Business Operations Associate
Location: Chicago, IL
Office: 3 days/week in South Loop office
Reports to: Chief Business Officer (CBO)
About Tavern Research
Tavern Research is a political tech startup building tools and insights to help our customers win elections and make better, evidence-based decisions. We specialize in scaling expert human work, such as content generation and survey research to support thoughtful, data-driven civic engagement. We're a venture-backed, mission-driven, fast-moving, and mostly technical team focused on supporting campaigns and organizations working to strengthen democratic participation. We are experimental by design and expect every team member to continuously improve how they work using new tools and technology. Everything else is on our website. If you still have questions, let us know when you apply!
About You
You're an operator at heart. You see a problem, you solve it. You see a list, you work it. You don't wait for permission or perfect instructions. You figure out what needs to happen and you make it happen.
You're scrappy and resourceful. You solve problems before they're escalated and find creative solutions when the playbook doesn't exist yet. Chaos doesn't rattle you. You build order inside of it, track a dozen moving pieces without dropping any, and would never send a contract that says "unknown company."
You're comfortable with AI tools and know how to use them to move faster, but you have the judgment to know when human finesse matters more. You write clearly, communicate professionally, and know the difference between escalating and just handling it. Experience in politics, campaigns, or political technology is a plus, but what matters most is that you execute.
About the role
Tavern Research is looking for a Business Operations Associate to serve as a right hand to the Chief Business Officer. This is a high-impact, generalist role for someone who thrives in ambiguity and moves fast. You'll fill critical gaps across contracts, finance, marketing, and day-to-day business operations, freeing up senior leadership to focus on strategy.
On any given day you might be generating a client contract, chasing down an invoice, briefing a marketing consultant, or triaging an internal request that slipped through the cracks. You'll work directly with the CBO and across every business unit, touching contracts, finance, sales ops, marketing, and general operations. No two days look the same. That's the point.
This is not a role where you sit in meetings and make decks. You'll have a direct impact on how the business runs day-to-day, working closely with senior leadership in a small, high-trust team at a pivotal moment of organizational growth.
We value in-person work and expect employees to work regularly from our Chicago office. We're open to a range of arrangements - full-time, part-time, temp-to-hire, or contract. If this sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you.
Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end contract generation, review, and execution using existing templates and automation tools, ensuring all client-facing documents are accurate, standardized, and sent on time.
- Support billing, invoicing, and bookkeeping processes, and liaise with external accounting resources to keep the books clean.
- Coordinate with external marketing consultants on campaign execution, help clear the marketing task backlog, and support digital campaigns, social media, and outbound communications.
- Maintain and manage CRM/HubSpot structure and hygiene, support the sales team with deal logistics and pipeline tracking, and ensure smooth handoffs between sales, delivery, and business unit leads.
- Act as the operational catch-all: when something falls through the cracks, you pick it up.
- Manage internal ticketing and requests, triage operational needs across the team, and support tech ops, vendor management, and office operations as needed.
- Assist with fundraising preparation and forward-looking financial planning support alongside the CBO.
- Leverage AI tools to move faster and build lightweight processes where there's currently chaos, without losing the judgment to know when human attention matters most.
Qualifications
- 2+ years of experience in management consulting, business operations, startup ops, sales ops, or a similar generalist role, or a strong recent grad with demonstrated hustle and organizational chops.
- Experience with some combination of: strategic and operational projects, contracts/legal ops, billing/invoicing/bookkeeping coordination, CRM/sales ops, vendor management, or marketing coordination.
- Strong written communication skills: clear emails, polished docs, professional client-facing materials.
- Strong spreadsheet skills and technical fluency; comfortable in CRMs, task trackers, and AI tools, and quick to pick up new systems.
- Proven ability to manage multiple workstreams independently without dropping balls.
- Detail-oriented enough to catch errors, organized enough to track them all.
- Sound judgment: knows when to act independently and when to escalate; comfortable operating with incomplete information in a fast-moving environment.
- Experience supporting a fast-moving small team or startup.
- Bonus: familiarity with HubSpot, Rippling, or contract automation tools; background or interest in politics, campaigns, or political technology.
Benefits
- Premium health insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Office closed for all federal holidays
- 401k match
- Equity
Tavern Research is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
The pay range for this role is:
78,000 - 93,000 USD per year (HQ)