Operations Support Specialist

ABOUT TERN

Tern is a venture-backed software company on a mission to reshape the $127B travel agency industry—by giving power back to the entrepreneurs who built it.

Nearly 98% of travel agencies are small businesses. These businesses have been chronically underserved by technology. We're here to change that. Our platform helps travel advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable operations—giving them the modern infrastructure they need to lead the next chapter of travel.

But the impact goes beyond business. Travel advisors help clients move more intentionally through the world. When a traveler works with an advisor, they're more likely to avoid overtouristed hotspots and more likely to spend their dollars in places where they can do real good. That's the kind of travel we want more of.

At Tern, we believe in small business. We believe in the power of travel. And we're building the future of both.

OPERATIONS SUPPORT SPECIALIST This role will be supporting US Eastern Time hours

Tern is growing fast. More events, more people, more invoices, more inboxes. Someone has to keep all of it moving, and right now that work is spread across people who should be spending their time elsewhere.

This role sits behind our events, marketing, and people teams. On a normal Tuesday you might answer a dozen email s in the events inbox, set up next week's advisor office hours, order a laptop for a new hire, chase two missing receipts, and flag a state tax notice that needs action. This is not an executive assistant role. You won't be managing anyone's calendar. You'll own the back-end work that keeps the company running.

The tasks are learnable. The volume is real. We're looking for someone who asks clarifying questions before they start, builds their own system for keeping track, and wants to grow with a company that is scaling quickly.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Run the events inbox. Own the events inbox day to day, and especially in the weeks before and during our bigger events. Answer what you can, route what you can't.
• Set up virtual events. Build and manage webinars, advisor office hours, and hosted virtual events. Handle registrations, links, reminders, and follow-up questions.

-Support in-person events. Research and book restaurants, hotels, and event registrations for the team.

• Run new-hire back-end onboarding. Set up new hires in our HR system, order equipment, provision tool access, and make sure every onboarding checklist gets finished.
• Keep finance admin clean. Track invoices and receipts, monitor the accounting inbox, and help keep event and tool budgets on track.
• Watch the mail and the compliance notices. Sort physical mail and flag state tax and compliance notices (rate changes, filings, registrations) so nothing gets missed.
• Help with recruiting and team moments. Source resumes and help manage the candidate pipeline during hiring pushes. Coordinate monthly birthday and anniversary gifts. You may also support scheduling and running Tern sales demos.

WHAT YOU HAVE

• Operations or admin experience: 2+ years in an operations, admin, or coordinator role where you supported more than one team at once.
• High-volume organization: You've managed a busy shared inbox, a pile of requests, or a recurring process without dropping things. You can show us the system you use.
• Curiosity and judgment: You ask the right questions before you start, and you know when to solve something yourself versus when to flag it.
• Clear written English: You write clear, friendly email s to customers, vendors, and teammates.
• Care with sensitive details: You've handled payments, personal data, or compliance tasks where accuracy matters.

BONUS POINTS

• Startup or small-company experience, so the pace won't be a shock
• Event or webinar coordination (Zoom, registration tools, vendor booking)
• Familiarity with tools like Gusto, Brex, Notion, Slack, or Google Workspace
• Experience using AI tools to speed up admin work, while still checking the output

WHAT WE ----------

🌱 We're always leveling up.

Whether you're deepening your craft, learning from a teammate, or embracing a new challenge, growth is core to our identity.

🧭 We act with optimistic agency.

We take initiative, seek clarity, and move forward, even when the path isn't obvious. Through every peak and valley, we lead with curiosity, laughter, kindness, and resolve.

💪 We expect operational excellence.

We ship value to our users every single week. We believe that compounding habits lead to sustainable productivity, consistency, and mutual trust.

Operating Principles:

👂 We deeply understand our users.

At every level of the organization, we obsess about understanding those we serve and the industry we operate in.

➕ We embrace the power of and, and not now.

We challenge trade-offs by asking better questions. We break hard problems into small pieces and tackle them with intention. We also know to make the hard call to say "not right now".

📣 We speak up and move forward.

Everyone at Tern has a voice and a responsibility to use it. We invite healthy tension, share dissenting views early, and challenge each other with curiosity, not ego.

🏃 We move fast and sweat the details.

Velocity matters and relentless progress beats perfection every time. But speed isn't chaos: we stay aligned, own our outcomes, and care deeply about quality.

🤣 We take the work seriously, but not ourselves.

We hire kind, driven people who elevate the room. If you've got a big ego or take yourself too seriously, you won't last.