Residency Manager

80Twenty LLC; California (MO); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

80Twenty LLC partners with a nonprofit research institute to grow a rolling Residency program. The Residency Manager will own end-to-end operations, ensuring residents have the support, budgets, space, and pathways to success.

You will report to the COO, coordinating across tracks and translating ad-hoc processes into scalable systems. If you thrive in fast-moving, mission-driven environments, this role offers meaningful impact and growth.

Qualifications

• 5–10 years in operations, chief-of-staff, or program management with experience scaling young organizations.
• Genuine excitement about frontier science and technology.
• A track record running complex, multi-stakeholder operations independently in fast-moving environments.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication.
• Comfort proposing direction in ambiguity, while staying calibrated to leadership's priorities.

Responsibilities

• Own Residency operations end-to-end: selection, onboarding, check-ins, and transitions, partnering with track leads who own scientific judgment and budgets
• Serve as the primary point of contact for every resident, from application through offer through completion or transition
• Spot recurring friction across residents and build lightweight, repeatable solutions as the program scales
• Manage the rolling selection process, including scheduling, reviewer workflows, candidate communications, and finalist logistics
• Smooth the handoff from offer to Day 1, including helping residents stand up their teams
• Flex into the "unknown unknowns" of a fast-growing program, from event logistics and hub operations to special projects

Skills

Operations leadership

Program management

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Stakeholder management

Team collaboration

Job description

About the Organization

Our client is a unique and innovative nonprofit that operates as a research institute outside the usual constraints of markets or academia, and is itself an experiment in how research organizations can move faster, take smarter risks, and produce lasting public goods. It focuses on backing high-leverage science and technology projects that don't have a natural home in traditional research or industry settings.

It supports research across AI and life sciences, alongside a program that fully funds exceptional scientists, covering salary and team budget to accelerate work that wouldn't get supported elsewhere.

The thread connecting these efforts is a deliberate bet on risk tolerance and speed. The organization holds a substantial endowment it intends to deploy boldly rather than preserve, and runs with a small team more like a startup than a foundation.

About the Role

As the Residency program grows, our client is seeking a mission- and culturally-aligned Residency Manager to own it end-to-end: the operational backbone that lets residents do their best work, and the connective tissue that keeps a growing, diverse group of residents and their teams well-supported.

This isn't coordination bolted onto an existing program. It's ownership of the program itself. Residents join on a rolling basis, work on wildly different problems, and report into different tracks. The core of this job is anticipating and consolidating their needs across that variety, including budgets, milestones, hiring, space, and troubleshooting, and turning what's currently handled case-by-case into something that scales without becoming bureaucratic. This role also manages how new residents are selected and onboarded.

Reporting to the COO, you'll work closely with track leads and senior leadership, and you'll be the first person residents turn to, keeping stakeholders aligned and informed without manufacturing unnecessary process.

What You'll Do

• Own Residency operations end-to-end: selection, onboarding, check-ins, and transitions, partnering with track leads who own scientific judgment and budgets
• Serve as the primary point of contact for every resident, from application through offer through completion or transition
• Spot recurring friction across residents and build lightweight, repeatable solutions as the program scales
• Manage the rolling selection process, including scheduling, reviewer workflows, candidate communications, and finalist logistics
• Smooth the handoff from offer to Day 1, including helping residents stand up their teams
• Flex into the "unknown unknowns" of a fast-growing program, from event logistics and hub operations to special projects

What You Bring

• 5-10 years in operations, chief-of-staff, or program management, ideally with experience scaling young organizations
• Genuine excitement about frontier science and technology
• A track record running complex, multi-stakeholder operations independently in fast-moving environments
• Exceptional written and verbal communication
• Comfort proposing direction in ambiguity, while staying calibrated to leadership's priorities
• A team-first attitude: you welcome direct feedback in both directions and don't limit yourself to a narrow job description.