AI Operations Associate

About telli

At telli, we're building the first AI-native phone system. Since launching last year at Y Combinator, we've achieved significant growth, reaching >$2M in annualized revenue with a lean team of only 12 people. Our mission is to transform customer communication by leveraging AI voice agents to handle repetitive calls, enabling human teams to focus on critical customer interactions. This approach leads to higher efficiency, happier teams, and superior customer experiences.

Traditional phone systems are not equipped for an AI-first world. telli addresses this by providing an AI-native platform where companies can manage both their human and AI teams seamlessly. Our founding team brings deep expertise, having managed a 150-person internal call center, understanding the complexities and costs of scaling high-quality customer experience through phone calls. We are just getting started on our massive opportunity to empower every company with world-class customer experience.

What You'll Do as an AI Operations Associate

Pilot Ownership & Commercial Success

• Own dedicated accounts during the pilot phase, driving clear commercial outcomes, including pilot conversion rate and revenue.
• Manage pilot projects end-to-end, ensuring all stakeholders are aligned and progress is on track.
• Identify expansion opportunities and execute upsells during the pilot phase.
• Act as a trusted advisor to customers, helping to shape their AI strategies.

Agent Development & Deployment

• Build, design, and refine AI agents capable of handling thousands of customer conversations daily.
• Partner directly with engineering and customers to develop and deploy production-ready agents.
• Track agent performance against key success criteria and continuously drive improvements.
• Debug technical issues and provide hands-on support during the pilot phase.

Process & Customer Enablement

• Build, maintain, and improve workflows for customer onboarding, pilot management, and agent development.
• Lead customer workshops and training sessions to foster product adoption.
• Translate customer needs into actionable product feedback for engineering and product teams.
• Document best practices and playbooks to effectively scale the onboarding function.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• You genuinely enjoy working with customers and contributing to their success.
• You are tech-savvy or possess a semi-technical/technical background.
• You are an excellent communicator in both English and German (additional languages are a significant plus), especially in writing.
• You have experience building workflows and AI agents, with an understanding of prompt engineering and APIs.
• (Bonus) You have over 1 year of experience in customer-facing roles (support, account management), ideally at a fast-growing startup.

You May Not Make a Good Fit If...

• You have a pure business background without experience in workflows and AI agents.
• You prefer purely 'strategic' work and are unwilling to engage in hands-on tasks.
• You are looking for a 9-5 schedule or a fully remote position.

Perks

• Above-market pay & equity.
• Access to any (AI) tool that enhances your productivity.
• Gym subscription (Urban Sports).
• Free dinner in the office.
• Regular off-sites with the team.

Key skills/competency

• AI Agent Development
• Customer Onboarding
• Pilot Management
• Prompt Engineering
• API Integration
• Workflow Automation
• Stakeholder Alignment
• Commercial Acumen
• Technical Support
• German Language