Operations Associate

ARENA; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch and dinner included

Hybrid working option

Job summary

ARENA is seeking an Operations Associate to help grow our technical AI safety bootcamps from current to a larger scale. You will work with the Head of Operations to ensure smooth participant experiences, from initial contact through to the end of in-person weeks, while refining the systems that support in-person cohorts at LISA in London.

You’ll manage selection communications, coordinate accommodation and events, and build strong relationships across the AI safety ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Experience running user-focused projects under pressure.
• Ability to deliver across multiple delivery streams.
• Care for people in ARENA's ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Support selection rounds and applicant communications.
• Coordinate accommodation, speakers, and socials for cohorts.
• Build and maintain relationships with alumni, TAs, speakers and partner orgs.
• Improve operational processes to scale ARENA’s cohorts.

Skills

Operations planning

Stakeholder management

Communication

Job description

Help run ARENA’s technical AI safety bootcamps

The role:

We’re hiring an Operations Associate to help grow ARENA over the next two years. You’ll work to ensure that those who engage with ARENA – whether as participants on our in-person programmes, prospective applicants to future cohorts, or external AI safety groups using our materials – have their needs catered for seamlessly and effectively. You’ll use your soft skills and attention to detail in communicating with applicants throughout the selection process, make impact-driven recommendations about ARENA’s operations, and have scope to take on plenty more.

About ARENA:

ARENA is a technical AI safety upskilling bootcamp based at the London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA). Our 5-week residential programmes provide talented individuals with the ML engineering skills, community, and confidence to contribute to technical AI safety work. Since 2023, we’ve trained hundreds of alumni now working across the AI safety ecosystem. Our curriculum is hosted at learn.arena.education .

ARENA’s bootcamps are designed to bridge the gap between general technical talent and full-time work in AI safety. Our alumni have gone on to work at Anthropic, Google DeepMind, the UK AI Security Institute, Apollo Research, and across the wider AI safety research community.

Why this role matters:

We’re growing, and will run many more ARENA cohorts over the next two years. Each cohort will take around 40 participants through a 5-week residential programme covering ML fundamentals, mechanistic interpretability, RL, evals, topics in alignment science, and a capstone project. This role exists to ensure that ARENA’s operational processes continue to run smoothly and sustainably as we ramp up the size and frequency of our cohorts. You’ll work directly with the Head of Operations, with ownership of how participants experience the programme – from their first contact with us in the application process, to when they arrive at LISA and the day-to-day running of in-person weeks.

Details:

Based at LISA in central London (25 Holywell Row, EC2A 4XE).

Employment type: Full-time, in-person (with scope for hybrid working).

Salary: £45,000-£55,000 per year

Lunch and dinner included on in-office days.

Please note: we’re currently unable to sponsor visas for this position.

What you’ll do:

The core function of the Operations Associate will be to work with the Head of Operations, helping to run ARENA’s in-person programmes smoothly from selection through to the final week at LISA. As ARENA scales, we’re looking for someone who will take ownership of how participants, external users and other parties across the AI safety landscape experience ARENA and what we have to offer. You’ll help build the systems that let us grow, whilst taking pride in the quality of your work and how it sets us apart.

In practice, this could involve:

Helping with selection rounds:

Make informed decisions about applicants and manage external communications across our selection process. We receive ever-increasing numbers of applications for a limited number of spaces, so this is high-volume work that needs to be done carefully. Over time, you’ll become efficient at judging what makes someone a strong candidate for ARENA, and adept at giving advice to people at different stages within AI safety.

During participants’ time with us, they have plenty of time where they won’t be actively working on the ARENA curriculum. You’ll ensure that this time is well spent: organising suitable accommodation, speakers, socials, and other provisions as appropriate to keep participants happy and engaged.

Building strong relationships:

ARENA thrives on healthy connections across the AI safety ecosystem. Beyond our current participants, we care about building close and lasting relationships with our alumni, TAs, speakers, other AI safety organisations, the LISA team and all others who support our work. You’ll be an approachable, dependable and proactive representative of ARENA across diverse groups.

Improving how things run:

As our operations scale, it’s natural that our operating systems evolve to keep pace with our plans. Our in-person cohorts, online learning platform, and provisions to external AI safety practitioners all contribute to our mission in distinct ways. You’ll have autonomy to suggest and make improvements to the systems that run ARENA.

About you:

We’re looking for someone who combines strategic operational thinking with care for the people moving through ARENA.

You might be a good fit if you:

Have experience running user-focused projects, in a way that holds up under pressure. You’re comfortable owning multiple aspects of delivery, and take pride in the quality of your work.

Genuinely care about how people from across the AI safety ecosystem experience ARENA.

Spot inefficiencies in your own work and proactively build processes to remove them.

Make clear recommendations under uncertainty. You consider options and explain your reasoning, whilst staying honest about what you don’t know.

Notice when people around you aren’t doing well, and act on it. You’re comfortable communicating transparently and having a difficult conversation if needed.

Are interested in AI safety and ARENA’s role within it, and willing to develop a deeper understanding of its subject matter over time.

Are mission-driven and are able to think proactively about how ARENA could be more impactful.

Many strong candidates may not meet all of these – we’d rather you apply than self-select out.