Every breakthrough in trade infrastructure has followed the same pattern: reduce a transaction cost, expand the market. Containerization for goods. SWIFT for money. Stripe for payments. Compliance is one of the last and largest — and the hardest, because trade rules aren't data to be looked up. They're a complex adaptive system with 190+ sovereign jurisdictions, in different languages, changing constantly, reacting to each other.
Sphere built the system that solves it. Our AI (TRAM) ingests global trade law, interprets it, resolves conflicts across jurisdictions, and produces compliance determinations more reliable than human experts. We handle the entire lifecycle — calculation, registration, filing, remittance — at millisecond latency with zero downtime.
Backed by a16z and YC. $21M Series A, 30%+ month-over-month growth, customers include ElevenLabs, Replit, Deel, Runway, and Lovable.
Small team, global surface area. Everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. San Francisco, five days in office.
The problem keeps compounding.Expanding into input tax, withholding, e-invoicing, tariffs — each multiplies the complexity. Tens of millions of transactions today, billions ahead.
We’re looking for a swiss army knife / Chief of Staff to work directly with our CEO at Sphere. You'll be an extension of Nick, helping him across GTM, Ops, Finance, Tax and more. It will be intense (our Founder is an intense person) but you'll learn more than you would in any other role.
Within days:
Work directly with our CEO and Founder on the below:
Assist with automating registration and filing operations of our clients at Sphere
Setup revops / sales ops processes to enhance BD operations
Conduct research into international jurisdictions on cross border compliance rules
Within months:
Own key operational processes across the business
Assist CEO on KPI tracking and reporting
Identify areas of automation across the business
High attention to detail - one of our key values is ‘Sweating the details’ and it is essential in our business
Someone looking to grind / work hard - Nick (our CEO) works late, on weekends etc. You need to be ok with those sorts of hours as it will allow you to learn faster
Strong communication skills - we work at an extremely fast pace and so clear, concise communication is essential
Multi tasking capabilities - a lot will be thrown at you and you’ll need to manage your time wisely
You'll thrive here if:
You're a Dog. You've been underestimated, gone through struggle, and never stopped running. You have a chip on your shoulder and enormous drive. You look at Stripe, Deel, and Flexport all punting on compliance and think: good, that means the opportunity is ours. Hunger beats pedigree.
Early stage is in your bones. You've built things where there's no playbook and nobody handing you the answer. You define the problem instead of waiting for instructions.
You own it end to end. Give you a goal and you figure out your own path. Small team, global surface area — everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. No one tells you how.
You believe speed and accuracy are both possible. We're building a complex product that requires robustness and 100% uptime, and we have to build at our customers' pace. Move fast. Don't break things. Both.
Being in the room is a feature, not a cost. Five days in SF isn't a policy, it's how the work gets done. The speed and density of collaboration we need doesn't survive over video.
This won't be a fit if:
You need structure handed to you or ambiguity feels draining rather than motivating
You want to manage people more than own hard problems (we're a flat, experienced team — everyone builds)
You're used to "good enough" shipping (small errors have outsized impact here)
Being in the room five days a week feels like a cost instead of a benefit
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