---
title: 'Executive Assistant & Business Operations at Formal'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-business-operations-formal-san-francisco-9a7qzfa3vxwh'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Executive Assistant & Business Operations at Formal

- **Company:** Formal
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/formal/f0a7bfc0-fe66-4377-9609-4f1b2ef25bfb

## Job description

## ABOUT FORMAL

Formal is data security platform designed to help teams understand and control their data on autopilot.

We're building a modern protocol-aware reverse-proxy for datastores and APIs that helps organizations understand their data in real-time. This allows teams to see how sensitive data is stored, consumed, and used in order to enforce least privilege through masking, filtering, or anonymization policies.

We are trusted by leading companies such as Ramp http://Ramp.com, Gusto http://Gusto.com, Notion http://Notion.com to solve problems across data security and compliance, data quality management, and infrastructure access.

Formal is backed by top-tiers VCs including Thrive Capital and Y Combinator with angel investors that include executives and founders from Datadog, Clickhouse, Plaid, and Vanta.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

We're hiring our first Executive Assistant & Business Operations to help create the operational foundation of the company. You'll work directly with leadership and own the day-to-day operations that keep Formal running smoothly—from finance and people operations to executive support and internal processes.

This role is ideal for someone who loves creating order from ambiguity, notices the details everyone else misses, and enjoys making teams more effective.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- You'll own and continuously improve the operational systems that enable the company to move quickly.

Responsibilities include:

- Build and improve internal business processes as the company scales.
- Manage executive calendars, meetings, travel, and scheduling.
- Capture detailed meeting notes, track action items, and ensure follow-through.
- Support payroll administration and employee onboarding.
- Provision accounts, systems, and equipment for new hires.
- Generate customer invoices and manage billing operations.
- Coordinate vendors, office operations, and workplace logistics.
- Maintain internal documentation and operating procedures.
- Partner with leadership on high-priority operational initiatives across the business.

As an early member of the team, your responsibilities will evolve alongside the company. We value people who are excited to take ownership, solve new problems, and build better systems as we grow.

## WHAT YOU NEED

- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Operations, or a related field.
- 1–4 years of experience in Business Operations, Operations, Executive Support, Consulting, Office Management, or a similar role.
- Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills.
- Strong written communication and excellent note-taking abilities.
- Highly process-oriented with a natural inclination to improve how work gets done.
- Comfortable managing multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment.
- Resourceful, proactive, and able to operate with minimal direction.
- Excited to work onsite in our San Francisco office five days per week.

## NICE-TO-HAVES

- Experience at an early-stage or high-growth startup.
- Familiarity with payroll, finance operations, billing, or accounting processes.
- Experience using tools such as Google Workspace, Notion, Slack, Ramp, Rippling, Gusto, or QuickBooks.
- Experience supporting founders or senior leadership teams.

## COMPENSATION

- This role offers cash compensation and a stock options grant.
- The positioning of offers within a certain range depends on various factors, including: candidate experience, qualifications, skills, business requirements and, geographical location.

## BENEFITS (FOR U.S.-BASED FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES)

- 100% medical, dental & vision insurance coverage for you
- Partially covered for your dependents
- Flexible PTO

## About Formal

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Formal provides a data privilege access management platform that enforces least‑privilege access at the packet level across databases, infrastructure, and AI agents.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage – $6.8M seed led by Thrive Capital, plus earlier Y Combinator pre‑seed)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2022 (Y Combinator S2022 batch)
- **Founders**: Mokhtar Bacha (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Data security / access governance
- **Target Customers**: Engineering‑focused security teams at fast‑growing companies (B2B, Enterprise, SMB) – customers include Notion, Ramp, Gusto, and Cursor
- **Mission / Purpose**: “Bring access management to a new age for engineering‑focused security teams” (LinkedIn) and “secure AGI” (company about page)

## Products & Services
- **Formal Proxy** – A single stateless binary that parses 15+ wire protocols (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, SSH, Kubernetes, HTTP, MCP, etc.) natively. Deployed in the customer’s VPC, it enforces security policies (allow, block, mask, filter, rewrite, quarantine, etc.) in real time with sub‑10ms overhead. Works with BI tools (Metabase, Looker, Tableau), databases, and infrastructure.
- **AI Agent & MCP Security** – Intercepts and secures interactions between AI agents and MCP servers, stripping PII, blocking unauthorized tool calls, and auditing every action.
- **Real‑Time Session Monitoring** – LLM‑powered anomaly detection for SSH, Kubernetes, and SQL sessions; flags suspicious commands and privilege escalation.
- **Policy Engine & Audit** – No‑code policy editor with Rego support; policy backtesting against 31 days of historical logs; full session/query audit trails exportable to Splunk, Datadog, or S3.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric (Total Funding)**: $6,925,000 across three rounds (Pre‑Seed 2020/2021, Seed 2023 led by Thrive Capital)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Thrive Capital (lead), Y Combinator, Abstract Ventures, Definition Capital; founders from Datadog, ClickHouse, Front, Alan; executives from Rippling, Plaid, Vanta, Checkout.com
- **Growth Signals**: 17 employees (+188% YoY headcount growth); customers include Notion, Ramp, Gusto, Cursor; 2,120 LinkedIn followers (+78% YoY); 6 active job postings as of mid‑2026

## Competitive Advantages
- **Protocol‑native, not network‑level**: Parses each wire protocol to make query‑level decisions (e.g., rewrite SQL, mask MongoDB fields) – unlike generic TCP proxies.
- **Single binary, many protocols**: One proxy handles 15+ protocols, eliminating the need to stitch together multiple tools.
- **Sub‑10ms latency**: Compiled Go, stateless, with connection pooling; minimal performance impact.
- **Zero application changes**: No SDK, no agent – just point connection strings through Formal.
- **In‑VPC deployment**: Data never leaves the customer’s infrastructure; forensic‑grade audit trails owned by the customer.

## Strategic Focus
- Securing AI agents and MCP integrations as AI adoption grows.
- Expanding protocol coverage and deepening compliance automation (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR).
- Scaling go‑to‑market efforts (hiring account executives, solutions engineers, channel specialists) to capture more enterprise customers.
- Building out the “AARM” open specification (mentioned on LinkedIn) for AI agent access management.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture / Environment**: Early‑stage startup (17 people) with a strong engineering focus; in‑office work in San Francisco (2 offices – SF and Paris). Team includes alumni from Stanford, Vanta, Twingate, Ramp, Uber, Databricks, OpenAI.
- **Remote / Hybrid Policy**: In‑office (on‑site required per Built In job listings).
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on critical infrastructure for data security; backed by top‑tier VC (Thrive Capital); customers are high‑growth tech companies; fast career growth in a small team.

## Sources
1. [formal.ai/about](https://www.formal.ai/about/)
2. [formal.ai](https://www.formal.ai/)
3. [builtin.com/company/formal](https://builtin.com/company/formal)
4. [linkedin.com/company/formalhq](https://www.linkedin.com/company/formalhq)
5. [ycombinator.com/companies/formal](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/formal)

## Other roles at Formal

- [Staff Software Engineer | Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-backend-formal-san-francisco-gerabht5qgk8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-marketing-manager-formal-san-francisco-1qpe7830mc8g) — San Francisco, CA
- [Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-formal-san-francisco-8eh8krdga1qf) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer | Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-formal-san-francisco-e60wg6k37n6x) — San Francisco, CA
- [Channel Account Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/channel-account-specialist-formal-san-francisco-k94xm9aqacgr) — San Francisco, CA
- [Field Marketing Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/field-marketing-specialist-formal-san-francisco-8bmneq1nrncy) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer | Fullstack](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-fullstack-formal-san-francisco-k6zj5ayhzfbn) — San Francisco, CA
- [Founding Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-designer-formal-san-francisco-1rn5mp546j7w) — San Francisco, CA
- [Solutions Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/solutions-engineer-formal-san-francisco-epps76asj2dy) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Software Engineer | Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-backend-formal-san-francisco-708pykf9p05q) — San Francisco, CA