Fellowship Operations Associate

About the role

You'll own the operational backbone of CBAI's fellowship programs, everything that makes it possible for fellows, mentors, and staff to do their best work without friction. This ranges from daily logistics like meals and A/V for the speaker event series, to planning the social and community events that make CBAI a place people want to be. You'll manage vendor relationships, coordinate space and resources across fellowship cycles, and ensure that every event, from an informal reading group to a full-cohort poster day, runs smoothly. This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role. When operations work well, everyone notices; when they don't, you're the one who fixes it. Fellowship Operations (0.7 FTE) Own daily operational logistics during active fellowship cycles, including weekday meal coordination, A/V setup for the speaker events, and working with the Operations Site Manager at our Harvard Square office Source, book, and manage venues for fellowship events, including workshops, speaker series, poster days, and other program milestones Coordinate travel and accommodation for visiting speakers and mentors Manage vendor and contractor relationships, including sourcing new vendors, negotiating terms, and maintaining quality and reliability over time Procure and manage supplies, equipment, and other resources needed to support fellows and staff Anticipate operational needs across the fellowship calendar and prepare proactively rather than reactively Coordinate with the Director of Operations to ensure accurate bookkeeping, sound budget management, and that program operations run effectively and efficiently Community Programming (0.3 FTE) Plan and execute social events that build cohort community, such as cohort dinners, celebrations of small wins & important days, informal gatherings, and other touch points that make the fellowship experience more than just research Coordinate with the Director of Programs to align social programming with fellowship milestones and cohort needs Identify creative, low-friction ways to strengthen the fellowship's social fabric across a diverse cohort About You We expect you to be characterized by most of the qualities listed below. You're a natural operator. You have a bias toward action and get things done reliably. You anticipate problems before they happen, keep multiple moving pieces organized, and follow through on everything you commit to. People trust you to handle the details so they don't have to think about them. You take ownership seriously. When something is your responsibility, you treat it as yours, not just mechanically completing tasks, but genuinely caring that the outcome is good. You don't wait to be told something is broken; you notice it and fix it. You're an excellent communicator. You're clear and direct with vendors, responsive with internal stakeholders, and proactive when you see a potential issue. You can manage expectations calmly even when things don't go as planned. You're resourceful and creative within constraints. Budgets are real. You know how to find good solutions that don't require spending more than necessary, and you bring genuine creativity to community and social programming rather than defaulting to the obvious option. Interpersonally excellent. You're warm, easy to work with, and good at building relationships - with vendors, with fellows, and with staff. You understand that a big part of this role is making people feel taken care of. Organized and conscientious. You maintain clear systems, document what you do, and build operational playbooks that others can follow. You improve your processes over time based on what you learn each cycle. Mission-motivated. You are aligned with CBAI's mission and care about contributing to an organization working on one of the most important problems of our time, even in an operational capacity. The ideal candidate will have meaningful experience in event coordination, operations, or a similar role, ideally in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment. Experience managing vendors or contractors is important. What matters mos

Additional Information

About Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative The Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative (CBAI) is a nonprofit research organization working to advance research and education directed towards ensuring that society navigates a safe and beneficial transition to advanced AI systems. Our work takes the form of producing original research efforts and accelerating AI safety research through fellowship programs. Our inaugural summer fellowship cohort has already published a spotlight paper at the Mechanistic Interpretability Workshop at NeurIPS, accepted papers at ICLR, and some of our fellows have joined Goodfire and Redwood Research. After a successful 2025 launch, we're rapidly scaling in 2026. We will host multiple fellowship cycles (Fall, Spring, and Summer), double the fellowship cohort, and quadruple our team. Refer us candidates , and receive $5,000 if we hire them.

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative? Share your experience