Founding Operations Lead

About The Trade

The Trade is building the operating system for professionals who design and build homes.

Today, contractors, interior designers, architects, builders, and other trade professionals run their businesses across a fragmented collection of spreadsheets, accounting tools, project management software, CRMs, invoicing systems, inventory trackers, and communication
platforms. Critical information is scattered everywhere, creating inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and unnecessary administrative work.

We believe there should be a better way.

The Trade is developing an all-in-one platform designed specifically for project-based trade businesses. Our vision is to bring together everything needed to run a project and a company in one place—from project planning and client management to proposals, purchase orders, invoicing, inventory, time tracking, expenses, accounting, reporting, and AI-powered workflows.

Alongside TheTrade.com, we are also developing TheTrade.ai, an AI-powered assistant built specifically for the trade industry. These are separate platforms and are designed to work closely together to help trade professionals operate more efficiently, make better decisions, and spend less time on administrative work.

We are still early. This is not a large company with layers of management and narrowly defined roles. We are building, testing, learning, and iterating quickly. Every person who joins the team has the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the business, the product, and the future direction of the company.

Our Founder Matt Clark is also the Co-founder of Marea Clark Interiors, a successful high-end residential interior design firm with over $7M in annual revenue. The studio is a successful and growing business and also a real-world testing environment where we can identify operational challenges, validate solutions, and build software and AI workflows that solve problems faced by professionals every day.

About the Role

We are looking for a Founding Operations Lead who is excited about startups, entrepreneurship, technology, and building systems from the ground up.

This is an ideal role for an ambitious, entrepreneurial early-career professional who wants exposure to building a company. You will work directly with the Founder and gain hands-on experience across operations, sales, marketing, finance, product development, AI, customer experience, business strategy, and startup execution.

We are looking for someone who wants to grow with the company. As The Trade evolves, this individual will gain more responsibility.

What You'll Do

You will help improve and scale the operational systems that support both the design studio and the development of The Trade.

Who You Are

You are proactive, highly organized, detail-oriented, and excited by the opportunity to learn quickly.

You enjoy figuring things out, asking thoughtful questions, and moving projects forward independently.

You are equally comfortable thinking strategically and executing tactically. You enjoy building systems, improving processes, and helping organizations operate more effectively.

You may be early in your career, but you should have exceptional communication skills, intellectual curiosity, a willingness to learn, and a strong interest in building a business.

You should be excited about helping build something from the ground up and contributing to a company that is working to transform how professionals who design and build homes operate.