Business Operations Manager

FAR AI is seeking applications for a Business Operations Manager, reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer (COO). As Business Operations Manager, you will be responsible for day-to-day operational excellence at FAR AI, ensuring our systems, processes and projects are thriving.

About us

FAR AI is a technical AI research non-profit, focused on ensuring the safe development and deployment of frontier AI technologies.

Since starting in July 2022, FAR has grown to 14 FTE, produced 13 academic papers, hosted events for some of the world’s leading AI & computer science researchers, and opened FAR Labs, a coworking space focussed on AI Safety that is now home to more than 40 members.

About FAR Research

We explore promising research directions in AI safety and scale up the projects that demonstrate the highest potential for impact. Unlike other AI safety labs that take a bet on a single research direction, FAR aims to pursue a diverse portfolio of projects. We also put our research into practice through red-teaming engagements with frontier AI developers. Our current focus areas are building a science of robustness (e.g. finding vulnerabilities in superhuman Go AIs), finding more effective approaches to value alignment (e.g. training from language feedback), and model evaluation (e.g. inverse scaling and codebook features).

Other FAR Projects

To build a flourishing field of AI safety research, we host targeted workshops and events, and operate a co-working space in Berkeley, called FAR Labs. We recently hosted the New Orleans Alignment Workshop for over 140 researchers from academia and industry to learn about AI safety and find collaborators.

We also fiscally sponsor the International Dialogue for AI Safety series, which has brought together prominent scientists (including 3 Turing Award winners) from around the globe, culminating in public statements, calling for redlines, and global action on AI safety research and governance.

For more information on FAR AI’s activities, please visit our 2023 summary blog post.

About the Role

As our first Business Operations Manager, you will partner directly with our COO to build scalable systems, ensuring operational and financial excellence across our organization and projects.

You will have the opportunity to take ownership of and administer these operating systems, crafting a robust framework that empowers decision makers (i.e department leads), improves performance, and ensures compliance.

This role is designed for a proactive individual eager to build, innovate and lead in a fast-paced environment. If you are excited about shaping the future of operations at FAR we encourage you to apply!

Key responsibilities:

Finance & Accounting:

• Manage and coordinate organizational budgets (incl. monthly financial reporting, expense tracking, finance controls and financial compliance).
• Maintain close relationships with our accountant and bookkeeper, handling accounts (receivable and payable) independently and reliably.
• Manage day-to-day services and provide operational support for our fiscally sponsored projects.

Procurement

• Establish a structured approach for procurement and promote best practices to empower decision makers.

Legal & Governance

• Liaise with our legal counsel to ensure FAR meets all local, state, and federal regulatory requirements.
• Partner with the COO to build excellent governance systems within the organization.

Operations Management

• Assist in the setting, monitoring and evaluation of organizational goals.
• Build and operate dashboards, report key metrics to our leadership team weekly.
• Develop and refine operational policies and standard operating procedures, collaborating with departmental leads to ensure smooth operations across the organization.
• Manage our donor and grant management CRM.

About You

You’re looking to leverage your skills and experience to deliver bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. You’re adaptable and can draw on best practices from enterprises, start-ups and nonprofits as best suits the situation at hand. You love working at the intersection of people and processes.

If you enjoy building, operating and driving continuous improvement, this role is for you!

Strongly Preferred:

• Financial Acumen: You are a “numbers person”. Navigating financial processes and spreadsheets is second nature. You’ve previously handled the financial operations or P&L of a department, or a small-medium business.
• Strong organizational skills: You can easily triage and prioritize between multiple tasks and responsibilities. You get energized by bringing order to chaos and making decisions under uncertainty.
• Innovation mindset: You are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve our systems and operations. You are excited to try new things and learn from experiments.

Nice to have:

• Quantitative background: Excellent candidates may have a degree in a quantitative field, though we are open to candidates who can show their quantitative mindset in other ways, or who have acquired it outside of formal education.
• Experience working in a fast-growing or entrepreneurial environment: You’ve previously worked in a startup or new organization.

Logistics

You will be an employee of FAR AI, a 501(c)(3) research non-profit.

• Location: Given the nature of the role, we prefer applicants who can be in-person. We may be able to sponsor visas for this role. We will consider exceptional applicants for a remote role.
• Hours: Full-time (40 hours/week).
• Compensation: $80,000 - $140,000 FTE / year* depending on experience and location. We will also pay for work-related travel and equipment expenses. We offer catered lunch and dinner at our offices in Berkeley. *For exceptional candidates with an outstanding track record, who can take on responsibilities above and beyond this role, we may be able to offer additional compensation.
• Application process: Our application process includes a screening call, a short test task and two interviews with our executive team. For some candidates, we may offer a short work trial to test mutual fit. We expect that filling in the initial application form will take less than 15 minutes.
• Deadline: June 7th, 2024 – earlier applications preferred, we may close the round earlier if a suitable candidate is found.