| Location | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
Operations & Executive Coordinator
The opportunity
This job is one person running two businesses out of a building that is not finished yet, for a brand that has not launched.
Harrison Gray Search is a retained executive search firm founded in 2013 in Grand Rapids that recruits for wealth management, insurance, accounting and finance, and logistics firms. The founder still recruits alongside the team, and the firm is restoring a 1913 brick broom factory at 300 Webster St NW into its headquarters, three leasable suites, and a membership coworking space on the upper floor with nine private offices, an open work area, two conference rooms and a café, built for about 24 people. The coworking brand has not been announced yet. You would help launch it.
We are hiring one person to run the building and the coworking business day to day and to support the founder and the firm's leadership. You start now, during the last stretch of construction, so that by the time the doors open you know every vendor, tenant and member by name and the founder can hand you decisions with confidence.
This is a role for an elite operations professional who wants full responsibility for how a business runs day to day and is willing to do the unglamorous parts of running it. We reward hard work and promote accordingly, and we are looking for someone who wants to grow into a very large role in this organization over time.
What you will run
The coworking space
You are responsible for everything that happens on the floor. Tours, member onboarding, access credentials, day passes and trials, the conference room calendar, member events, the mail and package service, and the vendors who keep the floor running. You track occupancy, renewals and churn and report on them monthly. When a member has a problem, you are the person who fixes it. Before opening, you build the onboarding process, stand up the access control system and set the vendor relationships so day one works.
The brand launch
You work with the founder and the designer to take the coworking brand from a logo to a business: website, social accounts, signage, the opening event, and the member experience from first tour to first invoice. You write down how it was done so the next location can follow it.
The Webster Building
Every inquiry comes to you first. You give the suite showings, get qualified prospects in front of the founder to sign the lease, and manage the day to day relationship with tenants after they sign. You coordinate maintenance, building vendors, and the punch list that follows a new opening. Until the move, you track the final stretch of the renovation with the founder and keep trades, deliveries and inspections on the calendar.
Harrison Gray Search
Once the building and the coworking space are up and running, a major part of this role is supporting Harrison Gray Search and its leadership. You learn how the recruiting business works from the founder and the firm's other leaders, and you help it run efficiently, taking care of the systems, materials and follow-through so recruiters can spend their time recruiting. We have invested significant time building AI-driven processes into how the firm operates, and you will work inside them from the start and help improve them.
The founder's desk
Calendar, travel, inbox triage, meeting prep, follow-up, and the business and personal errands that keep his day clear. When he delegates something to you, it is handled, and he hears about it when it is done rather than when it is stuck. You stand in for him with clients and the recruiting team when he is not available.
Who this is for
You have spent five or more years as the person everything routed through: executive assistant to a founder or senior executive, operations lead in a hotel or hospitality business, property or community manager, or the operator behind a small business. You have handled demanding customers face to face and kept them. People who have worked with you would say that you take things off their plate before they ask and you operate with a high level of autonomy.
You write clearly, because much of this job is email. You pick up new systems quickly. You already use AI tools as part of how you get your own work done. This firm runs on AI-driven processes, and you will be expected to work in them and make them better. You are comfortable being the face of a business one hour and sorting mail the next, and you understand that in a business this size both of those are the job. You are discreet, because you will see client, candidate and tenant information every day.
It helps if you have opened a location, launched a brand, or stood up a business from nothing.
What success looks like
Ninety days in, the founder's calendar and inbox run through you, the renovation's final stretch is tracked, member onboarding and access control are built and tested, the brand launch has a plan with names and dates, and every building inquiry gets a same day response.
A year in, the coworking space is open under its new brand and at or above its occupancy target, and the building's tenants are managed day to day without the founder's involvement. You understand how the firm finds and places candidates, you have taken on a defined set of responsibilities that keep it running, and the AI-driven processes you work in run better than when you found them, including at least one you built or rebuilt yourself. You have written the playbook for opening a location, and it did not exist before you.
How we work
You report to the founder and work with him daily. You coordinate with Harrison Gray's Director of Operations on anything that touches the firm's internal operations, staff or systems, and you support the recruiting team on scheduling and materials when they need it. With tenants, members, prospects, vendors and contractors, you are the primary contact.
The founder's style is direct. He will tell you what he thinks; he expects you to do the same, and he would rather you make a decision and tell him than wait for permission on anything that can be undone.
The details