Fractional Operations Lead

Fractional Operations Lead (Early-Stage Integrator)

Remote | Contract

About AI-Powered Women

AI-Powered Women is a pre-funding, early-stage, MIT-anchored leadership and learning platform preparing women to lead responsibly in the age of AI.

We run a multi-track system, not a single product:

• A flagship conference at MIT
• A year-round online Academy with weekly live sessions and certifications
• A lean growth engine for reach, amplification, and conversion
• Early international expansion
• B2B collaborations with enterprise brands and institutions

We are building from the ground up with a tiny team, limited budgets, and pre-funding.

We’re hiring a fractional Operations Lead to act as the connective tissue across these moving parts, ensuring momentum, clarity, and follow-through without bureaucracy. It’s a hands-on, high-trust integrator role for someone who thrives in scrappy, complex environments and knows how to keep multiple workstreams moving calmly and cleanly.

The role (read carefully)

We are hiring a Fractional Operations Lead who thrives in very early-stage environments—where clarity matters more than polish and progress matters more than perfection.

You will not inherit clean systems.

You will help create them—lightly, pragmatically, and under constraint.

This role is ideal for someone who:

• Has built from nothing before
• Is resourceful under tight budgets
• Knows how to prioritize ruthlessly
• Doesn’t need headcount, tools, or permission to make things work

The systems you’ll help hold together:

1. Flagship Conference (High Stakes, Low Margin)

• Coordinate timelines across speakers, programming, sponsors, and vendors
• Track dependencies when everything is interlinked
• Flag risks early—because there’s no buffer

2. Weekly Academy & Ongoing Programming

• Support smooth execution of weekly live sessions
• Keep programming, uploads, and communications from colliding
• Help systematize what repeats so nothing relies on heroics

3. Growth Enablement (Lean by Design)

• Support operational readiness for growth initiatives
• Help ensure growth experiments are realistic given capacity
• Work closely with a Growth Lead without owning growth

4. B2B & Enterprise Partnerships

• Support execution of partnerships with enterprise brands
• Translate commitments into realistic timelines and deliverables
• Ensure we don’t over-promise or under-deliver

5. Early International Exploration

• Help contain early global initiatives so they don’t destabilize the core
• Translate exploratory ideas into small, executable pilots

What you’ll own (very specifically)

Execution & Prioritization

• Maintain a simple, living source of truth for priorities and timelines
• Translate decisions into concrete next steps
• Make tradeoffs visible when resources are tight

Systems (Minimal, Not Fancy)

• Create lightweight workflows, checklists, and templates
• Improve operational hygiene without adding overhead
• Choose “good enough” systems that work now

Financial Awareness (Lean Reality)

• Track high-level budgets and spend across initiatives
• Flag risks early when something costs more time or money than expected
• Help align ambition with financial reality

Founder Protection

• Reduce context switching and decision fatigue
• Surface risks before they become fires
• Act as a grounded counterbalance to overextension

What this role is NOT

• Not a strategy or vision role
• Not a sales or partnerships role
• Not a finance or accounting role
• Not a people management role
• Not a role for someone who needs structure handed to them

Who you are (must-haves)

• 7 years in operations, program management, or integrator roles
• Proven experience in very early-stage or resource-constrained environments
• Comfortable wearing multiple hats with limited support
• Calm, organized, and highly resourceful
• Strong judgment and ability to say “this is too much” when needed

Strong alignment signals

• Experience in online learning, education, or certifications
• Experience supporting conferences or large convenings
• Familiarity with enterprise or Fortune 500 environments
• Comfort working directly with founders in high-trust settings
• Deep alignment with mission-driven, human-centered work

What success looks like (first 90 days)

• Fewer dropped balls despite limited resources
• Clear priorities across conference, Academy, and partnerships
• Founder spending more time on vision and relationships
• Team feeling steadier, not stretched thinner

Compensation

• Fractional, contract role
• Competitive hourly or monthly retainer
• This is a mission-aligned role, not a corporate comp package

How to apply

Please share:

• Why this kind of early-stage, resource-constrained work energizes you
• One example of building or stabilizing operations with minimal budget
• Your availability and preferred working style