Opportunities

Thank you for your interest in working with the Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative (CBAI)! We’re looking for an Operations Associate to support the operational capacity of the Harvard and MIT AI safety student groups we fiscally sponsor, as well as CBAI’s research programming. This is a great opportunity to get involved with the AIS community in Cambridge, MA!

CBAI's mission is to advance research and education directed towards ensuring that society navigates a safe and beneficial transition to advanced AI systems. CBAI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research organization that runs educational programming, conducts and supports research, and disseminates our findings to experts and the public. We serve as the fiscal sponsor for the AI Safety Student Team at Harvard (“AISST”) and MIT AI Alignment (“MAIA”), and provide operational support to them.

You might be a great fit for this role if you're excited by the idea of helping a growing team run more effective, robust programs and events, while increasing the team’s overall capacity to do so. This position includes day-to-day office management, event planning and preparation, maintenance and expansion of organizational systems, and proactive problem solving. The Operations Associate will contribute to the ongoing evolution of our internal systems—like task management tools and information storage—to strengthen our infrastructure and support smoother, more scalable programming.

This role will work closely with the student organizers of AISST and MAIA as well as CBAI’s Full Time team. Strong candidates for this position will have some experience running operations for organizations and events, creating and iterating on systems, and using task management and documentation tools. The ideal candidates will also have group organizing experience with a proven track record of success.

CBAI regularly supports and organizes speaker events, workshops, and biannual retreats, bringing guests from METR, FutureTech, Anthropic, OpenAI, Redwood Research, RAND, The AI Futures Project, and other prominent organizations and labs. The Operations Associate will play a key role in ensuring these events run smoothly—from managing logistics to supporting on-the-ground coordination—and will also have the opportunity to attend and engage with the programming.

Main Responsibilities:

• Office Management & Systems Oversight: Ensure smooth day-to-day operations by managing office maintenance, ordering and stocking supplies, and maintaining and enhancing internal organizational systems. This will include learning to navigate and maintain the internal CRM system we use.

• Budget & Expense Coordination: Track and organize expenses to report to the Director of Operations, and help maintain financial accuracy across programs and operations.

• Program Scheduling Support: Coordinate participant availability to support schedule build-out for member meetings and introductory fellowship sessions.

• Programming Logistics: Meals & Materials: Manage meal ordering and logistics for semester-based programming; prepare, format, and print reading materials to support a seamless learning experience.

• Event & Workshop Operations: Provide hands-on logistical and operational support for special events, workshops, and other in-person or virtual gatherings.

• Communications & Web Maintenance: Assist with general communications tasks and provide basic maintenance and updates to the organization's website.

We think a good fit will have most of these characteristics:

• Motivated by ensuring that society navigates a safe and beneficial transition to advanced AI systems

• At least moderately knowledgeable about AI risk, including its technical dimensions

• Experienced in running outreach/field-building/community-building programs, especially in AI safety or related work (e.g., effective altruism groups), ideally with a demonstrated record of success

• Organized (i.e., not dropping balls) and communicative when in need of help

• Generally responsive and able to maintain regular communication through channels such as Slack and email

• Comfortable working on “startup-y” close teams with evolving responsibilities

• Personable and comfortable giving and receiving honest and constructive feedback

This role is in-person in Cambridge, MA with an ideal start date of March 9th, and will be part-time (about 20-25 hrs/week), though it will likely increase to full-time before the summer. It involves working evenings and likely some weekends (depending on event schedules).

Regrettably, we are not able to sponsor international applicants for this position.

Compensation: Depending on your experience/seniority, we expect to pay between $35 and $40 per hour.

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.*

Feel free to reach out with any questions!

*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.