Product Operations Lead
- Ascend
- San Francisco, California
Job Description
What We Do
Insurance is a $10T industry still running on PDFs, email threads, and manual reconciliation. Ascend is changing that.
We built the first finance automation platform designed specifically for insurance — combining AI and embedded fintech to modernize how money moves across the entire policy lifecycle, from collections to disbursements. In five years, we've become the market leader: trusted by thousands of insurance businesses nationwide, processing billions in transactions annually, and growing 200%+ year over year.
How We Do It
Ascend automates the financial operations that insurers, MGAs, and agencies run every day — and embeds directly into the transactions where money actually moves.
AI is driving the cost of software toward zero. The companies that win won't just sell tools — they'll capture value at the point of the transaction itself. Ascend is built for exactly that moment. Our customers don't just adopt software; they unlock measurable efficiency with a proven 5–7x return on investment.
Our 70+ person team, based in San Francisco and Columbus, brings together deep expertise in insurance, fintech, and AI to build infrastructure the industry has never had.
Why We Do It
The insurance industry intermediates trillions of dollars — and almost none of that infrastructure was built for the modern era. Legacy systems aren't just inefficient; they're a ceiling on what the industry can become.
Ascend's mission is to become the leading financial automation platform for insurance by 2030 — powering the financial operations of the entire industry and transforming the way trillions of dollars move. We're not building another point solution. We're building the financial backbone of insurance.
Your Role
We are looking for a technical, operationally sharp, people-driven ProdOps Lead to own the performance and execution of Ascend's Product Operations team. This role will be 50% managing the team running manual ops and 50% driving loan operations automation — serving as the primary escalation point, cadence owner, and people manager. You'll handle ~95% of execution and team decisions independently, freeing up Head of Ops bandwidth to focus on strategic priorities while you drive delivery, metrics, and team development on the ground. You'll need technical experience because in addition to team management you are expected to:
- Build and maintain the loan operations automation roadmap
- Own monthly tooling improvements and automations
- Own spec delivery and alignment with tech on cross-functional projects
Responsibilities will include
Objective #1: In your first 30 days, you will:
- Shadow weekly kickoff and metrics meetings, with the goal of running them independently by Day 30
- Review past cross-functional approach — tooling requests, project briefs, and ops meeting history
- Draft a rollout plan and calendar and ramp up on all health check SOPs
- Own 1 monthly tool automation project
Objective #2: In your first 60 days, you will:
- Run weekly kickoff, metrics meetings, and 1:1s independently
- Deliver first weekly pulse check — covering health check metrics, ticket escalation, project completion rates, and remediation plans
- Draft the hub and process for the monthly ProdOps report
- Own escalations monitoring and on-call ops volume for 50% of team scope
Objective #3: In your first 90 days, and beyond, you will:
- Drive the first full quarterly planning cycle — delivering top 3–5 ProdOps milestones with clear timelines, resource allocation, and cross-functional alignment with tech, product, data, and compliance teams
- Own escalations monitoring and support for 100% of team scope with zero major operational incidents
- Run 1:1s independently and deliver a development plan for each direct report — gaps, strengths, and development priorities
- Propose and document the initial team scope rotation plan and backup coverage protocols
You might be a good fit if you are / have
- 3+ years in operations, program management, or a related role in a high-growth environment
- Hands-on experience building or iterating on internal tools (Retool, Lovable, or similar no-code/low-code platforms) — you've shipped something, not just requested it
- Experience managing small teams with a track record of hitting SLA targets and developing direct reports
- Comfortable owning both execution and process — equally at home running a team meeting and triaging a tooling backlog
- Strong analytical instincts with the ability to build and maintain metrics dashboards that drive decisions
- A bias for direct communication, structured thinking, and proactive problem-solving without needing to be asked
- Background in fintech, insurtech, or financial operations is a plus
Base Salary Range: $130,000-150,000
All roles at Ascend are 5 days a week onsite at our beautiful office in SoMa!
Benefits
- 100% health premiums covered for you and your dependents
- 401k with employer matching options
- A fast growing team with an emphasis on promoting from within 80% of all hires in the last 12 months have already been promoted!
- Unlimited PTO
- Company paid commuter benefits
- Parental and family leave
- Lunch everyday
- Dog-friendly office!
Equal Opportunity
We are committed to equal opportunity employment and embrace diversity within our organization. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
We encourage candidates to apply even if their experience doesn't precisely match this opportunity. We value diversity and are dedicated to equal opportunity employment.
Apply Now
We built Ascend to simplify insurance - one of the world's most crucial yet outdated industries.
Join usChoose Velocity
Speed with direction is our greatest superpower; the simpler things are, the faster we can move; the faster we move, the faster we succeed.
Know Your Customer
Knowing and understanding our customers as both people and professionals is critical to Ascend’s success.
Own It
We are all owners and the greatest chance of success comes from thinking with that as our primary title.
Inspire with Humility
Change is driven from the inside out; we have to humbly show & inspire, not tell, that there is a better way.
Give Collaborative Feedback
We wins if we constantly push each other to grow and improve in a kind and compassionate way.
