Chief of Staff (Stockholm)

Remote from: Europe
Annual salary: Undisclosed
Salary information is not provided for this position. Check our Salary Directory to estimate the average compensation for similar roles.
Department: Business Development
Employment type: Full Time,
Job posted: 16 Jun 2026
Apply before: 16 Jul 2026
Experience level: Senior
Views / Applies: 37 / 7

About company

About Polar

Polar is the financial layer for a new generation of intelligent software.

Computer Software
2023

Actively Hiring

AI Summary

Polar is seeking a Chief of Staff in Stockholm to work closely with the founder/CEO in scaling the organization from early-stage to scale-up. The role involves designing KPIs, reporting to investors, exploring strategic initiatives, leading operations, and optimizing processes. The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience, preferably in startups or consulting, with strong data analysis skills and a hands-on, entrepreneurial mindset. The position offers high autonomy, competitive compensation, equity, and a fast-paced environment focused on momentum and impact.

Role DNA

Job Complexity

Easy Hard

Pace & Pressure

Relaxed Fast-paced

Autonomy Level

Guided Full Ownership

Communication Load

Independent Highly Collaborative

AI Insight The role requires a seasoned professional with 5+ years of experience, strategic thinking, and cross-functional leadership, making it challenging but not at the highest technical difficulty level.

Salary Analysis

AI Insight The listed salary is not provided, but based on US market for a Chief of Staff at a startup, the median is estimated at $150,000. This is competitive for an early-stage company offering equity and high autonomy.

Key Skills

Chief of Staff Business Operations Strategic Planning Data Analysis SQL Startup Scaling Management Consulting Business Development KPI Management Organizational Design

Cover Letter Sample

Dear Hiring Team,

I am writing to express my strong interest in the Chief of Staff role at Polar. With over 5 years of experience in startup operations and a background in management consulting, I have developed the analytical and strategic skills necessary to drive business scaling. I am particularly drawn to Polar's mission of empowering developers and the opportunity to work closely with the founder on high-impact initiatives. I am confident that my ability to navigate both strategic planning and day-to-day operations will contribute significantly to Polar's growth journey.

I look forward to the possibility of discussing how I can add value to the team.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Possible Interview Questions

How would you approach scaling Polar's operations from early-stage to growth stage?

I would start by mapping current processes and identifying bottlenecks, then implement scalable systems (e.g., CRM, project management tools) and hire key roles. I'd prioritize automating repetitive tasks and setting up clear KPIs to track progress.

Describe a time you used data analysis to drive a strategic decision.

At my previous startup, I analyzed customer churn data and identified that onboarding friction was a major cause. I proposed a streamlined onboarding flow, which reduced churn by 20% in three months.

How do you balance strategic initiatives with day-to-day operational tasks?

I prioritize by impact and urgency, dedicating time blocks for strategic work (e.g., mornings for deep work) and handling operations in shorter bursts. I also delegate where possible to focus on high-value activities.

What metrics would you use to measure the health of a startup like Polar?

Key metrics would include Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), churn rate, active users, and employee satisfaction. For Polar, developer adoption and API usage would also be important.

How would you handle a situation where a strategic initiative you proposed fails to deliver expected results?

I would conduct a post-mortem to understand why it failed, gather data, and identify lessons learned. Then, I'd pivot or adjust the strategy based on insights, communicating transparently with the team and stakeholders.

About Polar

It’s never been easier to build, ship, and scale software. Yet, it’s never been harder to monetize software. It’s a bottleneck for the future.

We’re building the open-source monetization platform to empower future one-developer unicorns. Going beyond great billing primitives to offer a more comprehensive platform for the next generation of developers to scale global businesses around their software.

Today, Polar is used and loved by thousands of developers from 100+ countries, and growing quickly.

About the Role

We’re hiring a Chief of Staff to work closely with Birk Jernström (Founder/CEO) in Stockholm on a daily basis and remote team to scale our organization and business operations from an early-stage startup to scale-up. You’re a strong generalist, highly analytical, organized and a strategic thinker, but far from shy to get your hands dirty doing whatever has to be done next that nobody owns.

You’ll be part of everything across the organization, i.e spider in the web, and get a lot of accountability and ownership to optimize our business operations, identity new opportunities and lean-in wherever needed to help the business reach it’s goals.

What You’ll Do

Work closely with Birk Jernström (CEO/Founder) on all of the below and more.
Design our Business KPIs, goals and process to reach them
Monthly reporting to investors
Explore strategic initiatives, business development and partnerships to unlock new opportunities
Data analysis for strategic initiatives & discussions
Build vs. Buy analysis for key initiatives in the future
Lead operations: Budget, accounting, legal, compliance etc.
Design and optimize our recruitment- and onboarding processes
Optimize alignment, culture and rituals within the team
Organize team events, i.e Offsites to Friday demos
…A lot more and anything needed to unlock the next stage of our business

About You

5+ years of working experience
You’ve worked within a startup in similar roles, e.g Chief of Staff, Business Operations or COO
You’ve likely worked at McKinsey, Bain, BCG or similar
Strong data analysis abilities (+SQL knowledge or ability to learn quickly) to continuously explore our business performance and identity new strategic bets
You love jumping across the entire organization and switching between strategic initiatives and mundane tasks – whatever is necessary to scale our business operations and get stuff done.
Highly curious, technical and resourceful to identify better workflows and automations for the team
No ego and strong desire to learn & lean-in across many functions
Entrepreneurial and likely to start your own business

We Offer

Competitive compensation & equity.
High autonomy & ownership. Help shape our business, team and culture – no red tape or heavy processes, we celebrate momentum and having an impact daily.
Twice-yearly team offsites. We gather in our teammates’ cities to experience their local life, brainstorm the future, and write pseudo-code for what delightful billing should look like
Fast-moving and pragmatic environment. A small, senior team focused on momentum over perfection. Iterating fast to improve everyday.
Mission with leverage. Build tools that empower other builders; your work compounds through theirs

About the Team

We’ve written books on FastAPI, built Shop.app & Shop Pay, helped ship the Battlefield React UI, and contributed to (and maintained) a lot of open source. We’re ex-founders and open source maintainers who care deeply about craft, velocity, entrepreneurship, and developer experience.

Hiring Process

Application Review – We’ll review your application and may reach out for intro call / meeting with Birk (Founder)

Team Interviews – You’ll meet a few team members

Investor Interviews – Phone interview with our investors which you’ll interface with

Take home task – You’ll get a task to prepare a pitch for a strategic initiative for Polar. Building out key assumptions for it, analysis and model of the expected impact and requirements.

Pitch – Present the strategic initiative/case and for us to discuss it together

Reference Calls. We believe reference calls are great and help us confirm our impression and ramp up our understanding and abilities to ensure we hit the ground running productively.