Operations Coordinator

Constellation Institute; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 78,000 - 98,000; Full time

Job summary

Constellation Institute in Berkeley, CA is seeking an Operations Coordinator to provide office, administrative, and customer support to staff and visitors at our research center. You will be the first point of contact, handle records, troubleshoot office issues, and help facilitate events.

This entry‑level role offers a path to broader operations responsibilities within a growing AI safety research network.

Qualifications

• Experience coordinating administrative tasks for a team.
• Ability to work under pressure and stay flexible as your day changes.
• Experience prioritizing between multiple tasks or time-sensitive projects.
• Friendly, professional, and engaging with a wide range of people.
• Clear, concise written communication.
• Strong attention to detail.
• High proficiency with Google Docs & Sheets.
• Comfortable learning new web applications and technologies.
• Understanding of security processes and why security matters for our work.
• Preferred, not required: customer support experience, physical workspace maintenance, in‑person event planning, and exposure to Slack, Asana, or other CRM tools

Responsibilities

• Administrative support: Reserve offices and meeting rooms, prepare desks and offices for new members, update headcount estimates, etc.
• Customer support: Welcome visitors when they arrive, register them in our systems, and give orientation tours. Manage inbound support requests, solve the ones you can, and elevate tickets that require input from other team members.
• Site support: Troubleshoot and fix issues around the office. Order food, drinks, and office supplies. Update and post signage.
• Event support: Staff workshops and happy hours, help with event setup and takedown, identify and respond to issues.
• Team support: Support other programs and projects as needed. Over time, you can take on more responsibility and ownership of the work you find most interesting.

Skills

Coordination

Customer support

Event planning

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Tools

Google Docs

Google Sheets

Slack

Asana

CRM tools

Job description

About Constellation

Constellation is an independent research center that brings together people throughout the AI safety ecosystem to accelerate insight, research, and talent through better cooperation. Unlike a conference or summit, Constellation operates continuously, in the form of a physical workspace as well as conference-style talks, workshops, and training bootcamps. Continuous operation allows for relationships and conversations to develop over time, meaningfully fostering trust, collaboration, and shared insight. It also makes Constellation a natural field-building hub by rapidly inspiring, orienting, and connecting people who are newer to the field.

About Constellation

Constellation is an independent research center that brings together people throughout the AI safety ecosystem to accelerate insight, research, and talent through better cooperation. Unlike a conference or summit, Constellation operates continuously, in the form of a physical workspace as well as conference-style talks, workshops, and training bootcamps. Continuous operation allows for relationships and conversations to develop over time, meaningfully fostering trust, collaboration, and shared insight. It also makes Constellation a natural field-building hub by rapidly inspiring, orienting, and connecting people who are newer to the field.

Based in Berkeley, CA, our shared workspace hosts over 300 people per week across dozens of AI safety organizations in nonprofits, academia, industry, and government. Hundreds of other researchers spend time at Constellation for shorter visits each year. We believe this is the strongest and highest-output network of AI safety researchers in the world; dozens of participants in past Constellation programs have gone on to safety-focused roles at companies such as METR, Redwood Research, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and the US and UK Safety Institutes.

About The Role

The Operations Coordinator role is focused on providing office, administrative, and customer support to our staff and the visitors hosted in our research center. This position will report to a member of the Shared Services team.

This role is open indefinitely, with applications reviewed quarterly. The current review cycle closes on Sunday, October 18. Applications received after that date will be considered in the next review cycle. The next cohort of coordinators are expected to start on Monday, November 30.

This is an entry-level, operational development role. The aim is to give you skills and experience across a broad range of operational tasks, along with foundational context about AI safety. You'll start by building core operations skills, then have room to explore the operational areas that interest you most (e.g. events, comms, HR, facilities). This role is meant to up-skill and develop operations coordinators into other roles within the ecosystem, usually within one year. Our goal is to provide training and context that can help you support Constellation as well as other organizations in our network as they scale during a period of rapid growth and rising importance for AI safety. Past coordinators have gone on to roles at Coefficient Giving, Redwood Research, and other teams at Constellation.

The ideal candidate has strong attention to detail, excellent interpersonal skills, and is excited to support AI safety research in a fast-paced and friendly work environment. (The vibe and pace of work is much closer to a growing startup than a traditional nonprofit.) Ideally, you also have a few years of office management, customer support, or administrative experience.

In this role, you’ll be the first person visitors and program participants meet when they arrive. You’ll respond to support requests, maintain accurate records in our systems, troubleshoot and fix things around the office, and help facilitate special events. Our research center hosts many of the top experts in AI safety, and we want to foster a space that supports their productivity and helps them work as efficiently as possible.

This is an in‑person, full‑time position. This role requires being onsite from 8:30am-5:00pm on weekdays, plus periodic work on evenings and weekends when we are hosting events or handling urgent issues.

Key responsibilities

• Administrative support: Reserve offices and meeting rooms, prepare desks and offices for new members, update headcount estimates, etc.
• Customer support: Welcome visitors when they arrive, register them in our systems, and give orientation tours. Manage inbound support requests, solve the ones you can, and elevate tickets that require input from other team members.
• Site support: Troubleshoot and fix issues around the office. Order food, drinks, and office supplies. Update and post signage.
• Event support: Staff workshops and happy hours, help with event setup and takedown, identify and respond to issues.
• Team support: Support other programs and projects as needed. Over time, you can take on more responsibility and ownership of the work you find most interesting.

Skills & Experience

• Experience coordinating administrative tasks for a team
• Ability to work under pressure and stay flexible as your day changes
• Experience prioritizing between multiple tasks or time-sensitive projects
• Friendly, professional, and engaging with a wide range of people
• Clear, concise written communication
• Strong attention to detail
• High proficiency with Google Docs & Sheets
• Comfortable learning new web applications and technologies
• Understanding of security processes and why security matters for our work
• Preferred, not required: customer support experience, physical workspace maintenance, in‑person event planning, and previous exposure to Slack, Asana, or other CRM tools

You Might Be a Good Fit If

• You enjoy helping people face‑to‑face in a fast‑paced environment.
• You like creating spreadsheets and organizational systems.
• You love creating to-do lists and crossing tasks off your list.
• You can juggle competing tasks and adapt when priorities shift.
• You care a lot about improving the user experience.
• You're entrepreneurial, like learning new skills, and take ownership of your work.
• You want to start a career operations, capacity building, or research support.
• You’re excited to learn more about AI safety and the catastrophic risks associated with transformative AI.

Compensation & Benefits

The base pay range for this role is $78,000 – $98,000 per year.

Our benefits are hard to beat! They include:

• Healthy lunches and dinners catered by our amazing kitchen team
• Unlimited snacks & drinks
• Generous vacation policy
• 401(k) with employer match
• Employer-paid commuter benefits
• High-quality health, dental, and vision insurance
• Friendly and supportive team
• Regular interaction with AI safety researchers and thought leaders

Additional Information

This is a full time, on‑site role. Our Berkeley office is a few steps from the nearest BART (metro) and bus stop. On‑site parking is also available.

The ideal candidate for this role will have some combination of the skills and experiences described above. If you are not sure if you are qualified, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway. Beyond the qualifications outlined, our priority is building a team that will help humanity safely navigate the development of transformative AI. If you would be excited to do this work, we’d love to consider you.

We value diversity in all respects and base our hiring decisions on the needs of the organization and individual qualifications. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age or disability.