Technical Program Manager

Basis Research Institute

New York (NY)

On-site

USD 100,000 - 160,000

Full time

14 days+

Get more replies from employers

Send a job-specific resume in minutes.

Job summary

A nonprofit applied AI research organization is looking for a Technical Program Manager to drive ambitious research projects in New York. The role involves managing technical project roadmaps, facilitating team meetings, and ensuring project alignment with strategic goals. Ideal candidates have over 4 years of experience in project management, a solid understanding of AI/ML, and exceptional problem-solving skills. This full-time position offers a competitive salary ranging from $100,000 to $160,000. Applications are welcomed from passionate individuals willing to navigate complexity and drive impactful projects forward.

Qualifications

4+ years managing technical (scientific/engineering) projects.
Demonstrated ability to navigate uncertainty effectively.
Ability to distill research questions into actionable plans.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain project roadmaps.
Run regular team meetings and ensure progress.
Coordinate between technical and project teams.

Skills

Technical project management

AI/ML comprehension

Writing skills

Problem-solving

Version control systems knowledge

Education

PhD-level comprehension of AI/ML concepts

Tools

JIRA

Notion

Linear

Git

GSuite

Job description

About Basis

Basis is a nonprofit applied AI research organization with two mutually reinforcing goals.

The first is tounderstand and build intelligence. This means to establish the mathematical principles of what it means to reason, to learn, to make decisions, to understand, and to explain; and to construct software that implements these principles.

The second is toadvance society’s ability to solve intractable problems. This means expanding the scale, complexity, and breadth of problems that we can solve today, and even more importantly, accelerating our ability to solve problems in the future.

To achieve these goals, we’re building both a new technological foundation that draws inspiration from how humans reason, and a new kind of collaborative organization that puts human values first.

About the Role

We’re seeking a Technical Program Manager who is deeply passionate about program management to drive ambitious research projects forward. You’ll work across several projects, serving as a linchpin between our researchers, engineering teams, leadership, and external collaborators, requiring both technical depth and project management expertise.

Core Responsibilities

Develop and maintain project roadmaps, translating long-term strategic goals into milestones and tasks
Run regular team meetings, triaging issues, and ensuring research scientists and engineers stay on track
Coordinate between core technical and project teams, identifying and resolving dependencies
Write and review technical design documents and project plans
Model human, compute, and financial resources across projects
Contribute technically when necessary
Engage with external project-partners, nurturing existing relationships and cultivating new collaborations
Continuously refine Basis’ approach to project management in research

Qualifications and Attributes

We’re looking for someone with:

4+ years managing technical (scientific/engineering) projects, with demonstrable impact
PhD-level comprehension of AI/ML concepts (though a PhD itself isn’t required)
Proficiency with project management tools such as Linear, JIRA, or equivalent
Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git) and collaboration tools (e.g., Notion, GSuite)
Exceptional writing skills, able to communicate complex ideas clearly and concisely

More important than any specific qualification is your ability to navigate uncertainty and find clarity in complexity. The problems we’re tackling don’t have clear solutions—that’s why we’re tackling them.

Our ideal candidate is someone who:

Thinks from first principles, knowing when to adopt or discard standard practices
Simplifies complexity and sees unnecessary processes as problems to be solved
Automates everything that should be automated
Makes tough calls on project direction and resource allocation, often with incomplete information
Excels at distilling nebulous research questions into concrete, actionable project plans
Understands the human side of research, balances individual team-member needs with project progress
Works and acts quickly, maintaining team momentum at the right level of intensity
Relentlessly reduces uncertainty and ambiguity—is persistent in getting clarity
Has expertise in our core technical areas including statistics, causal reasoning, probabilistic machine learning, and/or programming languages, with an appetite to learn more
Is a fast learner, able to quickly build upon a solid mathematical foundation into the diverse technical areas that we work in
Obsesses over effective program management and continuously asks, “How can we do this better?”