Operations Associate

Operations Associate: MAIA & General CBAI Support

MAIA Director and CBAI Director of Operations

In-person, Cambridge, MA

Full-time

As soon as possible

Reviewed on a rolling basis.

MIT AI Alignment (“MAIA”) is an MIT club for people worried about human extinction due to AI. The group supports education, research, and careers for its members. In doing so, MAIA has become a hub in Boston, facilitating engagement with events, opportunities, and people in AI Safety. MAIA began in 2022, and now has hundreds of members.

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. CBAI also serves as the fiscal sponsor for the student teams MAIA and AISST.

CBAI has been the anchor organization for AI safety in Cambridge since late 2022. We serve as the connective tissue between the AI safety research community across Harvard, MIT, and Northeastern, running workshops, convenings, and networking events that bring together researchers, students, and practitioners working on the most important problems in the field.

You'll divide your time between supporting MIT AI Alignment (MAIA) in an operational capacity and providing supplemental operational support to CBAI's programming. For MAIA, you'll own everything that makes it possible for MAIA leadership to do their best organizing work without friction: daily logistics like meal ordering and reading materials printing, plus systems work such as CRM maintenance and program-level budget tracking. For CBAI, you'll flex to whatever active programming needs come up: from researching and booking lodging for out-of-town participants to arranging meals and supporting one-off office projects.

This is a role for someone who takes real pride in flawless execution. When you do it well, programming simply runs, and the people around you get to focus entirely on their work.

• →

  5% 403(b) match contribution

• →

  Comprehensive health insurance

• →

  Generous PTO policy

• →

  Employer-paid commuter benefits

• →

  Reimbursement for work-related technology and/or home office expenses

Location: This position is in-person and based in Cambridge, MA.

Start date: As soon as possible.

We review applications on a rolling basis and move quickly for this role.

1. Initial Application: A short application form plus your resume. Every application is reviewed in detail by a member of our team.

2. Working Interview (~1 hour): A brief real-world task drawn from the actual work of the role, completed live or asynchronously with a tight turnaround. Unpaid, and designed to take no more than an hour.

3. Short Interview (~30 minutes): A conversation about your background, motivation for the role, and any questions you have for us.

4. Paid Work Test (3–5 hours): A scoped task mirroring the role's real responsibilities, paid at market rate.

5. Team Interviews: Structured conversations with CBAI team members and MAIA leadership, tied to the role's responsibilities.

6. Reference Checks: Conducted for finalists, followed by a final conversation to ensure mutual fit before an offer.

CBAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law.

In acknowledgement of the research that suggests that women, gender minorities, and other marginalized groups may be less likely to apply for roles where they don't meet every criterion, we especially encourage people in these categories to apply.

We may use AI to assist in the initial screening of applications, including to detect whether candidates have used AI models in drafting their application. Decisions are always made by a human on our team.