Founder's Associate

About Karya
Karya is building the world's most ethical data company. We create high-quality datasets for AI while enabling dignified digital work opportunities for communities historically excluded from the digital economy.

Our work sits at the intersection of AI, language technology, design, research, and social impact. We partner with leading technology companies, researchers, philanthropies, and governments to build AI systems that work for everyone while ensuring economic value flows back to the communities that make these systems possible.

As Karya grows, we are looking for a Founder’s Associate to support high-impact cross-functional work at Karya. It's a role for someone entrepreneurial and resourceful, who does their best work amid moving priorities and being thrown in at the deep end. 

About the Role
As Founder's Associate, you'll work alongside our founders - Manu Chopra (Chief Executive Officer), Safiya Husain (Chief Impact Officer) and Vivek Seshadri (Chief Technology Officer) - and report to the Chief of Staff. You'll be the person who keeps the highest-stakes work moving: meetings prepped, events run, research done, decks ready. Your work will span day-to-day support for the founders, fundraising, storytelling and operations, and the scope will change as Karya does.
If you want a front-row seat to how a mission-driven organisation actually runs, and you like saying yes to hard, varied problems, you'll do well here.

What you'll do

• Cross-functional support
  • Support the fundraising team: Carry out strategic donor research and mapping, and lead donor reporting by coordinating with project teams to put together donor-ready documents. Support other internal fundraising initiatives as needed.
  • Partner with the storytelling and social media team: Draft professional collateral, follow up on open threads, and work with the Design and Storytelling team wherever required. You should be comfortable making basic edits in Figma, Canva or Claude Design, exporting assets, and publishing content independently.
  • Support the Customer Success function: Prepare pre-reads for client meetings, draft outreach emails and updates, and support the CEO in mapping potential clients to help Karya reach its 2030 vision.
  • Build operational rigour: Lead a cross-team effort to build documentation, SOPs and clear internal systems at Karya, enabling transparency, efficient handholding, and clear roles and responsibilities. Build the tools and systems needed to champion this.
• Support the CEO's office
  • Own the CEO's calendar and stakeholder scheduling, protecting his time for what matters most.
  • Build pre-reads and briefing notes ahead of key meetings, especially through the major outreach months of the year.
  • Build and polish the presentations and documents the founders need.
  • Partner with the Chief of Staff on the operations and logistics for Karya's events, stakeholder visits and leadership moments, and produce the decks, collateral and presentations the founders need.
  • Help the Founder's Office team plan the logistics for the CEO's travel and manage administrative work, and support Manu's EA in their responsibilities. For example, in a typical month your work can span leading a cross-team effort on a critical org priority, preparing pre-reads for a week of funder meetings, organising a site visit for a donor, turning a founder's rough notes into a ten-slide deck, and putting together a one-pager for Karya’s work in the health domain for a potential client / donor. As you find your feet, we will ask you to take on more across the founder's office verticals: storytelling, sales, fundraising and operational rigour.

What we're looking for

• Highly organised: You manage multiple threads at once, prioritise well, and thrive in a fast-moving environment.
• Excellent communicator: You write clear, polished emails, briefs and decks, with strong attention to detail.
• Strong judgment: You're proactive and resourceful, and you know when to take ownership and when to ask for guidance.
• Relevant experience: You have past experience in ambiguous, high-agency roles and / or have worked in the founder's office, strategy, communications, or another generalist role.
• Mission-driven: You care about dignified work and language equity for low-income communities, and you're excited to work across functions to get there.

Non-negotiables

• Writing as the core skill: You quickly grasp the discussion or project at hand and can jump straight in to write the emails that move it forward.
• Institutional memory: You will often be responsible for Karya's institutional memory, maintaining structured documentation of strategic rationale and relationship history.
• Wearing multiple hats: You thrive in ambiguous environments, are willing to wear different hats, and will lead the work that might otherwise fall through the cracks.
• Self-starter with an entrepreneurial streak: You are self-motivated, can navigate challenges with limited direction, and see things through without needing to be chased.

Good to Have

• Knowledge of the AI ecosystem: You have a working knowledge of the AI ecosystem and keep up with how it is changing.
• Tech skills: You are comfortable with technology and pick up new tools quickly.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills: You have the ability to diagnose complex organizational challenges, propose strategic solutions, and implement practical, large-scale improvements.
• Cross-functional experience: You have held a high-agency role where the brief was often ambiguous, and you owned work that cut across several teams.
• Operational excellence: You bring strong documentation habits and systems thinking, and can champion operational excellence across Karya.

People matter at Karya and these are some of the perks and benefits we created for our team:

• Flexible vacation and leave policy
• Flexible work options
• Insurance as per industry standards
• Access to industry stalwarts and networking opportunities

Karya is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.