Senior Business Operations Generalist

About Constellation

Constellation is an independent research center that brings together people throughout the AI safety ecosystem to accelerate ideas, research, and talent through better collaboration. Unlike a conference or summit, Constellation operates continuously, in the form of a physical workspace. This 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 that helps by rapidly inspiring, orienting, and connecting people who are newer to the field.

Based in Berkeley, CA, our shared workspace hosts over 250 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.

About the Role

As a Senior Business Operations Generalist, you’ll be part of the operational backbone ensuring we stay compliant, financially sound, and operationally excellent while enabling a growing team and ecosystem of people working on AI safety. 

You’ll support accounting, finance, legal, compliance, and audit processes with opportunities to lead specific areas and initiatives.Throughout, you'll build systems that scale without breaking. This role requires someone who can balance competing demands, proactively spot risks before they become problems, and is decisive when balancing compliance requirements with organizational and ecosystem needs. 

You’ll be the bridge between the business operations team and the rest of Constellation, synthesizing input from many stakeholders and translating it into action. You’ll work in a community of intelligent and highly mission driven people operating at the technical frontier. 

Key Responsibilities

Accounting & Finance

• Support day-to-day accounting and bookkeeping operations, ensuring accuracy and timeliness
• Support budgeting processes, cash flow reporting, and financial planning to inform organizational decision-making
• Prepare and file Form 990 and other required tax documentation
• Support the annual nonprofit audit process from start to finish, coordinating with external auditors

Legal & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with nonprofit regulations, governance requirements, and legal obligations
• Manage relationships with external legal counsel and coordinate a range of legal matters
• Support company and board governance structures and processes
• Review and implement policies for in-kind donations, contracts, immigration, and other business operations
• Proactively identify and address compliance gaps, bringing potential risks to leadership's attention

Process Building & Operational Excellence

• Build, document, and continuously improve operational processes across business functions
• Create systems that increase team capacity and reduce bottlenecks
• Support organizations in our network with services, such as finance, accounting, HR, and payroll administration
• Make thoughtful tradeoff decisions between compliance and organizational needs, clearly communicating the reasoning

Skills & Experience

• 4-6 years of experience in business operations, accounting, finance, legal, or a related field; ideally with nonprofit business experience
  Working knowledge in accounting and bookkeeping
• Experience managing or coordinating with compliance requirements, legal counsel, and external service providers
• Proficiency with spreadsheets, accounting software, and financial management tools (e.g. Quickbooks Online and BILL.com)

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

• Thrive in environments where you’re building systems while simultaneously running them
• Are highly conscientious and detail oriented, while also prioritizing and balancing perfection with practical organizational needs
• Are an active listener who asks clarifying questions and incorporates feedback to improve processes
• Notice when something looks off and speak up about potential risks
• Think quickly on your feet and handle sudden context changes or new tasks with flexibility
• Exercise discretion with sensitive and confidential information
• Are driven by the importance of AI safety work and excited to enable the people doing it

We encourage you to apply if you meet at least 70% of our qualifications.

Compensation & Benefits

For the San Francisco Bay Area, the compensation range is $113,000 - $145,000.

Our benefits are hard to beat! They include:

• Healthy lunches and dinners catered by our amazing kitchen team
• Unlimited snacks & drinks
• Generous vacation policy
• 401(k) with employer match
• Employer-paid commuter benefits
• High-quality health, dental, and vision insurance
• Friendly and supportive team
• Regular interaction with AI safety researchers and thought leaders

Additional Details 

Logistics: This is a full-time position. You’ll be able to do this job best if you work in person at our Berkeley office, though we're open to discussing partially remote arrangements for exceptional candidates.

The ideal candidate for this role will have some combination of the skills and experiences described above. If you are not sure if you are qualified, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway.  Beyond the qualifications outlined, our priority is building a team that will help humanity safely navigate the development of transformative AI.  If you would be excited to do this work, we’d love to consider you.

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.