---
title: 'Chief Operating Officer at CivicMarketplace'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/chief-operating-officer-civicmarketplace-united-states-m5myy8vey5nv'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# Chief Operating Officer at CivicMarketplace

- **Company:** CivicMarketplace
- **Location:** United States
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-10-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/civicmarketplace/43583459-f893-49e8-a6b1-1ac55c3a8b31

## Job description

## Role Overview

- Reports to: [Al Hleileh](https://www.civicmarketplace.com/team/al-hleileh), CEO and Co-Founder
- Location: US preferred, remote with regular travel
- Type: Full-time, near-Co-Founder level

Civic Marketplace is a modern, data-driven marketplace transforming how local governments buy goods and services. Public procurement is one of the largest, least-modernised workflows in the public sector: slow, fragmented, and compliance-heavy. Our agentic AI workflows help governments discover, evaluate, and engage vendors faster, while opening public sector opportunities to more businesses. We have real traction, a live customer base, and a compelling market window. We’re looking for a hands-on operating leader to own the commercial and operational engine as we scale.

Why Civic Marketplace? This is a chance to build category-defining infrastructure with real-world impact. The opportunity sits at three intersections: local governments urgently need better procurement tools; AI can genuinely change the category, from document processing to intelligent agents that improve decisions, flag risk, and support compliance; and the market is still under-contested. This is a high-friction, operationally important market where trust matters deeply and the winner needs both commercial depth and operating judgment.

## About the Role

You’ll partner with our CEO AI to build the commercial and operational backbone that lets Civic Marketplace scale without losing speed or trust. This is not a late-stage COO role scaling a working machine, nor a strategy-only Chief of Staff role. We need someone in the weeds, who owns dashboards personally, unblocks the team, and knows what to prioritise next.

You will:

- Own the commercial and operating engine, connecting product, ops, and commercial around a single growth north star.
- Stay hands-on with the numbers: build and personally review dashboards, reporting cadence, and performance management.
- Bring a GM and P&L mindset, owning commercial and operational outcomes, including hiring a Commercial Lead who reports to you.
- Help crack the business model, not just execute it, converting growth into a durable, higher-margin business.
- Create urgency and clarity: set the tempo, make pragmatic trade-offs, and keep the team focused on what moves the number.
- Build for trust with public sector customers, where everything we do commercially must hold up to scrutiny.

This role is high autonomy, high trust, and high ownership, with material impact on the business, the team, and Civic’s long-term commercial direction.

## About You

You’re probably not a career COO who has only scaled a working machine. You may be an early-stage GM, a Chief of Staff with real operating range, a founder or ex-founder, or a business operations leader who has built zero-to-one systems and wants a near-cofounder seat.

You likely have:

- Founder-level ownership: you take responsibility for outcomes, create clarity, and do the unglamorous work when it matters.
- Recent hands-on operating experience, staying close to the numbers and the day-to-day because you want to.
- Experience building commercial or operational systems close to scratch, ideally in an early-stage or fast-moving environment.
- Strong quantitative instincts: you think in dashboards, cohorts, and unit economics.
- Pragmatism and speed: you know when to move fast, when to invest in rigor, and when to cut scope, and operate under ambiguity.
- Leadership range: you can coach and raise standards even without a large team yet.
- Low ego and high standards: direct, curious, and comfortable being challenged.
- Mission-driven, with public sector curiosity. No prior public sector experience required, but a belief that government can buy and operate better is an advantage.

We’re especially interested in people who have operated as a GM, COO, or Chief of Staff in an early-stage company, or who come from marketplace, regulated, or compliance-heavy environments.

What’s in it for You

- Real commercial ownership: you help decide the plan, not just execute someone else’s.
- A market with room to win: public procurement is large, important, underserved, and the AI-native version hasn’t been won yet.
- A small, committed team of thoughtful, motivated operators and engineers.
- Competitive compensation and meaningful equity, structured for a high-impact, near-cofounder role.
- A remote-first team with regular time together; distributed by design, with travel given how central relationships are.

## About CivicMarketplace

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Civic Marketplace is an AI-enabled procurement platform that streamlines purchasing for local governments by connecting them with pre-vetted, compliant vendors.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage; raised $3.2M)
- **Headquarters**: Austin, Texas, United States
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Al Hleileh (Co-Founder & CEO) and Ron Holifield (Co-Founder & President)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Government technology / Public procurement
- **Target customers**: Local and state government agencies, quasi-governmental entities, and non-profits providing governmental services (B2G)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Unlock local agency procurement through innovation … saving time and taxpayer dollars.”

## Products & Services
- **[Civic Marketplace Platform]**: An AI-powered marketplace that matches government agencies with proven, pre-approved vendors. Features include supplier discovery, comparison tools, quote management, compliance support, and contract award workflows. The platform leverages cooperative purchasing contracts from partners such as TXShare, Alliance for Innovation (AFI), and Michigan Municipal Services Authority (MMSA) to ensure legal compliance and speed.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding – $3.2M (Seed round closed November 2024)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Led by Kindred Capital; 10 institutional investors. Cooperative partners include TXShare (NCTCOG), AFI, MMSA, and others. Strategic partnerships with the Texas Police Chiefs Association and NIGP Business Council.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 83% year-over-year (to ~21–23 employees as of mid-2025). Launched the nation’s most comprehensive competitively bid AI contracts for local government (July 2025). Expanding internationally (offices in London, Estonia) and actively adding agency engagement and product roles.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Compliance by design**: All contracts are sourced through competitive, transparent procurement processes, giving agencies legal certainty.
- **Multi-cooperative network**: Partnership with multiple nationally recognized cooperative purchasing organizations broadens vendor access and geographic reach.
- **AI-enabled matching**: Uses data analytics and AI to connect agencies with the best-fit pre-vetted suppliers, reducing manual sourcing effort.
- **Focus on small & diverse suppliers**: Supports local economic development by including SMWB (small, minority, women-owned businesses).

## Strategic Focus
- **Expanding AI-driven procurement**: Recent launch of competitively awarded AI contracts signals a push to help governments adopt AI tools safely and compliantly.
- **Deepening public safety partnerships**: Strengthening ties with first responder organizations (e.g., Texas Police Chiefs Association).
- **Scaling platform adoption**: Growing agency engagement team and expanding into new states and countries.

## Why Work Here
- **Hybrid work environment**: Flexible remote/office policy with periodic team retreats to foster collaboration.
- **Meaningful impact**: Work directly improves how communities access public services, with potential to “impact millions of citizens all across America and the globe.”
- **Competitive compensation**: Includes salary, health insurance, retirement plans, performance bonuses.
- **Growing team**: Fast-paced startup culture with opportunities for ownership and career growth across product, engineering, and customer success.
- **Diverse, mission-driven colleagues**: Team spans multiple countries (US, UK, Estonia, Germany, Zimbabwe) and draws talent from government, tech, and consulting backgrounds.

## Sources
1. [Civic Marketplace Careers](https://www.civicmarketplace.com/careers)
2. [Civic Marketplace – Help Center](https://www.civicmarketplace.com/help-center/articles/what-is-civic-marketplace)
3. [Civic Marketplace – LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/civicmarketplace)
4. [Civic Marketplace – Team Page](https://www.civicmarketplace.com/team)
5. [PitchBook Profile](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/608848-84)

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