Chief of Staff & Strategic Operations Lead - HT

About Pronghorn

Overview

At Pronghorn, we are building a movement. Rooted in culture, innovation, and equity, we exist to create real pathways to success across the Spirits industry and beyond.

Whether you're behind the scenes or at the forefront of the brand, working at Pronghorn means stepping into purpose. We believe in bold ideas, relentless execution, and creating space for people to show up fully as themselves — and win.

Pronghorn Partner Collaboration

At Pronghorn, we leverage powerful partnerships to build pathways. We proudly collaborate with some of the biggest and most respected names in the Spirits industry to connect bold talent with bold brands.

Whether you’re supporting internal growth or contributing to a partner initiative, you’ll gain real-world exposure, strategic access, and unmatched insight into an industry that’s being reshaped in real time. Every role has the potential to intersect with our partner network — driving visibility, impact, and results that go far beyond the job description.

About the Role

Our partner is seeking a highly organized, analytical, and execution-driven Chief of Staff & Strategic Operations Lead to serve as a trusted operating partner to the CEO and COO. This person will help translate leadership priorities into clear plans, build the systems that keep departments aligned, and ensure high-priority projects move forward with accountability and urgency.

This is not a traditional administrative support role. The ideal candidate is a strategic operator who can work across sales, marketing, finance, production, HR, and external partners to create visibility, solve problems, and keep the business moving. This person should be highly detail-oriented, comfortable working with data and spreadsheets, and able to turn ambiguity into structure.

The Chief of Staff & Strategic Operations Lead will serve as the connective point across departments, ensuring leaders have the information, tools, materials, and follow-up needed to execute effectively. This role requires someone who can manage both the big picture and the details, from preparing executive recaps and analyzing performance data to coordinating events, tastings, promotional materials, and cross-functional special projects.

What You’ll Do

Executive Partnership & Strategic Execution

• Serve as a right hand to the CEO and COO, helping translate executive priorities into action plans, timelines, and follow-up systems.
• Own the master follow-up process across departments, ensuring decisions, deliverables, and open items are tracked through completion.
• Attend key meetings, capture decisions and next steps, distribute recaps, and hold stakeholders accountable to deadlines.
• Coordinate regular meetings between department leaders and the executive team, ensuring the right topics, data, and decisions are surfaced.
• Support the CEO and COO in designing and refining internal systems, workflows, and business processes.
• Lead or support special projects from corporate, ensuring work moves forward in a timely and organized manner.
• Identify operational gaps, communication breakdowns, or process inefficiencies and recommend practical solutions.

Cross-Functional Operations

• Serve as the connective point across sales, marketing, production, finance, HR, distributors, agencies, and vendors.
• Ensure information, decisions, collateral, timelines, and updates flow clearly between departments.
• Build and maintain master trackers that consolidate data from sales, inventory, events, finance, tastings, and marketing into single sources of truth.
• Create systems that help teams manage multiple priorities and track project progress with clarity.
• Partner with department leaders to ensure each team has the tools, materials, and information needed to execute their work.
• Assist with basic HR coordination, including maintaining policies and supporting quarterly performance check-ins.

Data, Reporting & Business Insights

• Analyze data from depletion reports, tasting company performance, event activity, inventory, and sales-related trackers.
• Prepare monthly summaries and executive-ready insights for the leadership team.
• Track KPIs across tasting agencies, sales support, event execution, promotional inventory, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Maintain accurate Excel trackers and reporting tools that support decision-making across the business.
• Use data to identify trends, gaps, risks, and opportunities for improved execution.

Sales, Marketing & Field Support

• Serve as the primary point of contact for the sales team regarding design, printing, promotional materials, and collateral needed to support the field.
• Organize and maintain sales collateral, including sell sheets, pricing tools, marketing materials, and market-facing assets.
• Ensure all sales and marketing materials are current, on-brand, and accessible across markets.
• Maintain inventory of promotional materials at corporate storage and ensure market managers and tasting agencies have the necessary materials.
• Arrange regular training sessions with tasting companies across the country to ensure brand standards and execution consistency.
• Assist with marketing and PR initiatives by helping route work to the right internal team member, vendor, agency, or local market contact.

Events, Tastings & Trade Show Coordination

• Assist in the planning and execution of events, tastings, activations, sponsorships, and trade shows.
• Serve as the main point of contact for event and sponsorship requests, filtering opportunities and coordinating with local teams for execution.
• Coordinate trade show logistics, including shipping, staffing, vendor communication, promotional materials, and event readiness.
• Manage on-the-ground event readiness, including inventory, POS materials, staffing checklists, timelines, and day-of troubleshooting.
• Partner with sales teams to confirm retailers have product available before scheduled tastings.
• Support post-event reporting, recap development, and follow-up on key outcomes.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in a Chief of Staff, Business Operations, Strategic Operations, Executive Operations, Project Management, or highly cross-functional Executive Assistant role.
• Experience supporting a CEO, COO, founder, president, or senior executive in a fast-moving small business, startup, agency, CPG, beverage, hospitality, or consumer brand environment.
• Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills, with the ability to build, maintain, and interpret complex multi-tab trackers.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, stakeholders, and follow-ups at once.
• Exceptional organizational instincts and a natural ability to bring structure to moving pieces.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with sales, inventory, event, budget, and performance data.
• Clear and concise communication skills across executives, department leaders, distributors, vendors, agencies, and field teams.
• High attention to detail and a strong sense of ownership. Nothing should fall through the cracks.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and professionalism when handling sensitive business information.
• Ability to operate independently, identify what needs to be done, and move work forward without constant direction.
• Event planning, trade show, field marketing, or tasting program experience strongly preferred.
• Beverage alcohol, CPG, hospitality, distribution, or consumer brand experience is a plus.
• Willingness and ability to travel for events as needed and occasionally work nights or weekends.

Why Choose Us

At Pronghorn, we don’t offer jobs — we offer impact. Every seat here is a chance to build, influence, and disrupt industries that weren’t designed with everyone in mind. We are culture shapers, talent developers, and brand builders who believe in doing meaningful work that leaves a legacy.

When you join the Pronghorn network, you’re stepping into a community of leaders, creators, and innovators driving real change across the spirits industry. Here, your voice matters. Your ideas move. And your work shows up in real ways — in culture, in communities, and on shelves nationwide.

We move fast. We lead boldly. And we invest in our people every step of the way.

Salary

Salary: $105,000 – $120,000 per year (based on experience)

Work Authorization

Due to the nature of these positions, we are unable to provide sponsorship for U.S. work authorization now or in the future.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Pronghorn is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

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