People Operations Specialist

Constellation Institute; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthy meals and dinners provided

Unlimited snacks & drinks

Generous vacation policy

401(k) with employer match

Employer‑paid commuter benefits

High‑quality health, dental, vision

Job summary

Constellation Institute, based in Berkeley, CA, is seeking a People Operations Coordinator or Specialist to join the People team. You will own onboarding, HRIS maintenance, benefits coordination, compliance, and immigration support, collaborating across recruiting, finance, and legal.

This is a full‑time, on‑site role with room to grow. The role offers broad exposure to the entire employee lifecycle in a mission‑driven organization and requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail,

Qualifications

• Experience in People Operations or HR administration with detail‑oriented processes.
• Excellent organizational skills and meticulous attention to detail.
• Strong written and verbal communication with professional demeanor.
• Self-starter who can adapt to ambiguity and build processes.

Responsibilities

• Own onboarding and offboarding logistics end to end.
• Maintain and improve HRIS data accuracy and audit readiness.
• Coordinate employee benefits enrollment and vendor liaison.
• Support policy development and ensure legal compliance.
• Manage People Ops documentation and internal resources.
• Identify opportunities to streamline workflows as the organization scales.

Skills

People Operations

Organizational skills

Attention to detail

Strong communication

Self-starter

HRIS/ATS familiarity

Tools

HRIS systems

ATS platforms

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. Based in Berkeley, CA, our shared workspace hosts over 200 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 AI safety field needs more capacity, capability, and cooperation to safely navigate transformative AI. Constellation builds all three — by mobilizing talent, incubating projects and organizations, and convening the people working on this problem. Supporting all of this requires an internal People Operations (People Ops) function that runs smoothly, scales with the organization, and gives our team a great employee experience from day one. We’re looking for a People Operations Coordinator or Specialist to join our People team, reporting to our Director of People. This role is the operational backbone of our People function. You’ll support the day‑to‑day execution of onboarding, HRIS, benefits, and compliance, while also lending support to recruiting/talent operations and immigration administration as needed. This is a great fit for someone who wants broad exposure across the full employee lifecycle, enjoys detail‑oriented execution, and is excited to build systems in a fast‑moving, mission‑driven organization. You’ll work closely with our People team and cross‑functionally with recruiting, finance, and legal partners.

Key responsibilities

Core People Operations

• Own end‑to‑end onboarding and offboarding logistics, ensuring new hires have a smooth start and departing employees are supported through a clean transition.
• Maintain and continuously improve our HRIS, ensuring employee data is accurate, well‑organized, and audit‑ready.
• Support employee benefits programs, including enrollment, questions, and vendor coordination in partnership with the HR Lead.
• Support policy development and maintenance, and help ensure the organization stays compliant with applicable employment laws and regulations.
• Manage People Ops documentation, processes, and internal resources (e.g., employee handbook, FAQs, process guides).
• Identify opportunities to streamline and systematize People Ops workflows as the organization scales.

Immigration & Legal Administration

• Track visa and immigration case timelines and deadlines.
• Liaise with outside immigration counsel to coordinate documentation, filings, and employee communications (operational support, not case management).
• Support contract and compliance administration, including tracking offer letters, employment agreements, and policy acknowledgments in partnership with legal counsel.

Recruiting & Talent Operations Support

• Support with scheduling, candidate communications, and onsite/interview coordination as needed.
• Help maintain applicant tracking system (ATS) hygiene and recruiting data.
• Assist with candidate experience touchpoints, such as greeting onsite candidates and helping them navigate the Constellation ecosystem.

About The Level

We’re open to hiring at either the Coordinator or Specialist level depending on the experience and background of the candidate we find. To give a sense of how we’d think about the difference:

• People Operations Coordinators own their day‑to‑day responsibilities end‑to‑end, execute processes accurately and reliably, and identify improvements within their areas over time.
• People Operations Specialists bring greater independence to their work, take on more ambiguous or higher‑stakes situations (e.g., complex immigration cases, sensitive employee matters, compliance judgment calls), and contribute more directly to how policies, systems, and processes are designed.

You don’t need to decide which level to apply for — we’ll work that out together as part of the process.

Skills & Experience

• Experience in People Operations, HR, or a related administrative/coordination role, with a track record of managing detailed processes accurately and on time; the amount and depth of experience will inform which level we hire for.
• Highly organized with meticulous attention to detail — you notice the small things that keep processes from breaking.
• Comfortable wearing multiple hats and shifting between core People Ops work, administrative coordination, and recruiting support as priorities shift.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and you bring warmth and professionalism to every employee and candidate interaction.
• A self‑starter who’s comfortable with ambiguity and enjoys building or improving processes rather than just following existing ones.
• Some familiarity with HRIS systems, ATS platforms, or similar tools (or you pick up new systems quickly).

Nice‑to‑Have (would inform leveling)

• Experience managing immigration cases or complex compliance matters.
• Experience designing or restructuring People Ops processes/systems.
• Exposure to multi‑state or multi‑country employment compliance.
• Experience administering an HRIS e.g. Rippling.

You Might Be a Good Fit If You:

• Are mission‑aligned and values‑driven, with a genuine interest in helping humanity safely navigate the development of transformative AI.
• Find satisfaction in creating order from complexity and following through reliably.
• Are eager to learn and grow your skills over time.
• Enjoy a people‑facing role that blends structure with flexibility.

Compensation & Benefits

For Coordinators, the base pay range for this role is $80,000 – $100,000 per year.

For Specialists, the base pay range for this role is $100,000 – $120,000 per year.

The base pay range for this role is $80,000 – $120,000 per year.

• 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.