Founders Associate

Who We Are:

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.

We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.

Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate, small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.

In addition to our San Francisco lab, we've opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role and Impact:

You'll report directly to our CEO while also supporting our CTO and the broader company to make sure nothing slips. Calendar, inbox, meetings, travel, follow-ups, special projects, and whatever the company needs moved today.

This is not a traditional EA job. An EA here has very little in common with an EA at a large company. There's no defined lane and no playbook. It's a high energy, high throughput role, mostly on a computer, and the bar is attention to detail. A wrong time zone, a missed follow-up, or a typo in a board pre-read is a real miss here.

It's also not all screen time. We build hardware. Some days you'll be moving equipment, setting up at the shop, or helping run a test day or an event.

We expect this hire to be early in their career. We care far more about what you've started, shipped, and run than about years of experience or past titles.

What you'll own

• Founder’s calendar, end to end: every meeting confirmed, every time zone right, every conflict caught before anyone sees it

• Inbox triage and follow-ups: action items from every meeting captured and closed the same day

• Board, investor, and customer meeting prep: agendas, pre-reads, and one-pagers that are accurate, on time, and in the room before anyone asks

• Travel and logistics for field tests, demos, and trips: flights, hotels, ground transport, gear lists, and the backup plan when the schedule moves

• Special projects end to end: CEO hands you a messy problem, and you hand back a finished thing, not a status update

• Internal tools and automations: if you do something twice, you build a spreadsheet, script, or AI workflow so nobody does it by hand a third time

• Visitor and site visit coordination, including NDAs and scheduling

• Physical work: moving hardware and equipment, and helping at the shop, test sites, and events. When something needs to be carried, you're already carrying it

What you've done

• Started something and ran it. A business with real customers and real revenue, a product, a club, or an event. We want the outcome, not the title

• Executed inside a fast-growing, venture-backed startup or another chaotic environment, and shipped real work instead of shadowing it

• Built your own tools to go faster: spreadsheets with real formulas, SQL, scripts, Zapier-type automations, or AI workflows

• Owned work where mistakes were visible and kept the error rate at zero: models, trackers, client deliverables, production releases

• Kept school, a job, and something you built all moving at the same time

• Competed for things: selective student orgs, student consulting, tech clubs, varsity sports, or anything where you had to earn the seat

• A rigorous quantitative or dual-focus program (for example Cognitive Science, Data Science, or Business Economics), or equivalent proof that you think analytically

• Early career. New and soon-to-be grads are encouraged to apply

Where you probably come from: You're a student founder who ran a real business, an early hire or intern who did real work at a fast-moving startup, or the person in your student org, team, or club who actually made everything happen.

We want to talk if: You notice the typo nobody else sees, you finish things the same day you start them, and you'd rather build an automation than do a task by hand twice.

Nice to have

• A business you started that made real money

• Comfort with SQL or a scripting language

• A tool or automation you built that other people actually used

• Experience in a hardware, manufacturing, or defense environment

• Experience running logistics for events, trips, or field work

Not a fit if

• You want a traditional EA or admin role with a defined lane

• You need a slow, predictable pace

• Typos and loose ends don't bother you

• You won't lift, haul, or get your hands dirty

• You want strategy work without the execution

• You can't be onsite up to 6 or 7 days a week

 

Education:

No degree required. Proof matters here.

 

How You Operate:

• Extreme bias for action. You'd rather solve it now than schedule a meeting about it.

• You handle problems before they hit anyone's inbox.

• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment.

• Clear communicator across the team, leadership, and vendors.

• Self-directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told.

 

Why Join Aurelius Systems?

 

• Build more in 1 month than most people build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work makes the whole team faster.

• Work directly with the founders. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and the people running the company.

• Work on a problem that actually matters. Small, cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer with infinite magazine, near-zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck.

• Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.

 

How We Work:

We work Monday through Friday, 9 to 6, most Saturdays, and some evenings, although not constant. Supporting the whole company across engineering, operations, and leadership is the core of this role. We don't manufacture intensity for show; the pace is real because the work is real.

 

Benefits:

 

• Competitive salary + equity

• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days

• Travel to field test events and range days

• Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks

• E-bike / scooter stipend (Up to $500)

• Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

 

Export Control Notice:

This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).