Executive Assistant Intern to the CEO (AI-First)

An internship with the weight of a real role: real work, real ownership, and a direct line to the CEO. You will help run the AI operation, keep the company moving, and turn a flood of output into business impact.

About Upnova

Upnova helps Shopify brands add 10-30% more revenue with strategic upsells.

600+ merchants trust us. 4.9 stars on Shopify.

We are a small, fast, AI-first team with a high bar and zero mediocrity. This seat puts you close to the decisions, systems, and work that move the company forward.

How we work

AI does a lot of the doing for us. It researches, automates, writes code, builds the website, prepares presentations and pitches, and runs outreach. Often 10 things at once.

That's not the future; that's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... You get the idea.

The human edge is judgment, organization, and clear communication. You will help direct the work, decide what matters, and turn immense AI output into messages and actions people can use.

The role

This is an internship with the weight of a real role: real work, real ownership, and a direct line to the CEO. It is not coffee runs. You will be close to the operating system of a growing company and trusted with work that has a visible result.

You will:

• Run the CEO's inbox and calendar each day. Protect focus time, sort signal from noise, and keep important follow-ups moving.
• Manage and make use of the AI operation. Point AI at real work such as research, drafting, summaries, automation, outreach support, website work, presentations, and pitches. Run several workstreams at once and keep each one moving.
• Use a tool stack others do not have. You will maintain a personal set of tools that only you know about, where others do not, creating exceptional leverage over productivity. You will be the person who finds and masters the right tool first.
• Create meaningful work from AI output. Decide what is worth doing, give it an owner and a next step, and follow through inside a system you maintain.
• Condense the immense amount of information and actions AI produces into easy-to-understand messages: a one-page brief, a five-line update, or a clear ask the CEO and team can act on immediately.
• Make an impact on the business. Tie your work to faster decisions, unblocked deals, cleaner operations, and other clear outcomes.
• Research unfamiliar topics fast and get the basics quickly. Go from "What is X?" to a one-page brief in 90 minutes, covering what it is, why it matters, and what we should do.
• Chase action items across the team so commitments stay visible and nothing important slips.
• Handle Finnish paperwork, vendors, and practicalities such as authorities, insurance, and office needs.
• Take on special projects in research, data, and operations whenever they can unblock the CEO fastest.

In 1 month, you should be able to run a CEO's operating system, direct a serious AI operation, and make important work easier for everyone around you. That is the career leverage of this seat.

You

The three traits that matter most are simple:

• You are super organized. Your calendar, tasks, files, and follow-ups live in a system. The system runs without reminders.
• You multitask with a clear system. You can handle many workstreams because every task has a place, a priority, and a next action. Outside may be busy. Your process stays calm.
• You research an unfamiliar topic fast and get the basics quickly. Give you a new subject and you return with a clear brief: what it is, why it matters, and what we should do. You use AI to make the process faster without losing judgment.

You also:

• Have a set of tools only you know about, where others do not, and those tools create exceptional leverage over your productivity. You are always finding, testing, and mastering better tools.
• Manage AI, not just use it. You direct tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Zapier, Make, and AI meeting notes at real work, then make use of what they produce.
• Create meaningful work from raw output and connect it to a business result.
• Condense noise into easy-to-understand messages that move the business.
• Type fast and accurately. A target of 60+ WPM is a strong fit for this role.
• Learn fast, take ownership, and keep moving when the path is not fully defined.
• Enjoy a fast-paced startup where ambiguity is part of the work.
• Speak fluent English. Fluent Finnish is strongly preferred because this role includes Finnish authorities, vendors, and paperwork.
• Live in Finland and work remotely. Occasional Helsinki-area presence is helpful.

How to apply

Please include all four items below with your application. Each one gives us a useful view of how you work, and all four are required for a complete application. But this where I plead you that DON'T USE AI.

2. Your typing speed. Share your words per minute and accuracy from a one-minute typing test.
4. Your AI-operation walkthrough. Share one real workflow where AI did serious work for you. Include what AI produced and the easy-to-understand message or meaningful work you condensed it into.
6. Your system and tool stack. Walk us through the concrete tools and habits that keep you organized across multiple workstreams. Include the tools only you know about that give you leverage others do not.
8. A research demo. Name a topic you knew nothing about three months ago. Explain how you reached reliable basics quickly, what you read, what you asked, and how you knew you had enough to act.

All four items are required. They let us see your speed, judgment, systems, and ability to turn information into action.

Why Upnova

• Learn the AI-first way to run a company. AI does the heavy lifting across research, automation, code, websites, presentations, pitches, and outreach. You learn how to direct it, condense it, and turn it into impact.
• Build real career leverage. Work directly with the CEO, see how decisions get made, and own work that reaches the business instead of sitting in a training folder.
• Build your stack with us. When a tool gives you leverage, we make room for it. Your ability to do great work keeps growing.
• Do real work from day one. You will have ownership, output, and a direct line to the CEO. No coffee runs.