The Role
The Chief of Staff is the CEO’s strategic right hand — a versatile operator who combines sharp contract negotiation instincts, legal acumen, and financial fluency to accelerate Paathz through its most critical inflection points. This is not a generalist support role; it is a high-ownership position designed for someone who thrives at the intersection of deals, governance, and commercial strategy.
You will own end-to-end contract negotiations with hotel groups, staffing partners, government bodies, and technology vendors. You will draft, review, and manage legal agreements (with external counsel where needed), and you will build and maintain financial models, grant applications, and investor-facing materials. In a pre-seed startup, this role is the multiplier that lets the CEO focus on vision, fundraising, and product.
Key Responsibilities
Contract Negotiation & Partnerships
- Lead and close commercial agreements with hotel chains, staffing agencies, and strategic partners across SEA, Europe, and the Middle East.
- Structure and negotiate partnership terms, including revenue-share models, SLA frameworks, and exclusivity arrangements
- Manage vendor contracts (technology, payment, compliance), ensuring favourable terms and risk mitigation.on
- Own relationship management with key accounts post-signing, ensuring contract performance and renewals
Legal & Compliance
- Draft, review, and redline commercial contracts, NDAs, MOUs, service agreements, and employment/contractor agreements
- Manage Paathz’s legal exposure across multiple jurisdictions (Singapore, EU, Middle East), including data privacy (PDPA, GDPR), cross-border employment regulations, and IP protection.
- Coordinate with external legal counsel on complex matters; internalise routine legal workflows to reduce reliance on outside firms.
- Maintain the corporate data room and ensure ongoing compliance with ACRA filings, shareholder obligations, and grant conditions.s
- Support regulatory submissions, including Startup SG grants and other government programmes.
Finance & Financial Strategy
- Build and maintain financial models,s including unit economics, cash-flow forecasts, and scenario analysis for investor and grant submissions.
- Prepare and manage grant applications (Startup SG Tech, EDB, IMDA) with financial projections and milestone tracking. ing
- Produce investor-facing financial materials for the pre-seed fundraise and subsequent round.s
- Oversee budgeting, expense tracking, and runway management; flag financial risks proactively to the CEO
- Support due diligence processes and financial reporting for current and prospective investors
CEO Leverage & Operations
- Serve as the CEO’s strategic proxy in meetings, negotiations, and partner conversations when needed.
- Prepare briefing documents, board decks, and strategic memos synthesising cross-functional input.s
- Drive weekly operating cadence,ce including the PAATHZ Weekly Update and internal team coordination.
- Identify and unblock operational bottlenecks across product, marketing, and go-to-market workstreams.
Qualifications & Experience
Must-Haves
- 3–7 years of experience in a combination of management consulting, corporate development, legal (in-house or firm), or finance roles
- Demonstrated track record of negotiating and closing complex commercial agreements (B2B, partnerships, or M&A-adjacent)
- Strong legal literacy — ability to draft, review, and negotiate contracts independently with minimal hand-holding
- Financial modelling proficiency (Excel/Sheets), including P&L, cash-flow, and scenario/sensitivity analysis
- Exceptional written and verbal communication; able to produce investor-grade documents and articulate complex positions clearly
- Comfort with ambiguity and a bias toward action; startup experience or founder-adjacent roles strongly preferred
- Willingness to operate across time zones (SEA, Europe, Middle East) with flexible working hours
Strong-to-Haves
- Background in hospitality, travel-tech, or marketplace/platform businesses
- Familiarity with Singapore regulatory environment (ACRA, MAS, PDPA) and EU frameworks (GDPR, EUSDTA)
- Experience with government grant applications (Startup SG, EDB, IMDA) or sovereign fund reporting
- Exposure to cross-border employment law or international staffing operations
- Fluency in a second language relevant to our markets (French, Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi, Malay)
What We Offer
- Ground-floor equity in a high-growth AI-native platform at the earliest stage
- Direct strategic partnership with the CEO and founding team (CTO, European Markets, Head of Marketing)
- Exposure to a global scope of work across Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East from day one
- Acceptance into the EHL Innovation Hub ecosystem with access to top-tier hospitality networks
- Autonomy to shape the role, build processes from scratch, and have an outsized impact on the company trajectory
- Flexible remote-first working with periodic in-person sprints in Singapore and at international conferences
