---
title: 'Operations - Generalist / Business Operations at Valthos'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/operations-generalist-business-operations-valthos-new-york-jst2nbp58bj3'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Operations - Generalist / Business Operations at Valthos

- **Company:** Valthos
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-05-11
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/valthos/1b06d90d-a2ac-49dd-9f12-4408303c5e86

## Job description

Generalist / Business Operations Valthos Inc.

Valthos is an applied biological intelligence company. We build and deploy software and biological AI systems to safeguard humanity. The same AI architectures that enable self-driving cars, land rockets with precision, and deliver expert-level reasoning are beginning to be deployed in biological design. To stay ahead, we must advance our arsenal of tools to capture and design against real-time sensitivities in nature's evolving mutational landscape. We are a group of mission-driven software engineers from Palantir and applied biological ML engineers from MIT's Broad Institute and DeepMind making the latest advances in computational biology accessible in the real-world for federal and commercial use.

Operations at Valthos is the function that keeps the company moving. It covers the full range: keeping the office running, closing fundraising rounds, talking to customers, and building out the operational infrastructure underneath it all. It is a generalist role by design. On any given day, you might be troubleshooting a broken A/C unit before lunch, building a financial model for the board deck after, and project-managing a vendor onboarding by the end of the day. We are a small team working on problems that matter. We need someone who will pick up whatever needs picking up, execute well, and do the work no one else wants to do, while also being trusted with some of the most sensitive and strategic decisions the company makes. You will work directly alongside the head of operations and founders on the highest-leverage problems we face. You will own projects end-to-end, from definition, to solutioning, to implementation, across every function: finance, recruiting, people, legal, facilities, IT, and whatever else comes up. Early on, you will hold many hats simultaneously. Over time, as we grow, the hats you choose to keep will define your role and likely seed an entire function at Valthos. Whether you aspire to be an entrepreneur, a future operator, or to build a category-defining company's operating spine, we believe Valthos is the best place, with the best colleagues, to learn how. You will learn how to unpack a problem, understand the costs and consequences of its solution, and ship. You will make decisions independently, alongside a small team that will support and challenge you as you grow.

## The Role

- Own the company's day-to-day operations: facilities, IT, office management, vendor management, travel, and anything else required to keep the team productive
- Build the financial backbone of the company: construct and maintain financial models, scenario-plan budget and runway, partner with external accounting on close, and run spend, payroll, and treasury as needed
- Stand up core business infrastructure, including equity administration, benefits, payroll, corporate policies, compliance, and vendor systems, choosing tools pragmatically and replacing them when we outgrow them
- Support recruiting and people operations end-to-end: source candidates, run scheduling, manage offers and onboarding, and help architect the culture and operating cadence of the company
- Lead special projects that do not fit neatly into anyone else's job description, from standing up security and clearance workflows, to opening a new office, to running internal offsites and all-hands
- Provide operational support to commercial and government engagements as needed, helping the team move proposals, contracts, and procurement workflows across the finish line
- Serve as the operational face of Valthos with external partners (investors, regulators, contractors, and vendors), and represent the company with the same bar of care as a founder would
- Close the feedback loop between the team and our partners: translate what you learn from investors, customers, and vendors into the decisions and priorities that shape how we run

## Qualifications (required)

- 3+ years in a high-ownership, high-tempo operational role, such as early-stage startup operator, chief of staff, investment banking, management consulting, private equity, or venture capital
- Demonstrated ability to own projects end-to-end in ambiguous environments, with minimal structure and minimal supervision
- Strong financial and analytical fluency; comfortable building models in Excel, running scenario analyses, and reasoning from numbers under time pressure
- Exceptional written and verbal communication. You will draft memos, investor updates, and internal and external materials that need to meet the bar of the most senior people in the room
- High attention to detail and organization. You are the kind of person who makes sure the details no one else is tracking are handled
- High ownership and a bias to action. You would rather unblock the team by fixing something yourself than wait for someone else to do it
- Comfort operating across extremes: one hour on the floor of the office, the next with a senior government stakeholder or a top-tier investor
- Willingness to travel when needed, including to customer sites

## Qualifications (preferred)

- Experience at a high-growth startup, ideally as one of the first non-engineering hires
- Experience setting up finance and people ops systems from scratch
- Experience with early-stage fundraising
- Experience in defense tech, national security, or government contracting is a plus, but not required

If there is a fit, we will schedule behavioral and case-based interviews. The final step is an onsite in our office, where you will work on a scoped project, discuss ideas, and work with the wider team.

## About Valthos

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Valthos builds frontier AI systems that identify biological threats and design medical countermeasures in real time, strengthening biodefense for government and life sciences stakeholders.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage – $30M raised)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Kathleen McMahon (Co-Founder & CEO) and Tess van Stekelenburg (Co-Founder & President)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Biodefense, Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology
- **Target customers**: Government agencies (biodefense, national security) and life sciences organizations (pharma, biotech, public health)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To build next-generation biodefense by developing AI systems that can rapidly characterize biological sequences and design adaptive medical countermeasures, ensuring threats are neutralized as fast as they emerge.

## Products & Services
- **Frontier AI Biodefense Platform**: A software infrastructure that harnesses computational methods to characterize biological sequences and compress the time to design medical countermeasures. The platform is designed for experts in government and life sciences to detect and mitigate biological threats with speed and precision. Type: AI/Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for defense and biosecurity.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (Private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $30 million (Seed round, announced October 29, 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: OpenAI Startup Fund, Lux Capital, Founders Fund. Additional support from investors including OpenAI, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and more.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Raised $30M seed financing from top-tier investors (OpenAI, Lux, Founders Fund) signaling strong institutional confidence.
  - Founding team drawn from Palantir, DeepMind, Broad Institute, and Arc Institute.
  - Actively hiring across 12+ open positions (Applied AI, Software Engineering, Computational Biology, Operations) as of mid-2025.
  - LinkedIn follower growth of +10.7% monthly, indicating increasing brand awareness.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unique positioning at the intersection of AI and biodefense**: Addresses a critical, high-stakes niche that few startups target.
- **World-class founding team**: CEO Kathleen McMahon previously led Palantir’s Life Sciences division; President Tess van Stekelenburg is a partner at Lux Capital. Technical leads come from DeepMind, Broad Institute, and Arc Institute.
- **Backing from AI and defense leaders**: OpenAI, Lux Capital, and Founders Fund provide both capital and strategic credibility.
- **First-mover in adaptive countermeasure design**: The platform aims to update medical countermeasures in real time, solving the asymmetry problem where pathogens can be created faster than cures.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale software infrastructure** for government and commercial biodefense stakeholders.
- **Expand engineering and research teams** – currently hiring for applied AI, forward deployed engineers, computational biologists, and operations roles.
- **Deepen partnerships** with government agencies and life sciences organizations to deploy the platform against emerging biological threats.
- **Lay groundwork for adaptive, precision therapeutics** beyond immediate biodefense applications.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven work**: Directly contribute to protecting humanity from biological threats – a high-impact, urgent problem.
- **Elite team environment**: Work alongside engineers and scientists from Palantir, DeepMind, Broad Institute, and Arc Institute.
- **Strong backing and resources**: $30M seed funding from top-tier investors provides runway and stability.
- **In-office culture**: Valthos operates from a physical office in New York, NY, with an in-office expectation (as per Built In profile).
- **Growth opportunities**: Early-stage company with 8–10 employees and 12+ open roles – new hires will shape the company’s technical and operational direction.
- **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but typical early-stage startup benefits (equity, competitive comp) likely apply. Emphasis on engineering and biotech talent.

## Sources
1. [valthos.com](https://valthos.com/)
2. [valthos.com/blog/intro](https://valthos.com/blog/intro)
3. [LinkedIn – Valthos](https://www.linkedin.com/company/valthos)
4. [PRNewswire – Valthos Raises $30M](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/valthos-raises-30m-from-openai-lux-capital-founders-fund-to-build-next-generation-biodefense-302598583.html)
5. [Built In – Valthos Careers](https://builtin.com/company/valthos)

## Other roles at Valthos

- [Member of Technical Staff - Design Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-design-engineer-valthos-new-york-4c2p936s2xms) — New York, NY
- [Member of Technical Staff - Applied Computational Biologist](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-applied-computational-biologist-valthos-new-york-kkc2rcm5zz8b) — New York, NY
- [Operations - Growth Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/operations-growth-operations-valthos-new-york-phncnx45xzjs) — New York, NY
- [Member of Technical Staff - Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-forward-deployed-engineer-valthos-new-york-byw70s6r2cw7) — New York, NY
- [Member of Technical Staff - Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-software-engineer-valthos-new-york-zm8g3pacag4t) — New York, NY
- [Member of Technical Staff - Applied AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-applied-ai-engineer-valthos-new-york-x22v06zd45cs) — New York, NY
- [Member of Technical Staff - Computational Biologist](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-computational-biologist-valthos-new-york-ffq3qxx60872) — New York, NY