About this opportunity
Hop Aero lists this Office Manager opportunity in orange county, California. Review the employer’s description below for duties, qualifications and application requirements.
Job description
Hop Aero is a venture-backed startup building rockets that deliver cargo anywhere on Earth in minutes.
Our mission is to enable resilient global logistics to protect and improve our way of life.
Our founding team has prior experience founding a satellite startup and taking it to orbit, launching 20+ Falcon 9 missions at SpaceX, and leading engineering teams at some of the world’s most advanced aerospace organizations. The company is well-capitalized through venture funding and government contracts.
About the role
We're hiring an Operations & Office Manager to keep Hop Aero running day to day. This is a high-trust role for someone who takes pride in making a company work behind the scenes, so the engineering team can stay heads-down on hardware.
You'll own office management, handle HR and bookkeeping admin, coordinate VIP visits and events, and support procurement and shipping and receiving. You'll work directly with the founders, the accountant, vendors, and anyone who walks through our front door, including congressional staff, investors, and military customers.
This is not a quiet desk job. We move fast, and the office needs to keep up. You'll build processes from scratch, host visitors from the DoD, unblock engineers who need parts yesterday, and make sure onboarding, payroll, and the coffee machine all just work. If you like bringing order to a fast environment and being the person everyone relies on, you'll do well here.
We see this as a long-term role. We're not looking for someone to fill a seat. We're looking for someone who grows with the company, builds the playbook, and moves into operations leadership as we scale. The person who does this job well will become one of the most important people at Hop Aero.
What you'll do
Run day-to-day operations of our Orange, CA facility, including vendors, supplies, and facilities
Own employee onboarding end to end, including Rippling setup, health insurance enrollment, internal tool access, and workspace setup
Administer our internal tool stack, including Rippling, Carta, Mercury, and others
Serve as primary point of contact with our external accountant on bookkeeping, payroll, and monthly close
Handle City, County, State, and Federal filings, forms, and fees to keep the company in good standing
Coordinate site visits, investor meetings, congressional delegations, and team events at HQ and our test site
Serve as first point of contact for new vendors and suppliers, handing off to engineering when the conversation gets technical
Support procurement and vendor setup for non-technical and light engineering purchases
Manage shipping, receiving, and delivery intake of mission-critical flight hardware at our Orange facility
Own logistics between our Orange HQ and our test site in Oklahoma
Build the processes and systems that enable the company to scale with less chaos
Act as a cross-functional problem solver who fills gaps before they slow the team down
Requirements
2+ years of proven experience in office management, operations, HR admin, or similar
Strong organizational skills and the discipline to keep multiple parallel threads moving without dropping details
Comfortable speaking with vendors and suppliers
Strong written communication, comfortable drafting vendor emails, internal updates, and visitor briefs
High trust and discretion when handling financials, personnel info, and sensitive visitor logistics
Comfortable working in a fast-paced aerospace hardware environment
Ability to create processes from scratch rather than inherit them
Must be on-site full-time at our HQ in Orange, CA
Must be a US Person under ITAR
Nice to have
Experience in aerospace, space, defense, or hardware startups
Exposure to government contracting environments
Experience hosting government, military, or congressional visitors
Familiarity with Rippling, Carta, Mercury, QuickBooks, or similar startup tools
Notary public
What we offer
Competitive salary and meaningful stock options
Healthcare, office meals, and snacks
Direct access to founders and early influence over how the company operates
A clear path from admin to operations leadership as the company grows
Even if you don't meet every requirement, we'd still love to hear from you. Greatness looks different in everyone, and we need people who make teams move faster.
Who can apply
Review the original listing for work authorization, qualifications and employer requirements.