Operations Manager

👋 Tim \& Dan here. Between us, we’ve interviewed thousands of people and hired nearly one hundred. Most job descriptions feel sterile and fail to communicate what it’s actually like to work with the people behind the role. Normally we write these separately, but this role sits directly between us. You’ll report to Dan while working closely with Tim across companies and personal projects. We’ve spent the last several years building companies together from scratch and pursuing a shared ambition of making a meaningful dent in the world. We still operate like two dysfunctional brothers constantly challenging each other, but with enormous mutual respect.

At a glance

Title:

Operations Manager

Reports to:

Dan (Managing Director, Polarized Capital)

Location:

Montreal

Compensation:

$65–125k CAD

About Polarized Capital

I—Tim—started Polarized Capital to invest in, rationalize and focus my efforts on the problems that mattered most to me and my growing group of friends who also happen to be my closest business partners. Our goal at inception was to learn. Learn to invest, learn to focus, learn to scale, learn to test ourselves. To date, we’ve placed a handful of bets on entrepreneurs I wanted to learn from and incubated one company.

We’re now at a point where we know what we want to focus on:

1. The human experience
2. Science and biology
3. AI and technology

The next company that we’re starting falls into the human experience bucket that we invest in. This company is a non-profit foundational lab that will conduct research at the intersection of human-to-human connection, therapeutics and ai. Think OpenAI if OpenAI’s mission wasn’t to democratize AI but instead to democratize and scale human relationships.

By joining the team, you’ll support the full Polarized Capital portfolio and help us scale our ambitions to make a dent in this world.

About the role

We’re hiring an Operations Manager to support the Polarized Capital portfolio and its founders. This is not a traditional operations role. You won’t simply manage processes. You’ll create leverage across businesses, investments, schedules, travel, systems, relationships, and personal operations. Some days that means building systems, reviewing budgets, and helping prioritize difficult decisions. Other days it means solving problems before anyone notices they exist. Occasionally it means getting on a plane with 12 hours notice because it materially changes an outcome.

Day-to-day

No two days will look the same.

Success in this role will be measured by your ability to create clarity, maintain operational excellence, and help founders execute effectively across business and personal domains.

You’ll spend most of your time:

• Creating and executing plans
• Solving scheduling and operational conflicts
• Building systems that improve execution
• Managing travel, logistics, and founder operations
• Reviewing budgets and workflows
• Helping teams stay aligned
• Asking thoughtful questions and challenging assumptions
• Using AI and modern tools to create leverage

You’ll probably like this role if…

• You’ve proven to yourself that you can grow by pushing beyond your limits — academically, professionally, athletically, or creatively.
• You think of technology as leverage.
• You’re an undaunted learner who is comfortable operating in unfamiliar territory and figuring things out quickly.
• You don’t hesitate when something needs to get done. No task is beneath you. If there’s trash on the floor, you pick it up. If someone needs help, you step in.
• You care deeply about excellence and details without becoming bureaucratic or overly process-driven.
• You are highly trustworthy and understand the importance of discretion.
• You celebrate other people’s success and don’t see it as diminishing your own.
• You have strong judgment. We don’t expect perfection, but we do expect someone who can consistently make thoughtful decisions in ambiguous situations.
• When faced with ambiguity, you create clarity for yourself and the people around you by researching, asking questions, and leading with curiosity.

Location

This role is based in Montreal. Travel will vary depending on company and founder needs. You should generally expect to be home on weekends. Our companies are currently remote, though we expect to establish a physical Montreal office.

Interview process

1\. Initial conversation with Dan (30 min)

We’ll evaluate:

• Ownership
• Judgment
• Communication
• Learning velocity
• Operational instinct
• Grit

We care far more about how you think than polished answers.

2\. Conversations with Tim and Vanessa (30 min each)

These conversations focus on:

• Working chemistry
• Communication style
• Current capabilities
• How you operate across personalities and situations

These are intentionally conversational.

3\. Take-home assignment (\~3–5 hours)

You’ll complete a practical assignment modeled after real work. We’ll evaluate:

• Systems thinking
• Prioritization
• Judgment
• Communication
• Your ability to create leverage using modern tools, including AI

4\. Final presentation \& working session (60 min)

You’ll present your work back to the team. This is less a formal presentation and more a collaborative working session where we evaluate:

• Clarity of thought
• Adaptability
• Communication
• Whether working together feels natural and energizing

We aim to move quickly and avoid unnecessary rounds.

What we’d love to hear about

• Times you pushed beyond your limits and what you learned
• How you’ve used AI or modern tools to create leverage
• Situations where you operated in unfamiliar territory and figured things out independently

Tim’s expectations for you:

Most people who have worked with me will tell you that I have extremely high standards. That’s because I hold myself to high standards, I hold my teams to high standards and I’ll expect you to do the same.

But what most people won’t be able to tell you—simply because very few people see all the work that’s done in private, late at night or before the sun rises—is that the only real standard I truly hold myself and others to is to not repeat mistakes over and over again.

Throughout my career I’ve fucked up more times than I’ve gotten right. But in every failure there’s been an important lesson and I put in the work to learn, to grow, and to practice the skills I need to develop. I won’t expect you to do something right the first time, I will expect you to eventually get it right and to confront when you’ve done it wrong.

When you tackle new problems, I will expect you to lead with judgement, integrity and curiosity. If you don’t know something, ask ai, ask the team, ask me. As you build up your skills I will expect you to be able to sniff out bullshit when either AI or humans produce it.

I will expect you to tell me and to tell people we work with when they are wrong. I know this won’t always be easy but you will have my unconditional support to address the issues you see, even when I am the issue.

You’ll have access to deeply personal information as part of this role. I expect you to manage it with the highest level of integrity and care.

What you should expect from me:

You should expect me to be there for your growth, for the team’s growth and for my own growth. I got to where I am in my career by having a handful of people believe in me and invest in me. I carry that with me and try and pay it forward with my teams and will do so with you.

You should expect me to speak first and think second. That’s how I form ideas, how I shape my thinking and how I stress test my mental models.

You should expect me to sound confident in almost any topic I engage with. If I’m presented with facts that prove I’m wrong or suggest I might be, you should expect curiosity and openness.

You should expect me to take detours in conversations. Communication doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’m actively working on it.

Above all, you should expect me to lead with integrity and with the goal of making the world and our teams better. This means you should expect me to make the toughest calls, to help raise the bar as an organization and lead by example.

Dan’s expectations for you:

I care deeply about ownership, preparation, and effort. When bringing problems forward, I expect you to think critically first and arrive with a point of view or potential solutions. I value thoughtful pushback. If you think I’m wrong, say it.

Some of the best decisions come from honest disagreement. Mistakes will happen. I expect accountability, learning, and improvement, not perfection.

You’ll have access to sensitive business and personal information across the organization. Trust, discretion, and integrity are critical.

Above all, I expect you to care:

• About the quality of your work
• About the people around you
• About improving yourself and the systems around you

What you should expect from me

You should expect me to be highly organized and to value preparation, documentation, and operational clarity. I strongly prefer momentum, iteration, and learning through execution over endless discussion.

Sometimes that pace may feel intense. If it does, I expect you to tell me. You should also expect direct feedback, honesty, and meaningful investment in your growth.

What you shouldn’t expect is micromanagement. I care deeply about outcomes, standards, and accountability, but I want people to own their workflows and operate autonomously. I believe exceptional people do their best work when trusted.

Final thoughts

An investor we’ve partnered with in one of our companies says that the entire GDP of the internet is up for grabs now that AI is at the heart of every digital product. We agree. It’s an exciting time to build, to start companies, to invest in them.

Above all, though, we think this is once in a lifetime opportunity to reinvent ourselves and to reach for world changing ideas. If you decide to join us, you’re joining a team that wants to change the world with our work, who want to build exceptional relationships together and who ultimately want to have fun leaving a dent in the universe.

If it sounds exciting, apply or if you already know us, text us.