About Constellation
Constellation is an independent research center that brings together people throughout the AI safety ecosystem to accelerate ideas, research, and talent through better collaboration. Unlike a conference or summit, Constellation operates continuously, in the form of a physical workspace. This 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 that helps by rapidly inspiring, orienting, and connecting people who are newer to the field.
Based in Berkeley, CA, our shared workspace hosts over 250 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.
For more information, see our research focus areas and selected publications from Constellation Fellows.
About This Role
As a Senior Business Operations Generalist, you’ll be part of the operational backbone ensuring we stay compliant, financially sound, and operationally excellent while enabling a growing team and ecosystem of people working on AI safety. You’ll support accounting, finance, legal, compliance, and audit processes with opportunities to lead specific areas and initiatives. Throughout, you'll build systems that scale without breaking.
This role requires someone who can balance competing demands, proactively spot risks before they become problems, and is decisive when balancing compliance requirements with organizational and ecosystem needs.
You’ll be the bridge between the business operations team and the rest of Constellation, synthesizing input from many stakeholders and translating it into action. You’ll work in a community of intelligent and highly mission driven people operating at the technical frontier.
Key Responsibilities - Accounting & Finance
- Support day-to-day accounting and bookkeeping operations, ensuring accuracy and timeliness
- Support budgeting processes, cash flow reporting, and financial planning to inform organizational decision-making
- Prepare and file Form 990 and other required tax documentation
- Support the annual nonprofit audit process from start to finish, coordinating with external auditors
Legal & Compliance
- Ensure compliance with nonprofit regulations, governance requirements, and legal obligations
- Manage relationships with external legal counsel and coordinate a range of legal matters
- Support company and board governance structures and processes
- Review and implement policies for in-kind donations, contracts, immigration, and other business operations
- Proactively identify and address compliance gaps, bringing potential risks to leadership's attention
Process Building & Operational Excellence
- Build, document, and continuously improve operational processes across business functions
- Create systems that increase team capacity and reduce bottlenecks
- Support organizations in our network with services, such as finance, accounting, HR, and payroll administration
- Make thoughtful tradeoff decisions between compliance and organizational needs, clearly communicating the reasoning
Skills & Experience:
- 4-6 years of experience in business operations, accounting, finance, legal, or a related field; ideally with nonprofit business experience
- Working knowledge in accounting and bookkeeping
- Experience managing or coordinating with compliance requirements, legal counsel, and external service providers
- Proficiency with spreadsheets, accounting software, and financial management tools (e.g. Quickbooks Online and BILL.com)
Bonus Qualifications:
- Experience with nonprofit audits and tax filings (Form 990)
- Knowledge of nonprofit governance structures and board operations
- Experience working in organizations under 200 people, ideally across different organizational stages
- Experience leading cross-functional projects
You may be a good fit if you:
- Thrive in environments where you’re building systems while simultaneously running them
- Are highly conscientious and detail oriented, while also prioritizing and balancing perfection with practical organizational needs
- Are an active listener who asks clarifying questions and incorporates feedback to improve processes
- Notice when something looks off and speak up about potential risks
- Think quickly on your feet and handle sudden context changes or new tasks with flexibility
- Exercise discretion with sensitive and confidential information
- Are driven by the importance of AI safety work and excited to enable the people doing it
Logistics:
This is a full-time position. You’ll be able to do this job best if you work in person at our Berkeley office, though we're open to discussing partially remote arrangements for exceptional candidates.
We encourage you to apply if you meet at least 70% of our qualifications.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
Compensation & Benefits
For the San Francisco Bay Area, the compensation range is $113,000 - $145,000.
Our benefits include generous vacation policy, 401(k) with employer match, employer-paid commuter benefits, health/dental/vision insurance, catered meals at the office.
