Head of Operations

Summary

We are looking for a founding Head of Operations for Astralis Foundation, a new funding initiative that is now being spearheaded by a European philanthropist and led by CEO Vilhelm Skoglund. Astralis's first-year funding is expected to be $15–45 million, with an initial team of 5-10 staff. We hope to deploy even greater resources in the future, and much of the impact in this role will be enabling the organization to scale up its giving. Astralis aspires to become a leading AI safety funder within three years of launch, driving progress in the AI safety ecosystem and supporting a rapid proliferation of AI risk-reducing ideas, technologies, and organizations. 

The Head of Operations role is a senior leadership position reporting to Astralis's CEO and is responsible for overseeing all operations and support functions, including finance & accounting, HR & recruiting, communications, and legal & compliance. This is a rare opportunity to apply your leadership skills in an environment that values ambitious goals, humility, strategic foresight, and entrepreneurial agility.

This full-time position is open to candidates located in London (preferred), or able to work in London at least 6 weeks a year. We offer competitive non-profit sector salaries, comprehensive benefits, and a chance to have a significant impact!

You can apply by clicking Apply at the top of this JD. We will review applications on a rolling basis. If you have questions about this position, reach out to [email removed - click apply for more details] (cFactual is a consultancy managing the hiring process for this position).

Role description

Overview

As Head of Operations, you will be the senior Astralis leader responsible for all operations and support functions, including finance & accounting, HR & recruiting, communications, and legal & compliance. Reporting to CEO Vilhelm Skoglund, you will set strategic direction for these functions and be responsible for their performance. A key part of your leadership will involve considering and incorporating the perspectives of the entire team, as we aim to be a relatively flat organization where all employees enjoy a high degree of autonomy.

You will also collaborate with the leaders of several initiatives Astralis is establishing as part of building a leading AI safety ecosystem. These initiatives will include Astralis Grants (non-profit investments), Astralis Ventures (for-profit investments), a community-building, including a co-working space and fellowships), and Astralis Labs (research and special projects).

The Head of Operations role is highly autonomous – the successful candidate will be expected to make high-level decisions about the direction of their projects, weigh in on key organizational issues, and help the CEO shape the direction and future of the organization. A successful Head of Operations will be a strong project manager and strategic thinker, while also being able to ensure that Astralis meets its compliance requirements, is culturally healthy, and is operating effectively.

Responsibilities

As Astralis's Head of Operations, your responsibilities will include:

Organizational leadership

• Oversee all organizational operations functions, ensuring Astralis runs smoothly and efficiently
• Manage the operations team, providing professional development support and mentoring staff
• Serve on the leadership team for Astralis, helping the organization determine how to implement strategic plans

Finance & Accounting

• Oversee Astralis's financial procedures, staff, and vendors
• Reconcile accounts with bank statements and review transactions for accuracy
• Communicate with our auditor for annual auditing and compliance requirements

HR & Recruiting

• Oversee HR staff & vendors
• Support hiring processes
• Ensure that high-level HR processes are functioning well and able to scale
• Ensure calibrated and effective performance evaluation processes across Astralis
• Help address urgent HR matters

Communications

• Manage communications staff & vendors
• Providing high-level feedback on strategy and approach

Legal & Compliance

• Communicate with external legal counsel regularly on legal issues
• Lead risk assessment and mitigation processes at Astralis
• Ensure that legal compliance procedures are sound for all Astralis entities and jurisdictions

You will build an operations team around you, starting with at least one junior generalist, and scale up this team as Astralis Foundation scales. In addition, you will work closely with Impact Ops, cFactual, and Astralis's other partner organizations to provide additional targeted support as needed.

Why this role might be high-impact

As the founding Head of Operations of Astralis Foundation, you will play a senior leadership role in addressing one of the most pressing issues of our time – mitigating AI risks and helping humanity achieve a flourishing future. You will partner with the CEO to achieve Astralis's bold aspiration to become a leading AI safety actor within three years of launch. In this way, you will have a unique opportunity to make a direct and meaningful contribution to achieving a world that successfully navigates threats from AI to ensure human flourishing. 

What we are looking for

• Execution & management skills
• The Head of Operations needs to be a strong project manager, balancing strategic clarity with attention to detail. The Head of Operations must excel at execution, with sound judgment stemming from a breadth and depth of operations knowledge. The Head of Operations must be able to attract excellent team members and retain and develop them to accomplish an ambitious vision and theory of change. Effective management of key stakeholders and vendors, as well as resilience under stress, are also crucial skills for this role. 
• Entrepreneurial spirit
• We expect a successful candidate to be entrepreneurial and have the capacity to identify and seize new opportunities for the organization. This involves thriving in the absence of certainty and clear structures. The successful candidate will also be skilled at inspiring and mobilizing teams, and taking well-understood risks.
• Dedication to ensuring the safe and beneficial development of transformative AI
• Though we think there are many important causes, Astralis prioritizes ensuring the safe and beneficial development of transformative AI. We do this due to both the catastrophic risks it poses and the benefits it could bring. The ideal candidate is broadly excited to work on this topic.
• Humble ambition
• We think we can achieve more in expectation by aiming high and are looking for someone who consistently aims to maximize impact, questions what we could do better, and is willing to take on difficult challenges.
• The ideal candidate understands and accepts that striving for significant impact entails a high likelihood of setbacks. This recognition is key in fostering a culture where failure can be learned from and is seen as part of the process. Further, the ideal candidate recognizes the importance of humility in pursuit of these ambitious aims.

Other qualifications

• 3+ years of operations experience in a leadership role
• Vendor and project management experience
• Experience with financial forecasting and budgeting for a growing organization
• Experience building and/or scaling the operations of a growing organization
• Knowledge of nonprofit legal compliance
• Familiarity with AI safety basics, or willingness to invest to come quickly up to speed
• Fluency in written and spoken English

Location, compensation, and benefits

Location

• We have a strong preference for candidates based in London or willing to relocate to London. However, we remain open to outstanding candidates in other locations with good UK time zone overlap (UTC -5 to +5) willing to spend ~6 weeks per year in London.
• You will likely need to travel -4 weeks per year for team retreats, meetings with funders, etc (on top of potential travel to London). 

Pay

• Salary between £75,000 to £140,000.
• If you’re interested in the role, but our salary range is a limiting factor, please reach out to [email removed - click apply for more details] to discuss it with us.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• A £4000 annual professional development allowance to support training and other resources to improve your skill set. (We might offer more if there are additional compelling opportunities for you to learn.)
• Relocation costs if necessary.
• Competitive pension or retirement contribution.
• Competitive parental leave benefits and support
• 25 days of paid vacation time, plus public holidays. We encourage you to use the full allowance.

Process

We will review and advance candidates on a rolling basis, and hope to make an offer in Q3. The process will be flexible, and we are keen to accommodate the wishes of promising candidates so that we can use your time efficiently while getting the information that we most need. Our hiring process generally entails:

• 1-2 paid work tasks
• 1-2 interviews 
• Reference check
• Paid 1 day remote work trial
• Paid 2-3 day in-person work trial

Candidates will be evaluated based on qualifications and overall fit for the role, including leadership experience, impact orientation, truth-seeking and high-quality reasoning, clarity of vision, problem-solving abilities, strategic thinking, and team fit.

We will provide extensive opportunities for you to learn what you need to know about the role, our staff, projects, and leadership. Please let us know what questions you have, and we will do our best to answer them.

We look forward to receiving your application. 

We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. In particular, we know that things like gender, race, and socioeconomic background can often make people less willing to put themselves forward or call attention to their achievements. We encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability or have any other questions about applying, please reach out to [email removed - click apply for more details].