Chief of Staff (m/w/d) - (Berlin)

Chief of Staff (m/f/d)

Work at Ralph

Ralph is recruiting top talent to help transform how the world’s largest asset class, residential real-estate, is managed. We will disrupt property management with a multi-layered strategy.

1. First and currently, we are building the best property management software and are refining this software in our new, self-built PM company.
2. Second, we will roll out this disruptive tech-driven brand in key cities across Europe and become the Go-To-Partner for international real-estate holders.
3. Third, we will scale to become a billion-dollar company by acquiring old-school PMs and turning them around with our software within weeks.

Why it matters

Getting stuff done around your home nowadays still sucks. Phones, emails, wait times, chasing people, rude replies, constant excuses. Instead, imagine an app that truly enhances the quality of life for its residents—a "home-in-your-pocket". Today, a handful of apps dominate our smartphone usage—Instagram, WhatsApp, Uber, Spotify, ChatGPT, Netflix, Airbnb, Google Maps, Revolut, and the New York Times. In comparison, proptech is still at a very early stage and has no similar brand, even though we spend most of our income on our homes and most of our time in them.

As a property management brand, Ralph is in a unique position to design the app, given we already control essentials like payments, insurance and utilities. From there onwards, we will expand in terms of breadth and encompass everything related to your home, building, and local neighborhood.

Imagine what’s possible. Ralph could help owners streamline decarbonization projects to fight the climate crisis, or let residents manage their home seamlessly, from booking a cleaner to scheduling a massage to paying rent. With an increasing density of buildings in our network, Ralph will also foster local connections and fight the loneliness epidemic by bringing together a community of locals. We will be uniquely positioned to connect not only outside services to buildings but also the people living in them. Our platform could host a variety of events, re-connecting, re-engaging, re-uniting local networks – a 21st-century version of what Jane Jacobs once envisioned.

Who we are looking for & our Culture

We want to create a groundbreaking company and need incredibly driven and talented people. We are looking for analytical, data-driven minds who execute methodically and are self-aware. We need folks who put their egos to the side and focus on the work that’s at the center. We want people who work in founder-mode and raise the bar for their teams. We focus on challenging and maximizing opportunity for the best; we want you to come to the leadership with your own ideas. We want to think and strategize with you, not to “manage” you.

How remote / on-site are we? We work really hard but we are not obsessed about where we work. Some results are achieved only after intense in-room collaboration. That’s why meeting in person is important at least sometimes. While most of us are based in Berlin, we want to let you work from wherever you want, as long as we remain maximally productive. At a minimum, we require a quarterly on-site week, but typically meet more often as teams.

Needless to say, culture needs to be built on respect and inclusion. At Ralph, we are unwavering in our commitment to diversity and equity. It goes without saying that sexism, racism, or other types of exclusionary behavior have no place here.

We want every voice to matter and we need collaboration free of egos. We put the work at the center, not our personal agendas. We challenge everyone, no matter their seniority, to exercise leadership by speaking up.

Where are we at, where are we going?

1. Now is the time to build: After organically onboarding over 3k apartments in Berlin within a matter of months – which is unparalleled growth in the industry – we raised our SEED round with top VCs. We now want to take our time to truly automate processes before scaling. We have time, but we want to be fast.
2. How we work: We are privileged to have true real estate experts on our team. We listen to them and are relentless in questioning the status quo. We are convinced that only technology can fix what’s broken about property management.
3. AI-Services: We are different from a typical startup in the sense that we are not your standard B2B software-only company. We are hands-on and are working closely with the ops property management team and benefit from fast feedback and product iterations.

Your Role

You will learn to study and disrupt processes, hire talent, bring change into organizations, and turn around companies from thin margins to extraordinary gains. All this is hard, really hard. But it’s all stuff you will need forever:

1. Streamline operations: You’ll develop scalable processes that delight property managers. Sketch. Draft. Implement. Test. Refine. Repeat—until the problem is solved.
2. Recruit top talent: Collaborate with founders to find and hire the very best. Great teams attract great talent, and our success depends on getting this right.
3. Drive Product Innovation: Break down complex workflows into actionable requirements. Partner with our product team to create features that redefine industry norms. You’ll balance meticulous detail with the ability to move fast when the moment demands it. You can lead the development of new features—from initial concept to deployment.
4. Hands-On Property Management: You’re not afraid to dive into operations-heavy work. Customer satisfaction is your north star, and you’ll roll up your sleeves to ensure quality delivery, working alongside certified property managers.
5. Support Venture Building: Work closely with the founders to prepare key reporting and insights for board meetings, gaining hands-on exposure to the intricacies of venture building. Learn the art of crafting compelling narratives, presenting data effectively, and managing stakeholder expectations in a high-growth startup environment.

What We Offer

1. Lots of mess: This job is for you if you love building stuff. If you love a bold vision. If you think extremely big. It’s also for you if context switching is your thing. You’ll be joining a world of constant chaos and contributing to key projects across the company from business (fundraising, planning, research, strategy) operations (hiring, frameworks, workflows, legal) and growth (communication, content, management).

1. Flexibility Without Compromise: Work remotely as much as you like, we find our ways, but obsess over delivering exceptional results. We will also travel increasingly frequently, as teams and when buying portfolio companies.
2. Founders as Mentors: Work directly with ex-Harvard- ex-BCG repeat founders.
3. Central Office Perks: When in Berlin, enjoy a prime location.
4. Valuable Benefits: Highly competitive salaries, and from equity options to fitness programs, we prioritize what matters.

What you’ll bring

1. This is a senior role: While we will interview a cross-section of profiles with 2-10 years of experience, we think it will take someone a minimum of 3 years of work experience (whether in a startup or in consulting or similar) to succeed in this role.

2. You will bring a blend of high IQ and high EQ; we’re thoughtful problem solvers and believe trust scales more powerfully than anything else. We look to efficiently execute while leaving a trail of goodwill, both internally and externally.

3. A high ownership and self-starter resourceful mindset. You're a truffle hunter for problems and opportunities!

4. A blend of curiosity and humility.

5. A warmth that makes you approachable and fun to problem-solve with!

Key Details

- Reporting to and working with: CEO (Julius) ; Interacting with: CTO Cip, Head of People Jacqueline, Managing Director Ingo, Head of Onboarding Anja and UX Researcher Rob

Key Projects on the roadmap for this role:

1. Execute new product ideas and define new workflows: Together with the CEO, you will help automate what we can, and streamline what we cannot (yet) automate. Championing the automation and streamlining of such workflows takes plenty of dedication, detail orientation, and people skills to push change through the organization.
2. Cutting Edge Customer Support: Fast, high-quality responses are key to making property management 10x better. You build an army of AI bots and humans to develop the best customer support team in the industry and set up the right metrics to measure its success.
3. Vendor Management: You identify and manage freelancers and agencies that can support us with performance marketing campaigns and brand strategy.
4. Market expansion: You also help us scale to new markets by expanding our partner network and/or help in finding acquisition opportunities.
5. Change management: You push new processes into our self-built PM or into newly acquired targets. You support, coach, and monitor their progress.

What does success look like in this role over 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months?

3 months:

1. You’ve fully understood and internalized the dynamics of Ralph as a product and business.

2. You’ve established yourself as a reliable executor; able to own scoped tasks across various areas (i.e. team management, operations planning, hiring, research).

3. You naturally act as an “executing support” for Julius and as a fully independent team member. The level of ownership/responsibility/skill at this point will depend on the domain you’ve taken ownership of (marketing/business/growth/operations).

6 months:

1. You’ve adopted a “co-founder” mindset and are executing key projects, both on your own and with the team; you’re trusted as an asset by the ops team.

2. Perhaps you’re starting to identify a particular field of interest (marketing/operations/growth/business) and are making rapid progress in this domain, increasingly taking full ownership.

3. Julius could go on vacation for two weeks and you'd feel confident keeping the company running and managing communication, checking in with him only occasionally.

12 months:

- You naturally act as an “executing support” for Julius and as a fully independent team member. The level of ownership/responsibility/skill at this point will depend on the domain you’ve taken ownership of (marketing/business/growth/operations).

What’s the hiring process?

The process typically takes 2-3 weeks:

1. An Initial call with our hiring manager, usually followed by a quick case study.

2. If we think this could be a fit, we ask you to meet the founders in person in Berlin. It’s a tough decision to make a career move, so we like to spend some time together in person. We usually organize a team lunch and then spend some time together at the office.

3. Apply at ralphpm.com or directly to julius@ralphpm.com.

What growth path exists for this role over 2-4 years should you exceed all success criteria?

1. Founder

2. Head of Ops

3. Head of Growth

4. Product Manager

5. COO

6. CMO

The future is in our hands. Ready to join?