We're transforming the grocery industry
At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should
have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple
need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the
varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on
to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings
opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.
Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help
push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join
our table.
Instacart is a Flex First team
There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the
flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or
your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular
in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.Overview
Instacart's mission is to create a world where everyone has access to the food they love
and more time to enjoy it together. Online Grocery is the heart of that mission — the
products millions of customers rely on every day and the team that builds them. We're
looking for a Chief of Staff, Online Grocery to partner with the General Manager who leads this
business and its product and R&D organization of ~200 people across product, design,
research and technical program management.
People, operations and programs are the core of the work — but what should energize you is
what that work makes possible. A Chief of Staff here helps the organization operate at its
best: more cohesive, clearer in its purpose, sharper and faster in how it makes decisions and
operates, and enabled to do the thing that matters most — building products our customers
love. If you're motivated by improving how a team works, and serve as a multiplier on
everything the team can ship, this is your role.
This is a highly strategic and operational individual-contributor role (no direct reports) for
someone exceptionally organized, has strong business and strategic sense, high in empathy, and
who has an understanding of how product, design, and engineering teams work.
About the Job
Run the operating rhythm
Own and continuously improve the business rhythm for the GM and the organization — leadership
team syncs, all-team meetings, monthly and quarterly business reviews, planning reviews,
organizational communications, and Online Grocery segments of company-wide all-hands.
Manage the operating cadence for the GM — prioritizing and delegating workstreams, ensuring
the right things get the right attention at the right time.
Improve how the organization decides: clarify decision rights and the questions that matter,
build the frameworks and pre-reads that bring options into focus, and remove the friction that
slows good calls.
Once decisions are made, capture and sharpen them, ensure they're communicated to the right
stakeholders, and close the loop on execution — keeping leadership priorities, decisions, and
commitments visible and on track (R&D execution itself is owned by TPM).
Shape and run the substance of the leadership team offsites: objectives, agenda, pre-reads, the
hard discussions, decisions, and follow-through (logistics and events are handled separately).
Be a trusted thought partner to the GM and a credible problem-solving partner to product and
R&D leaders, and build strong relationships with chiefs of staff across the organization to
partner effectively in getting your responsibilities done.
Prepare briefings and coordinate research for the GM's meetings with partners and key
leaders — identifying goals, talking points, and relevant context.
Partner with the GM, HR and finance to manage the organization's headcount budget
Plan executive communication
Drive the calendar, planning, and content for upward communication and alignment with the
C-suite and the board on Online Grocery priorities.
Support the GM in preparing content for speaking engagements (working with our comms team).
Strengthen people, culture, and organizational health
Help the GM spot, diagnose, and get ahead of issues across the organization — bringing
structured, candid read-outs and early signals, not just status.
Partner with the GM and HR to address relationship and culture dynamics across the team and
create a high-trust, high-performance leadership team culture.
Turn signals like engagement surveys into action — working across the organization to develop
the right plans, pressure-test them, and ensure they get executed and the loop gets closed with
teams.
Drive priority programs
Help the GM kick off and drive annual and long-range planning for Online Grocery.
Take ambiguous new efforts for the GM from unclear to fully underway — creating clarity and a
plan, identifying DRIs, setting up the decisions that need to be made, aligning stakeholders,
and developing the right operating rhythm to track progress.
Proactively identify and take ownership of emerging opportunities and risks before they become
blockers.
About You
Minimum Qualifications
10+ years of work experience
R&D experience — earned in a direct R&D role (product, design, engineering, or
technical program management), an adjacent role embedded with R&D teams, or as a Chief of
Staff within an R&D organization
Consulting, corporate strategy/operations, or finance background and experience working
directly with executives
Working fluency to navigate a product, design, and engineering organization at scale, and to be
a true problem-solving partner to R&D leaders rather than a coordinator.
High EQ and a genuinely people-oriented instinct — builds trusted relationships, reads
organizational dynamics, and bridges leadership and teams.
Outstanding written and verbal communication at an executive level
Strong analytical skills, and a commitment to consistently high-quality work.
Exceptional program management: organized, effective, and relentless at driving multiple hard
initiatives forward to deadline at once.
Ability to travel 10%
Preferred Experience
Experience designing and facilitating leadership offsites and driving organizational, culture,
or operating-model change.
Experience building with AI (e.g., prototypes, automations, or agents) in a professional
setting.
Experience within high-growth, technology-driven companies.
#LI-RemoteInstacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each
location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful
candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote
work policy here.
Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the
role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh
grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here. For US based candidates, the base
pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.CA, NY, CT, NJ$239,000—$252,000
USDWA$229,000—$241,500 USDOR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL,
HI$219,000—$231,000 USDAll other states$199,000—$210,000 USD |
