer folks to be located in Menlo Park or San Francisco but can be flexible based on role

• Compensation: The annual compensation range for this role — $180,000-$200,000

• Visa sponsorship: Yes, we sponsor visas and will do everything we can to assist in this process with our legal support.

We’re building a team of the world’s best — the scientists, engineers, and problem-solvers who don’t just follow the frontier, they define it. If you’re driven to bring AI to life in the physical world and make discoveries that have never been made before, you belong here.