Fellowship Operations Associate

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.

Our inaugural summer fellowship cohort has already published a spotlight paper at the Mechanistic Interpretability Workshop at NeurIPS, accepted papers at ICLR, and some of our fellows have joined Goodfire and Redwood Research. After a successful 2025 launch, we're rapidly scaling in 2026. We will host multiple fellowship cycles (Fall, Spring, and Summer), double the fellowship cohort, and quadruple our team.

Refer us candidates, and receive $5,000 if we hire them.

You'll own the operational backbone of CBAI's fellowship programs, everything that makes it possible for fellows, mentors, and staff to do their best work without friction. This ranges from daily logistics like meals and A/V for the speaker event series, to planning the social and community events that make CBAI a place people want to be. You'll manage vendor relationships, coordinate space and resources across fellowship cycles, and ensure that every event, from an informal reading group to a full-cohort poster day, runs smoothly. This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role. When operations work well, everyone notices; when they don't, you're the one who fixes it.

• Own daily operational logistics during active fellowship cycles, including weekday meal coordination, A/V setup for the speaker events, and working with the Operations Site Manager at our Harvard Square office

• Source, book, and manage venues for fellowship events, including workshops, speaker series, poster days, and other program milestones

• Coordinate travel and accommodation for visiting speakers and mentors

• Manage vendor and contractor relationships, including sourcing new vendors, negotiating terms, and maintaining quality and reliability over time

• Procure and manage supplies, equipment, and other resources needed to support fellows and staff

• Anticipate operational needs across the fellowship calendar and prepare proactively rather than reactively

• Coordinate with the Director of Operations to ensure accurate bookkeeping, sound budget management, and that program operations run effectively and efficiently

• Plan and execute social events that build cohort community, such as cohort dinners, celebrations of small wins & important days, informal gatherings, and other touch points that make the fellowship experience more than just research

• Coordinate with the Director of Programs to align social programming with fellowship milestones and cohort needs

• Identify creative, low-friction ways to strengthen the fellowship's social fabric across a diverse cohort

We expect you to be characterized by most of the qualities listed below.

You're a natural operator. You have a bias toward action and get things done reliably. You anticipate problems before they happen, keep multiple moving pieces organized, and follow through on everything you commit to. People trust you to handle the details so they don't have to think about them.

You take ownership seriously. When something is your responsibility, you treat it as yours, not just mechanically completing tasks, but genuinely caring that the outcome is good. You don't wait to be told something is broken; you notice it and fix it.

You're an excellent communicator. You're clear and direct with vendors, responsive with internal stakeholders, and proactive when you see a potential issue. You can manage expectations calmly even when things don't go as planned.

You're resourceful and creative within constraints. Budgets are real. You know how to find good solutions that don't require spending more than necessary, and you bring genuine creativity to community and social programming rather than defaulting to the obvious option.

Interpersonally excellent. You're warm, easy to work with, and good at building relationships — with vendors, with fellows, and with staff. You understand that a big part of this role is making people feel taken care of.

Organized and conscientious. You maintain clear systems, document what you do, and build operational playbooks that others can follow. You improve your processes over time based on what you learn each cycle.

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, even in an operational capacity.

The ideal candidate will have meaningful experience in event coordination, operations, or a similar role, ideally in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment. Experience managing vendors or contractors is important. What matters most is that you're someone who takes genuine pride in making complex things run smoothly and who brings care and creativity to the social and community dimensions of the role.

• Previous involvement in AI safety, field-building, or research acceleration programs

• Experience in research program coordination or academic administration

• Familiarity with how research fellowships or grant programs operate

• Experience planning community or social events for professional or academic cohorts

However, there is no such thing as a "perfect" candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we strongly encourage you to apply.

We want to be transparent about what this position entails so you can make an informed decision about whether it's right for you.

The work is operational, but not strategic. This is a high-ownership execution role. You'll have real creative latitude — especially in social programming — but you're not setting the direction of the fellowship or contributing to research. If you're primarily motivated by intellectual engagement with AI safety or by shaping organizational strategy, this role won't be satisfying.

Workload varies significantly by fellowship cycle. Active fellowship periods are intense with multiple events, high coordination demands, and fast-moving logistics. Between cycles, the pace slows considerably. If you strongly prefer steady, predictable workloads, this variability may be challenging.

Your impact is felt, but not seen. When operations work perfectly, nobody notices, and that's actually the goal. If you need visible recognition for your contributions to feel satisfied, this role will be frustrating. But if you take pride in being the person who makes everything else possible and learn a lot in a short period of time while also having a multiplier impact, you'll find real meaning here.

If you want to spend at least a year becoming excellent at running complex operational programs, building relationships with a remarkable community of researchers, and contributing to an ambitious research ecosystem in Cambridge, MA, this role could be a great fit.

Team: You'll report to the Director of Programs.

Salary: $70,000 – $90,000, depending on experience.

We also provide:

• 5% 403(b) match contribution

• Comprehensive health insurance

• Generous PTO policy

• Meals provided during weekdays

• Employer-paid commuter benefits

• Reimbursement for work-related technology and/or home office expenses

U.S. work authorization required (we accept OPT).

Location: This position is primarily based in Cambridge, MA. While we expect you to spend most of your time working in-person from our Harvard Square office (particularly during active fellowship cycles), we can offer some hybrid flexibility between fellowship cohorts for candidates with specific circumstances. In those cases, we can give you access to AI safety co-working spaces in Berkeley and NYC.

Start date: May 2026

We use a multi-stage process to find the right fit:

1. Application Review: We review applications on a rolling basis and invite strong candidates to phone screens. Your application will be reviewed in detail by a CBAI employee.

2. Initial Phone Screen (15 minutes): A conversation with the team manager to discuss your background, understand your interest in the role, and answer your initial questions.

3. Paid Test Task: Strong candidates will receive a paid test task that mirrors actual responsibilities, such as planning a fellowship event, drafting a vendor outreach strategy, or designing a social programming calendar for a fellowship cycle. You'll have a fixed amount of time to complete this.

4. Interview: Top candidates will be invited for an interview, including a discussion of your test task, an operational scenario case study, and a conversation with CBAI team members.

5. Reference Checks: For our top finalists, we'll conduct reference checks and a final conversation to ensure mutual fit.

6. Offer: Selected candidates will receive an offer and detailed onboarding information.

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.