Operations Program Manager

Constellation Institute•Berkeley, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Operations Program Manager leads Constellation’s Operations Coordinator (OC) team, which provides day-to-day support to researchers and programs. This is a people management and development role focused on managing and developing the careers of 5–10 junior Operations Coordinators, helping them excel in their current roles and prepare for long careers in AI safety. OCs support arrivals and tours, requests, onboarding and offboarding, and events for dozens of organizations and hundreds of researchers. The Operations Program Manager ensures the team delivers excellent service while developing coordinators’ skills and readiness for greater responsibility. The role prioritizes requests for OC capacity from Constellation teams and partner organizations, makes and communicates tradeoffs, and works with other managers to improve processes for handing work between teams. The manager also owns capacity planning, the OC training plan, quality standards, hiring, and cross-functional coordination. This is a full-time, in-person position in Berkeley, with work on-site from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Occasional evening work is required for events and urgent issues.

Requirements

Experience and confidence managing and developing a team of 5–10 early-career staff, ideally in operations or a service-oriented team.
Experience designing or running onboarding and training programs.
Ability to prioritize competing requests from many stakeholders and decline requests gracefully.
Ability to give direct, kind, and specific feedback and comfort delivering difficult news.
Hiring experience, including screening, interviewing, and making decisions.
Sufficient hands-on operations knowledge, such as office operations, events, or customer support, to set standards and credibly assess quality.
Systems thinking and ability to identify and fix processes that break at scale.
Clear, concise written communication.
Comfort using Asana, Slack, Google Workspace, and Claude.
Comfort with ambiguity and change during an interim structure.
Ability to think on your feet in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to work on-site in Berkeley from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Responsibilities

Manage a team of 5–10 Operations Coordinators, set goals, provide regular feedback, and own performance management for OCs and Senior OCs.
Guide each OC’s professional development through core skills, mentorship, projects, and transitions to next roles.
Source small operations projects from Constellation teams and partner organizations to help OCs test their interests and identify next steps.
Coach and advise Senior OCs, who divide their time between projects and training or mentoring new OCs.
Manage the OC hiring process, make hiring decisions for new cohorts, and teach current OCs screening and interviewing skills.
Serve as the single intake point for requests for OC time; assess requests against core coverage, training load, and organizational priorities, and communicate decisions clearly and kindly.
Manage the OC schedule, ensure coordinators manage their time effectively, and approve overtime when necessary.
Forecast OC capacity across cohort transitions, event-heavy periods, and the project portfolio, while maintaining a sustainable coverage rotation.
Balance core operations with projects for Constellation teams and partner organizations.
Own and update the OC training plan with Senior OCs, incorporate cohort feedback, and ensure trainers are prepared.
Set and uphold quality standards for arrivals and tours, requests, onboarding, offboarding, and other core functions.
Work with Senior OCs on quality assurance and standard operating procedures.
Help OCs scope and complete projects that develop their skills and benefit the organization.
Partner with Site Operations, Convening, People Ops, and BizOps team leads to align OC work with organizational priorities.
Contribute to long-term organizational design for the OC program.