Operations Associate

Job description

Role Operations Associate: MAIA & General CBAI Support Reports to MAIA Director and CBAI Director of Operations Location In-person, Cambridge, MA Employment type Full-time Compensation $84,000 – $90,000 per year Start date As soon as possible Applications Reviewed on a rolling basis. ABOUT MAIA & CBAI MIT AI Alignment (“MAIA”) https://aialignment.mit.edu/about/#aboutis an MIT club for people worried about human extinction due to AI. The group supports education, research, and careers for its members. In doing so, MAIA has become a hub in Boston, facilitating engagement with events, opportunities, and people in AI Safety. MAIA began in 2022, and now has hundreds of members. The Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative ("CBAI") is a nonprofit research organization working to advance research and education directed towards ensuring that society navigates a safe and beneficial transition to advanced AI systems. Our work takes the form of producing original research efforts and accelerating AI safety research through fellowship programs. CBAI also serves as the fiscal sponsor for the student teams MAIA and AISST. CBAI has been the anchor organization for AI safety in Cambridge since late 2022. We serve as the connective tissue between the AI safety research community across Harvard, MIT, and Northeastern, running workshops, convenings, and networking events that bring together researchers, students, and practitioners working on the most important problems in the field. THE ROLE You'll divide your time between supporting MIT AI Alignment (MAIA) in an operational capacity and providing supplemental operational support to CBAI's programming. For MAIA, you'll own everything that makes it possible for MAIA leadership to do their best organizing work without friction: daily logistics like meal ordering and reading materials printing, plus systems work such as CRM maintenance and program-level budget tracking. For CBAI, you'll flex to whatever active programming needs come up: from researching and booking lodging for out-of-town participants to arranging meals and supporting one-off office projects. This is a role for someone who takes real pride in flawless execution. When you do it well, programming simply runs, and the people around you get to focus entirely on their work. RESPONSIBILITIES MAIA OPERATIONS (~0.5–0.75 FTE DURING ACADEMIC SEMESTERS, ~0.25 FTE OTHERWISE) - Systems Oversight: Ensure smooth day-to-day operations by interfacing with the CRM consultant to ensure CRM and other organizational systems operate properly. - Budget & Expense Coordination: Track and organize expenses to report to the Director of Operations and MAIA leadership, maintaining financial accuracy and grant compliance across programs. - Program Scheduling Support: Support the coordination of participant availability and schedule build-out for member meetings and introductory fellowship sessions. - Programming Logistics, Meals & Materials: Support meal ordering and logistics for semester-based programming including the preparation, formatting and printing of reading materials and securing room bookings. - Event & Workshop Operations and Support: Provide hands-on logistical support for special events, workshops, and other gatherings. - Communications & Web Maintenance: Assist with general communications tasks and provide basic maintenance and updates to the group's website. - Vendor Communication: Support MAIA leadership in managing and interfacing with support services and contractors. - Office Management - Support and maintain a healthy working space in MAIA’s co-working space and coordinate general day to day office needs. GENERAL CBAI OPERATIONS (~0.25–0.5 FTE DURING ACADEMIC SEMESTERS, ~0.75 FTE OTHERWISE) - Operational Program Support: Assist with logistics and operations for CBAI's upskilling programs (such as CAMBRIA) and events, including researching and booking venues, coordinating meal ordering, and supporting arrangements for participant outings and activities. - Office & Facilities Support: Contribute to office management and facilities-related projects on an as-needed basis. - Evolving Organizational Support: Provide flexible operational support across CBAI's programs and initiatives as the organization grows. This role will develop alongside the organization, with responsibilities shifting to meet emerging needs. ABOUT YOU We expect you to be characterized by most of the qualities listed below: A natural operator. You have a bias toward action and get things done reliably. Meals arrive on time, rooms are booked, materials are printed and ready. You anticipate problems before they happen and follow through on everything you commit to. Systems-minded and conscientious. You keep clean trackers, document what you do, and build playbooks others can follow. You genuinely enjoy improving a CRM or an expense process so it works better next cycle than it did this one. You take ownership seriously. When something is your responsibility, you treat it as yours, genuinely caring that the outcome is good. You don't wait to be told something is broken; you notice it and fix it. A clear, responsive communicator. You're direct with vendors, proactive with MAIA leadership and CBAI staff when you spot a potential issue, and reliably reachable on channels like Slack and email during working hours. Comfortable with the academic rhythm. Your workload and even your focus area will shift between semesters and breaks. You adapt to sprint periods and slower stretches without losing your footing, staying oriented around outcomes rather than a fixed routine. Warm and service-oriented. You're easy to work with and understand that a big part of this role is making student organizers, program participants, and staff feel taken care of. Mission-motivated. You are aligned with CBAI's mission and care about contributing to an organization working on one of the most important problems of our time, in an operational capacity. The ideal candidate will have experience in operations, program coordination, or event logistics, ideally in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment, and will be comfortable managing vendors and working within budgets. What matters most is that you take genuine pride in making complex things run smoothly. NICE TO HAVES - Familiarity with the AI safety landscape, or strong motivation to build it quickly - Experience supporting university student organizations or academic programs - Comfort with CRM, task-management, and documentation tools (e.g., Airtable, Notion) or ability to pick them up quickly - Basic website maintenance experience - Experience coordinating event logistics such as venues, catering, or transportation WHY THIS ROLE MAY NOT BE THE RIGHT FIT This is not a research role. You'll be embedded in the Cambridge AI safety community, but your job is to make the programming run, not to participate in it as a researcher. Your impact is mostly invisible when done well. Success looks like frictionless semesters and organizers who never have to think about logistics. If you need visible, attributable outputs to feel satisfied, this role will be frustrating. The mandate is split. Your time will be divided between MAIA and general CBAI support, with the balance shifting across the year and two primary stakeholders to serve. If you prefer a single, fixed scope, this may be challenging. Workload follows the academic calendar. Semesters are intense; breaks are quieter and differently focused. If you need a steady, predictable rhythm to do your best work, this variability may be difficult. ROLE COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS Team: You'll report primarily to the MAIA Director and CBAI's Director of Operations. Salary: $84,000 – $90,000 per year, full-time We also provide: - 5% 403(b) match contribution - Comprehensive health insurance - Generous PTO policy - Employer-paid commuter benefits - Reimbursement for work-related technology and/or home office expenses U.S. work authorization required. Location: This position is in-person and based in Cambridge, MA. Start date: As soon as possible. SELECTION PROCESS We review applications on a rolling basis and move quickly for this role. 1. Initial Application: A short application form plus your resume. Every application is reviewed in detail by a member of our team. 2. Working Interview (~1 hour): A brief real-world task drawn from the actual work of the role, completed live or asynchronously with a tight turnaround. Unpaid, and designed to take no more than an hour. 3. Short Interview (~30 minutes): A conversation about your background, motivation for the role, and any questions you have for us. 4. Team Interviews: Structured conversations with CBAI team members and MAIA leadership, tied to the role's responsibilities. These may occur separately. 5. Reference Checks: Conducted for finalists, followed by a final conversation to ensure mutual fit before an offer. 6. Work Trial - 1 week onsite paid work trial. CBAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. In acknowledgement of the research that suggests that women, gender minorities, and other marginalized groups may be less likely to apply for roles where they don't meet every criterion, we especially encourage people in these categories to apply. We may use AI to assist in the initial screening of applications, including to detect whether candidates have used AI models in drafting their application. Decisions are always made by a human on our team. Refer us candidates https://airtable.com/app4zWdbexhJgyBwp/pagLKlt1Zh0RV163y/form, and receive $5,000 if we hire them.