Head of Operations

We have multiple open roles at the moment. Please submit an application for the role you feel you are the strongest fit for. You will have the opportunity to declare interest in other roles below, and we will consider your application for all the roles you express interest in.

About the role

We're a new AI safety organization called Quorum. Our mission is to advance research and public understanding of the safety and societal implications of emerging technologies, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence. We run the Summit on Existential Security, the AI Horizons Forum and will be building a portfolio of events for the AI safety ecosystem.

Our events have a strong track record of impact by facilitating critical connections and strategic coordination among people working on AI safety. As a result of our events, attendees have founded new organizations, launched new research initiatives, expanded their teams, and secured funding for their projects. Attendees consistently report that the events are a better use of their time than the counterfactual, and senior figures in AI safety regularly pause their day-to-day work to participate.

We're currently a team of seven, but we expect to be at least 20 by the end of 2027, and we want to at least double in the next several months. We're hiring a Head of Operations ahead of that growth to build the operations team that will support it, and to own everything that keeps the organization running: finance, payroll, payments, systems, legal and compliance, people ops, and business operations.

Responsibilities

Building the operations team

• Decide which operational functions we build and when, and make the case for each hire.

• Hire and manage the people who run those functions: talent, finance, systems, and people operations.

• Set the standards the team works to, and develop the people you bring in as their scope grows with the organization.

• Run operations as a service to the rest of Quorum, absorbing coordination work so program and delivery staff can spend their time on events.

You would do a lot of this work yourself and with an operations consultancy before you have anyone to hand it to. The sections below describe what you'd own directly at first, then oversee once the team is built.

Finance

• Own the organization's financial picture: budgeting, forecasting, cash flow, and reporting to funders and the Board.

• Make sure payroll and payments run reliably across multiple countries and currencies, working with our employer-of-record and payroll providers.

• Hold responsibility for bookkeeping, grant reporting, and any future audit requirements.

Legal and compliance

• Keep us compliant as a US 501(c)(3): governance requirements, Form 990, state registrations, and the limits on lobbying and political activity.

• Manage our relationship with outside counsel, and know when to escalate and when to decide.

• Own contracting, insurance, tax, and employment compliance across the jurisdictions our staff sit in.

• Own organizational risk and liability. This includes internal contingency planning, internal policies and codes of conduct, and supporting event staff with developing similar protocols for event attendees.

• In collaboration with leadership, define our core policies and create the systems to manage them. E.g. expenses, travel, conflicts of interest, interpersonal conflict and mediation, whistleblowing, etc. Minimise both liability and cumbersome processes, with proportionate solutions.

People operations

• Own how we hire, onboard, and pay people. Alongside our leadership team, you’d help manage our compensation policy and performance review cycle.

• Build a hiring process that can sustain the pace we're growing at, and bring in someone to run it if needed.

• Shape how the team works together, from internal communication to organizational culture.

Systems and business operations

• Manage how we use our org-wide systems: which tools we use, how they connect, and who has access to what.

• Handle data protection and information security, including how we hold attendee and staff data.

• Build processes that are light enough to survive a team that doubles, and remove ones that aren't earning their keep.

Our Project Managers own event budgets, venue and vendor contracts, and the event systems (Airtable, Swapcard). You would own the org-level equivalents and set the standards those connect into, rather than running event finance yourself.

We're currently filing for our 501(c)(3). We don't expect you to own that process, but you would inherit what it produces, and we'd welcome your help with it.

More experienced staff could start as a COO, covering the full operational and financial picture of a much larger organization. This is also a role the Head of Operations could grow into.

About you

You might be a great fit if you:

• Have run operations at a growing organization. You've held several operational functions at once, ideally through a period of fast growth, and you know what breaks and when.

• Know US nonprofit operations. You have hands-on experience with 501(c)(3) compliance, nonprofit finance, and grant reporting, or you're confident you can get there quickly. We expect this makes a US-based candidate a better fit, though we're remote and open to strong people anywhere.

• Are financially fluent. You can build and hold a budget, read a cash flow forecast, and say what we can afford.

• Have good judgment. You can tell when structure helps and when it gets in the way, and you're comfortable running a small organization light on process rather than importing what a large one would use.

• Can hire and manage well. You can scope a role, run a hiring process, and develop the people you bring in.

• Take ownership and are proactive. You investigate problems, propose solutions, and push things forward without waiting to be asked.

• Care about the mission. You don't need AI safety context, though it's a plus. You do need to care about the problem and understand how it shapes our decisions.

• Are a clear communicator and trusted partner. You can explain financial, legal, and operational constraints to colleagues, the Board, and funders, make clear asks of external partners, and say no constructively when you need to.

• Have sound judgment about risk. You can weigh risks proportionately, knowing when to escalate, get advice, or decide yourself. You don’t get stuck deciding which path, but evaluate and take action.

• Handle sensitive information with discretion. You understand that compensation, performance, and personal data require care, and you can keep confidential information confidential while being as transparent as possible.

• Have strong attention to detail. You keep payroll, payments, and compliance accurate across multiple systems and jurisdictions, and you catch problems before they become costly.

Role details and benefits

Reporting: You would report to our Managing Director, Ollie Rodriguez.

Location: This role is remote, with a preference for candidates based in the US. Our events run mostly in the SF Bay Area, with some in Washington DC and the UK, and you would travel to them occasionally, though being onsite isn’t essential for this role.

Compensation: $165,000–$195,000

This is set against a US medium-cost base and multiplied by a location factor: 1.385x in the SF Bay Area, 1.25x in Greater London or the Washington DC metro area, and 1.0x everywhere else.

Benefits: Benefits globally include private health insurance, a 10% employer retirement contribution, 25 days of paid vacation plus public holidays, time off in lieu for weekends worked at events, 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave, a $4,000 annual professional development allowance, the equipment you need to do your job, and more. In the US, we cover 100% of your health, dental and vision premiums, and the retirement contribution goes into a 401(k). Elsewhere, we provide the best private health insurance available locally.

Process

We expect the hiring process to include the following steps, subject to minor changes:

• Application

• Initial screen

• Short interview

• Work test

• Final interviews (2–3)

• Reference checks

We may also ask late-stage candidates to complete further work tests to assess role fit. We’ll ask candidates to start as soon as they’re available.

Contact [email protected] for any questions, accommodations, or more information.

Quorum is an AI safety organization that runs events to coordinate senior leaders in the AI safety field.