Research Operations Manager

About Basis

Basis is a nonprofit applied AI research organization with two mutually reinforcing goals.

The first is to
understand and build intelligence.This means to establish the mathematical principles of what it means to reason, to learn, to make decisions, to understand, and to explain; and to construct software that implements these principles.

The second is to
advance society’s ability to solve intractable problems
. This means expanding the scale, complexity, and breadth of problems that we can solve today, and even more importantly, accelerating our ability to solve problems in the future.

To achieve these goals, we’re building both a new technological foundation that draws inspiration from how humans reason, and a new kind of collaborative organization that puts human values first.

Research operations at Basis is the work of building an institution capable of sustained, ambitious inquiry. The quality and impact of research depends to a great extent on the organization in which it happens: how research teams are formed, how collaboration is structured, how resources and spaces are organized, and how the institution responds to uncertainty and new ideas.

The Research Operations Manager will own and improve the core systems through which Basis’ research organization functions, across people, recruiting, labs and workplaces, research gatherings, grants, and administration. We are looking for someone who treats operations as a serious craft: someone who enjoys creating coherent structures around exploratory work, making sound decisions, and using thoughtful process design, tools, and automation to translate organizational principles into practices that accelerate our work.

This is a broad and hands-on role, requiring both rigorous execution and thoughtful institutional design. You will work closely with the COO and assume independent ownership of major operational domains, identifying problems, weighing tradeoffs, establishing standards, and remaining accountable for outcomes.

• Have demonstrated the ability to own important operational domains and run them reliably over time.

• Exercise sound judgment and operate with a high degree of autonomy, including under uncertainty.

• Take the details of execution seriously. You close loops, maintain systems, and follow work through to completion without repeated reminders.

• Enjoy operations as a craft, including both the design of new systems and the recurring work required to make them function.

• Be comfortable in a technical research environment. You do not need to be a scientist, but you should be intellectually curious, able to engage with experts, and interested in how research organizations work.

• Communicate clearly and handle personnel, candidate, grant, and organizational information with discretion.

• Be excited about force-multiplying impact. Much of this work is not externally visible, but it is what allows Basis to solve intractable problems at scales we couldn't otherwise reach.

In addition, the following would be an advantage:

• Experience in a research institute, laboratory, scientific or deep-tech organization, or other highly technical environment.

• Experience across several areas of operations, such as People, recruiting, facilities, events, grants, or organizational administration.

• Experience developing policies or operating systems for a growing or changing organization.

• Comfort and experience managing external parters such as facilities providers, university administrators, legal counsel, landlords, and vendors.

• Work with the COO and leadership team to develop the operations function as Basis grows.

• Own and improve core systems such as People operations, recruiting and hiring, and project management.

• Impl…