Operations Associate (Legal & Compliance)

WHO ARE WE?

Over 70% of employer-sponsored health plans are self-funded, meaning the employer acts as the insurer and directly covers employees’ healthcare costs. Self-funded employers partner with a Third-Party Administrator (TPA) to handle the behind-the-scenes plan administration, like processing claims and managing benefits. Yuzu brings innovative health plans to life by administering plans that expand healthcare access for small employers, deliver price transparency to members and providers, and simplify eligibility for brokers. Yuzu’s goal is to make it as easy for any business to create and manage a custom health plan as it is to create a storefront on Shopify.

We’re backed by General Catalyst, Anthropic, Chemistry, Lachy Groom and many unicorn founders, including leaders at Stripe, OpenAI, Brex, Deel, Mercury, and Notion.

WHY LEGAL OPS?

Health insurance law is often well-intentioned but poorly-executed. At varying points, legislators have attempted to peel back the black box of health insurance: limiting deductible costs, ensuring expansive mental health coverage, forbidding surprise billing. These efforts have been met with mixed results. Read our blog post on NSA disputes https://yuzu.health/blog/the-no-surprises-act-is-a-losing-game-we-pay-to-play to see what we mean.

Yuzu aims to push the status quo. We want to make complex compliance procedures easy and efficient for employers. We collaborate with engineers and lawyers alike. We choose data-driven product solutions over forms and red-lining. When faced with difficult decisions, we operate with curiosity, transparency, and good faith.

Our Legal Ops team is small, detail-oriented, and fast-paced. Our work touches nearly every team at Yuzu and requires frequent collaboration and knowledge of other areas of the business. In the Associate role, you’ll be expected to contribute to all aspects of our work, big or small. You’ll learn about complex appeals, think big about compliance product features, research larger legal questions surrounding HIPAA and mental health parity, and get in the weeds to master the grunt work of recurring legal workflows (reviewing NSA cases, filing reports, etc). You should trust that we’ll upskill you and teach you everything you want to know about the business.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- You love reading, researching, writing, and learning.

- You’re always asking questions.

- You’re unafraid to take ownership of unfamiliar work.

- You can speak to external partners with confidence and authority.

- You’re comfortable with discomfort and don’t shy away from pushing colleagues and partners to rethink their assumptions.

- You think from first-principles, not precedent.

- You’re an ethical and compassionate person.

- You’re curious about our product and technical interventions to standard legal work.

- You believe the best answer is usually the simplest one.

- You’re driven by more than the job description.

LOCATION AND CULTURE

We’re strong believers in an in-person culture and require in-person work 5 days a week. Our HQ is in NYC in the West Village/Chelsea area.

Yuzu exists because healthcare infrastructure is broken. Not because the problems are inherently hard, but because bad incentives have made simple processes complicated. We’re building the platform that allows health plan innovators to skip the mess and move fast. That mission shapes how we operate day to day.

We don’t soften bad news, hedge our conclusions, or let politeness outrun clarity. If something is wrong, we say so. To each other, to our customers, and in our internal decisions. Healthcare is full of “that’s just how it works” explanations. We question that default every day and expect you to do the same. We want someone who reasons through tradeoffs independently rather than waiting for a playbook.

Yuzu isn’t the right place for everyone. You’ll have a lot of autonomy from day one. You’ll sometimes do work that isn’t in your job title. You’ll develop your own sense of what matters and act on it. No one’s checking whether you look busy or holding your hand through new problems. Some people find that energizing, others find it disorienting. Whether Yuzu is the right fit is just a question of which environment makes you do your best work.

BENEFIT AND COMPENSATION

- $80-$110k plus equity depending on experience

- Unlimited PTO

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance

- 401K with 1% match

- Free daily lunch in the office

- $3K education stipend

- Team outings and an annual offsite

OUR INTERVIEW PROCESS

- Initial 30 minute phone screen with Michal or Russell

- A 2-hour take-home assignment designed to teach you more about the job

- A 30-minute review of your take-home assignment

- An onsite interview

- We may ask to speak with 1-2 references