Compute Operations Specialist

MATS Program; Berkeley (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

In-office catered lunches and dinners

Annual PTO

Professional development support

Job summary

MATS Program is seeking a Compute Operations Specialist to ensure fellows and mentors have reliable access to the compute they need for research. You’ll manage access across GPU, API, and cloud platforms, handle budgeting, onboarding, and offboarding, and coordinate with the Compute team to improve tooling and workflows.

You will work closely with engineers to standardize processes, maintain documentation, and support fellow onboarding while upholding security and compliance.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of relevant experience in IT support, operations, or program administration.
• Excellent written communication and a genuine service mindset.
• Ability to manage high volume of concurrent requests with strong attention to detail.
• Proficiency with spreadsheets and databases (Google Sheets, Airtable); comfortable with new platforms.
• Budget tracking, reconciliation, and spotting discrepancies.
• Ability to write clear documentation and procedures.
• Proactive, self-directed, and able to navigate ambiguity.
• Alignment with our mission of reducing risk from AI development.

Responsibilities

• Triage and resolve compute access requests and platform issues.
• Administer fellow and team accounts across GPU, API, and cloud platforms; manage access and security requirements.
• Prepare compute operations for cohorts; oversee onboarding/offboarding, budgets, and documentation.
• Track compute spending and usage against budgets; ensure reconciliation accuracy.
• Handle reimbursements, subscriptions, and vendor paperwork for fellows.
• Develop clear onboarding guidance and SOPs; communicate policy changes.

Skills

Excellent written communication

High-volume support

Attention to detail

Spreadsheet & database skills

Budget tracking

Documentation writing

Proactive and self-directed

Mission alignment with AI safety

Tools

Jira

Linear

Airtable

Notion

Google Sheets

AWS

GCP

OpenAI platform access

Job description

MATS finds and trains talented individuals for what we see as the world's most urgent and talent-constrained problem: reducing risks from unaligned artificial intelligence. We believe ambitious researchers from a variety of backgrounds have the potential to meaningfully contribute to alignment, control, security, and governance research. Through our research fellowship, we provide mentorship, training, professional network, and financial support to accelerate their careers and increase their impact.

Since 2021, we have trained over 630 researchers. 75% of pre-2026 fellows continue to work in AI alignment. 10% have co-founded organizations. Our fellows have produced 215+ research papers with 17,000+ citations. And we are just getting started: in the coming year we will expand our program to support even more researchers.

About the role

As a Compute Operations Specialist, you help ensure MATS fellows and mentors have reliable access to the compute they need for their research. You are the first point of contact for compute requests, from account setup and credit top-ups to access changes and platform questions. You administer fellow access and accounts across GPU, API, and cloud platforms, as well as MATS's own research infrastructure; track spending against each project's budget; own the monthly reconciliation; and handle cohort transitions and offboarding. You also handle general administrative work associated with fellow support, including reimbursements, subscriptions, and vendor paperwork.

You also help fellows navigate compute effectively by supporting their compute onboarding, maintaining clear documentation, and communicating policies and changes proactively.

You will work closely with the Compute team's engineers to improve the tools and workflows behind these processes, bringing an operator's perspective to what should be standardized or automated.

• An IT support or help desk professional who is good at high-volume, user-facing work and wants to apply it in a mission-driven research environment.
• An operations, program, or research administrator from a university lab, startup, or nonprofit who has run budgets, accounts, and onboarding for a technical team.
• A technical operations coordinator who is comfortable learning new web platforms quickly and keeping many concurrent requests moving.

If you do not fit perfectly into one of these profiles but believe your skills are a strong match for the responsibilities, we are still excited for you to apply.

Key responsibilities

Research compute operations

• Triage and resolve fellow requests for compute access, account setup, credit top-ups, and platform issues, keeping turnaround predictable and communicating clearly.
• Administer fellow and team accounts across our GPU, API, and cloud platforms, including access, usage limits, API keys, and required security requirements.
• Prepare compute operations for each cohort and run onboarding and offboarding, ensuring accounts, allocations, budgets, documentation, and access are handled reliably.

Financial and administrative operations

• Track compute spending and usage against fellow and project budgets, and follow up as teams approach their limits.
• Own the monthly reconciliation of platform usage against requests and budgets, keeping financial and operational records accurate and current.
• Administer fellow expense and compute budgets, reimbursements, receipts, and subscription requests.
• Handle the administrative aspects of cohort transitions, vendor onboarding, invoices, renewals, and grant or subscription rollouts.

Fellow support and communications

• Own compute onboarding and maintain clear documentation, standard operating procedures, and proactive communications about policies and changes.
• Help fellows navigate our supported platforms using documented guidance, escalating project-specific technical questions to the engineering team.

Operational ownership and improvement

• Monitor balances, budgets, requests, and account state across our systems; audit records, reconcile discrepancies, and follow up when action is needed.
• Resolve routine ambiguity independently and know when to elevate technical, financial, or policy decisions.
• Identify repetitive work and opportunities to standardize or automate processes, working with the team’s engineers to improve internal tooling.
• Coordinate with Research Management, Operations, and Finance where fellow needs span teams, and help evaluate new compute platforms from an operational standpoint.

Essential qualifications and skills

• 1+ years of relevant experience in IT support or help desk, technical or program operations, research or lab administration, or financial administration.
• Excellent written communication and a genuine service mindset; you enjoy helping people get unblocked.
• Proven ability to manage a high volume of concurrent requests with strong attention to detail and follow-through.
• Proficiency with spreadsheets and databases such as Google Sheets and Airtable; comfort learning and administering new web-based platforms quickly.
• Comfort with budgets, including tracking spend, reconciling against records, and spotting discrepancies.
• Ability to write clear documentation and step-by-step procedures.
• Proactive and self-directed; you notice what needs doing and do it, make sound judgment calls on routine cases, and ask for input early when something falls outside your scope.
• Alignment with our mission of reducing risk from the development of advanced AI.

Desirable qualifications and skills

We expect especially strong applicants to have experience in at least one of the following:

• Administering accounts, billing, or usage limits on cloud or AI platforms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, GCP, AWS, or RunPod.
• Financial administration, such as budget tracking, expense processing reimbursements, or month-end reconciliation.
• Running onboarding or orientation for a cohort, class, or team.
• Helpdesk or ticketing tools (e.g. Linear, Zendesk, Jira) and building simple workflows in Airtable, Notion, or similar.
• Basic familiarity with a command line or with how researchers use GPUs and APIs, enough to understand a request and route it well.
• Using AI tools (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) effectively for operational work, such as drafting communications, documentation, or analyzing information.
• Familiarity with the basic ideas of AI safety.

About the Compensation

• Compensation range for this role is $100,000 to $130,000 per year for Bay Area-based hires, depending on qualifications and experience. The essential skills listed above contain the basic requirements, and align with the lower end of this range.
• MATS provides in-office, catered lunches and dinners to employees on workdays.
• Paid work trips, including staff retreats, business trips, and relevant conferences.
• Funding and support for professional development.
• 17 days of annual paid time off for Berkeley-based employees.
• Flexibility for hybrid work (but not for fully remote work).
• Collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment.
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance.
• Both Roth 401(k) and Traditional 401(k) for US-based employees.

Working hours and location

40 hours per week. Successful candidates can expect to spend most of their time working in person from our main office in Berkeley, California. We are open to hybrid working arrangements for exceptional candidates.

MATS is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment at the forefront of our field. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.

Join us in shaping the future of AI safety & security research!