Operations Associate

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In parallel, we run Canada's most AI-native grants practice. We help SMEs secure SR&ED, IRAP, Mitacs, CanExport and the rest of the federal and provincial stack — on success fees.

Both sides of the company are real and shipping. Both generate the kind of operational work that currently lives in inboxes, spreadsheets, Slack threads, and people's heads. If you have just finished at UBC, SFU, or somewhere equivalent, this is a rare first job: you sit close enough to the founder to see how a company is actually run, and you are accountable enough that the running is yours.

This is an early-career operator seat, not a coffee-and-calendar assistant job, and not a CFO seat. You own the operating system of a small, fast company: files, follow-ups, the tax calendar, the books, the invoices, the vendor list, and what happens when someone emails in and needs a real answer.

The person who thrives here is almost uncomfortably organized. Labelled folders, dated filenames, a running list of what is due and who owns it, and a low tolerance for 'I'll find it later.' If you were already the person the group chat forwarded the spreadsheet to — club exec, co-op, family books, residence, a job where the loose ends were yours — this is that instinct, applied to a real company.

You will work alongside the founder, our Head of Operations, and our Finance & Accounting Manager. They will teach. You will run. That is the deal. You do not need an accounting degree. You do need to want to learn how a company actually holds together, and to get unusually good at it.

Most first jobs park you in one lane: sales development, research, a rotation you never quite own. This one is the opposite. You will do the unglamorous work that actually runs a company, next to the people who can tell you why it matters. Invoices, CRA deadlines, receipt chases, filing, follow-ups, the office, the vendor who needs a GST number on file, the client who wants last month's statement. That is the work. It is also the curriculum.

The exciting part is the mandate, not the stationery. You will be the person who makes a fast-moving company feel like it has its act together — because it will. In a year you should be able to run the operating cadence of a small company without being asked. That is the promotion case. We will not invent a VP title. We will give you more as soon as you take more.

1. Operations

   You are the person who notices something is about to slip and handles it before it does.

   1. Vendor renewals, insurance, office, and the operational odds and ends that have no natural owner.
   2. Contracts sitting unsigned, filings sitting unfiled, and the follow-up that everyone assumed someone else sent.
   3. A running operating checklist — you build it, you run it, you improve it. The test is that fewer things surprise us every month.

2. Admin

   Founder-facing, without becoming a bottleneck. You protect time. You do not hide information.

   1. Calendar, travel, expenses, and meeting notes that produce action items — not a transcript nobody rereads.
   2. Board, investor, and internal materials assembled correctly the first time.
   3. When someone needs a document, a login, a signed agreement, or last quarter's insurance certificate, you have it in sixty seconds. Not "I'll look for it."

3. Taxes

   You do not need to be a CPA. You will be taught. You do need to own the calendar of what is due, who owns it, and whether the backup is actually in the folder. CRA does not accept "we forgot."

   1. GST/HST, payroll remittances, T4s, and corporate filing deadlines — tracked, prepared, and not left to the week they are due.
   2. Year-end coordination with the accountant: documents requested, documents delivered, nothing missing.
   3. SR&ED and grants-side tax work coordinated with the team that owns the claims. You keep the file complete; they own the technical content.

4. Bookkeeping

   Finance should never have to reconstruct a quarter from a pile of PDFs. That is the standard. Our Finance & Accounting Manager will show you the system. You keep it current.

   1. Receipts in, categorized, and reconciled on a cadence you set and keep.
   2. Chase the missing receipt the week it happens, not in April.
   3. Work in whatever we use today — and make it cleaner. The tool is not the point. Current, labelled, reconcilable books are.

5. Invoicing

   Send the invoice. Track what has been paid. Follow up on what has not. A surprising amount of delivered work in this company has never been billed cleanly. Getting that onto a real receivables list — with dates, amounts, and a follow-up cadence — is part of the job, and one of the fastest ways to see how a business actually makes money.

   1. Issue invoices correctly, on time, against the right entity and the right contract.
   2. Maintain a simple aged list: sent, due, overdue, paid. Someone always knows where the money stands.
   3. You will not be collecting through the courts. You will make sure the invoice went out, the number is right, and overdue amounts have a next action.

6. Company organization

   The drive, the Notion, the vendor list, the contract repository, the "how we do X" docs that currently live in Slack. You impose a structure and you keep it.

   1. A filing system other people can actually use — named, dated, permissioned, findable.
   2. A vendor, contractor, and key-contact list that is current.
   3. The test, six months in: a new hire can find anything without asking you. If they still have to ask, the system is not done.

7. Support

   You are not the support team. You are the person who makes sure support does not fall on the floor.

   1. Internal first: people get stuck, tools break, someone needs a Zoom link, a client folder, or access.
   2. Inbound second: hello@, light client coordination, "where is my invoice," "can you resend that."
   3. Nothing sits unanswered. If it is not yours, you route it. If it is yours, you close it.

This is the case for taking the job. In twelve months you should be able to explain, in plain language, how this company runs — money, filings, files, people, and the founder's week — and to have left it more orderly than you found it.

We are a small company. Titles follow the work. There is no five-year ladder published on a poster. There is a seat next to the people who run the place, and a mandate that grows as fast as you do.

1. Graduating this year or recently graduated — UBC, SFU, or equivalent — or early-career with the same instinct. Co-op, student government, club exec, residence, family books, and a job where the filing was yours all count. We are not screening for years of title.
2. You are the most organized person in most rooms you have been in. Not "pretty organized." The person who labels, dates, tracks, and cannot leave a loose end.
3. Comfortable with numbers, or willing to get that way fast: invoices, GST, a spreadsheet that has to be right. No accounting degree required.
4. You write clearly. You write the email that does not need a follow-up email.
5. Discretion. You will see compensation, legal, and founder-level material.
6. Based in Vancouver, or willing to work hybrid from our Kitsilano office.
7. You do not wait to be asked. You see the gap and close it — and you ask when you do not know, which will be often at the start. That is expected.

1. You sit next to the founder of a company that is shipping real AI products and running a national grants practice. Most new-grad seats are three layers down. This one is not.
2. You will be taught, not parked. Head of Operations and Finance will show you the books and the tax calendar. The work is yours to run once you have seen it.
3. The skill stack is rare for a first job: Canadian tax, bookkeeping, invoicing, company systems, founder cadence. It is also the stack every company eventually needs.
4. A named path, not a dead-end admin title. Run the cadence, own a lane, then Senior Ops / chief-of-staff track / finance ops — whatever you earn.
5. Small team, Kitsilano office, low politics. People will leave you alone to make things orderly — and they will notice when you do.
6. A job for people who get genuine satisfaction from imposing order. If that sentence made you sit up, you already know.

Send a short note, your CV, and a paragraph on the most chaotic thing you have already made orderly — a club, a co-op, family books, a team, a first job, a group project that did not implode because of you. What was broken, what you imposed, and how you knew it was working. Bonus if you attach a screenshot of a tracker, filing system, or dashboard you are proud of (redact whatever you need). Two conversations and a decision. You do not need five years of experience. You need evidence that you are already this person.

Email careers@getupgraded.ca with the subject line "Application: Operations Associate". We review on a rolling basis. Upgraded is an equal opportunity employer.