We’re building the future of intelligent planning.

We are an AI planning optimization platform built on powerful, longstanding open-source solver technology. Simply put: we enable software builders to tackle some of the world's most complex, high-impact operational planning problems. From optimizing vehicle routing and employee scheduling to streamlining maintenance planning and field service logistics, our tech delivers massive economic value where it matters most.

We are on a relentless mission to free the world from wasteful scheduling! Founded in 2023, we represent the next chapter of OptaPlanner, the field-proven open-source project that laid the foundation for everything we build today.

Today, we are a technically sharp, deeply passionate team of over 40 people. Our headquarters are in the iconic Wintercircus building in Ghent, Belgium, and we operate as a remote-first team with hubs across Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and the US. We are backed by prominent VCs and recently raised an €11 million Series A.

We're hiring a Chief of Staff to become the connective tissue between our CEO's vision and the day-to-day reality of running a scaling company. Someone who moves fluidly between a board deck and a GTM rollout, and turns strategic intent into organizational execution.

This isn't a calendar-and-briefing-book role. You'll co-own how the company operates and, if you're as good as we hope, grow into taking increasing executive ownership of Timefold.

Your job is to make Timefold execute better as it grows — turning strategy into priorities, priorities into decisions, and decisions into coordinated action.

About the role

The Chief of Staff sits in the CEO's office. You're a trusted partner to the CEO and leadership team, helping the wider organization move with clarity, speed, and alignment.

You will create structure without bureaucracy, challenge without politics, and help us distinguish between a good idea and an actual priority.

You'll drive cross-functional projects that touch every part of the business, help shape how Timefold governs itself as it scales, and make sure the company's operating rhythm - from OKRs to board updates - actually holds together.

If you're looking for a role where you sit next to the CEO and take notes, this isn't it. If you want to be the person who makes sure the company actually executes on what gets decided, and to grow into running significant parts of it yourself, keep reading.

What the role looks like day-to-day

Make the leadership system work

Develop a deep understanding of Timefold's business model, product landscape, competitive position and customer base, and use it to help the CEO and leadership team turn decisions into coordinated action. Your job is to create enough structure for a growing company to execute well, without creating bureaucracy.

• Serve as a close partner to the CEO and leadership team, acting as a trusted proxy when needed — but also challenging us when priorities conflict or we're trying to do too much.

• You will have no direct reports, and yet you will create the drumbeat across the organization.

• Manage the CEO's strategic priorities and ensure follow-through on key commitments across the organization.

• Drive the leadership team's operating rhythm: weekly leadership syncs, decision logs, action tracking and, importantly, closing the loop on what was agreed.

• Support the design and execution of the company's OKR process, from goal-setting to quarterly reviews.

• Facilitate quarterly and annual planning cycles, ensuring alignment between teams and the company's strategic direction.

• Design and maintain Timefold's company governance framework, in close collaboration with the Head of People: team composition and cadence, decision rights and reporting lines, so accountability stays clear as the company scales.

• Maintain a live view of the company's key initiatives, and proactively flag risks, conflicts or capacity constraints to leadership.

At any given moment, own 1–2 of the company's highest-priority cross-functional problems

These will change as the company evolves. Your job is to pick up the problems that matter, bring the right people together and drive them through to an outcome.

• Own and drive high-priority, cross-departmental projects from initiation through to delivery.

• Coordinate Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing and Customer Success on GTM projects, product launches and operational improvements.

• Initial strategic missions are likely to include supporting the commercialization of Timefold's platform and BYO offering, including how we make better use of our open-source user base and reputation.

• Help leadership evolve organizational structures, responsibilities and interfaces as Timefold scales.

• Identify and eliminate inefficiencies in how the company operates.

• Help design scalable structures, processes and ways of working as the company grows.

Make sure information travels as fast as the company does

Own how important information flows through Timefold, so that a growing, distributed organization stays informed and aligned without drowning in meetings or process.

• Drive company-wide rituals such as leadership offsites, Foldups, Team Days and board meetings.

• Build scalable communication infrastructure — templates, cadences and channels — that keeps pace with a growing, remote-first team.

• Shape board and investor communications with the CEO, turning company performance, strategic choices and risks into a clear narrative.

• Shape executive presentations, investor updates and other company-level strategic communications together with the CEO and relevant functional leads.

• Support the CEO in managing key external stakeholder relationships: investors, partners, industry analysts and strategic customers.

You'll be a fit if

• You think and operate like an owner, not a support function. You'd rather build the plan than just brief someone on it.

• You thrive in ambiguity and move seamlessly between strategic thinking (governance, commercialization strategy, org design) and operational detail (the Slack cadence, the board deck footnote).

• You build trust easily with stakeholders at every level, from individual contributors to board members

• You have exceptional written and verbal communication skills.

• You carry a high level of discretion, emotional intelligence, and judgement, and can be trusted with sensitive information.

• You have strong analytical skills; you can structure ambiguous problems, interpret data, and land on a recommendation rather than just a list of options

• You have some exposure to GTM and commercial strategy; enough to hold your own in a conversation about complex commercial motions, even if you've never owned a sales number yourself.

• You have significant experience in strategy, business operations, general management or Chief of Staff roles in a high-growth environment.

This probably isn't for you if you need a tightly bounded remit, prefer advising over owning outcomes, or believe operational detail should sit below a senior role.

What we offer

The biggest opportunity in this role is the scope. You'll work directly with the CEO and leadership team at a recently funded technology company entering its next stage of growth. You'll have significant influence over how Timefold operates and the opportunity to take on increasing executive ownership as the company grows.

Just as importantly, we care about how we work together. We aim to build an open and authentic workplace where you are trusted to act, trusted to ask, and supported as you seek to grow. In return, we expect people to own and deliver.

The practical stuff

• A full-time position in a fast-growing startup environment.

• A competitive salary package complemented by a range of local benefits.

• Flexibility to engage as an employee or independent contractor.

• A remote-first working environment, with regular presence in Ghent expected for leadership rhythm and time with the team.

• Regular company gatherings and Team Days, including international travel once or twice a year.

• An international team where people are treated with fairness and respect.