Site Operations Lead

Constellation is an independent research center that brings together people throughout the AI safety ecosystem to accelerate insight, research, and talent through better cooperation. Unlike a conference or summit, Constellation operates continuously, in the form of a physical workspace as well as conference-style talks, workshops, and training bootcamps. Continuous operation allows for relationships and conversations to develop over time, meaningfully fostering trust, collaboration, and shared insight. It also makes Constellation a natural field-building hub by rapidly inspiring, orienting, and connecting people who are newer to the field.

Based in Berkeley, CA, our shared workspace hosts over 100 people per week across dozens of AI safety organizations in nonprofits, academia, industry, and government. Hundreds of other researchers spend time at Constellation for shorter visits each year. We believe this is the strongest and highest-output network of AI safety researchers in the world; dozens of participants in past Constellation programs have gone on to safety-focused roles at companies such as METR, Redwood Research, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and the US and UK Safety Institutes.

For more information, see our research focus areas and selected publications from Constellation fellows.

About the role

We’re seeking a detail-oriented and proactive Site Operations Lead who is passionate about operational excellence to maintain and improve our beautiful, collaborative workspace.

As our Site Operations Lead, you’ll be responsible for ensuring Constellation’s physical space runs smoothly and comfortably across five floors of an office building in downtown Berkeley. While we are a small team, we host a large number of research orgs, individual members, and visitors. 

This is a fast-paced, dynamic work environment, much closer to a growing startup than a traditional nonprofit. The ideal candidate has substantial professional experience managing high-quality facilities in such an environment, and a passion for optimizing both operations and researcher experience.

In this role, you’ll work closely with both our Operations and Programs teams and have the opportunity to interact with and support many of the world’s top AI safety experts. This is an in-person, full-time position with standard hours from 8:30am-5pm on weekdays. Occasional evening and weekend work may be required for handling urgent issues.

Key responsibilities

As our team continues to grow, your responsibilities may change and expand based on your unique skills and interests. These will likely include:

• Managing daily site operations to improve the researcher experience and optimize workspace utilization
• Hiring and managing vendors to maintain and improve our offices
• Overseeing  our amazing team of porters, who handle day-to-day tasks like restocking snacks, clearing dishes, etc.
• Building and maintaining good working relationships with building management to resolve facilities issues 
• Identifying and managing improvements to offices, meeting rooms, and social areas
• Troubleshooting and managing vendors to resolve issues or concerns as they arise
• Responding to facilities support requests from our researchers
• Overseeing design and construction of new spaces
• Researching and purchasing furniture, equipment, and decor to ensure an optimal environment
• Monitoring desk, office room, and meeting utilization to ensure efficiency

Skills & Experience

• Experience managing facilities or site operations for a large office space, or comparable high-traffic environments (e.g., co-working spaces, research institutions, startup hubs, or campus facilities).
• Experience managing relationships with external vendors and partners
• Comfortable and adaptable working in a fast-moving environment
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills to track, manage, and execute a high volume of tasks and deadlines. 
• Experience balancing urgent, day-to-day requests with longer-term strategic initiatives 
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to track progress and ensure deadlines are regularly met
• Able to gracefully set and maintain clear expectations
• Can drive partially scoped projects to the finish line
• Enjoys hands-on operations work
• Clear, concise written communication
• Comfortable communicating with end-users and providing a positive  customer experience
• Experience using Slack, Asana, and/or CRM tools (preferred, not required)

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You might be a good fit for this role if you:

• Care about AI safety and improving researcher productivity
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced office environment
• Are highly skilled at juggling competing requests and effectively prioritizing 
• Have a passion for enhancing  the user/customer experience
• Enjoy taking responsibility for and owning your portfolio of work

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Compensation and Benefits

Compensation will depend on experience and will likely be in the range of $100,000-140,000/year.

Our benefits include:

• Generous vacation policy
• 401(k) with employer match
• Employer-paid commuter benefits
• PPO health, dental, and vision insurance
• Catered lunches and dinners, plus unlimited snacks & drinks
• Regular interaction with AI safety researchers and thought leaders
• A friendly, mission-driven team

Logistics

We value diversity in all respects and base our hiring decisions on the needs of the organization and individual qualifications.  We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age or disability.

This is a full-time, on-site position at our Berkeley office, just steps from the nearest BART (metro) and bus stop. On-site parking is also available.

If you're excited about helping humanity safely navigate the development of transformative AI, we encourage you to apply—even if you’re unsure whether you meet every qualification.

‍We value diversity in all respects and base our hiring decisions on the needs of the organization and individual qualifications.  We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age or disability.

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