Operations Generalist (Berkeley)

About the Organization

MATS Research finds and trains talented individuals for what we see as the world's most urgent and talent-constrained problem: reducing risks from unaligned artificial intelligence. We believe ambitious researchers from a variety of backgrounds have the potential to meaningfully contribute to alignment, control, security, and governance research. Through our research fellowship, we provide mentorship, training, professional network, and financial support to accelerate their careers and increase their impact.

​Since 2021, we have trained over 630 researchers. 75% of pre-2026 fellows continue to work in AI alignment. 10% have co-founded organizations. Our fellows have produced 215+ research papers with 17,000+ citations. And we are just getting started: in the coming year we will expand our program to support even more researchers.

The operations team keeps all of this running. We support a wide range of functions, from events and facilities to people operations, finance, and digital infrastructure, and we care about both building better systems and giving the people we support fast, attentive help.

We are generally looking for candidates who:

• Are excited to work in a fast-paced environment and are comfortable switching responsibilities and projects as the needs of MATS change; and
• Are self-motivated and can take on new responsibilities within MATS over time.

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About the Role

We are looking for proactive, service-minded, and highly organized operations staff to help the MATS program in Berkeley grow, and to give our fellows the best possible experience. As an Operations Generalist, you will support fellows, mentors, and staff so they can focus on their core work, and you will help keep the organization and the program running day to day.

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The exact mix of your responsibilities will be shaped by your strengths and interests and by the organization's priorities at the time. Ideal candidates are detail-oriented, adaptable, organized, and are able to communicate clearly and concisely both verbally and in writing.

What You'll Do

Your core work will be to keep the organization and the fellowship running smoothly while staying responsive to whatever comes up. This varies day to day and by your strengths and interests, but may include:

• Supporting fellows, mentors, and staff: respond to requests and help create a comfortable, productive environment.
• Helping run events: plan and support seminars, lightning talks, workshops, socials, and the end-of-program symposium, including setup and audio-visual support.
• Enable the office and program to function smoothly: coordinate vendors, guests, supplies, and catering, oversee basic facilities needs, and support fellow onboarding and offboarding.
• Building and improving systems: maintain and extend our organizational infrastructure (Airtable, Notion, Google Drive, and more), and automate repetitive workflows, including with AI tools.
• Owning special projects: take point on new initiatives and one-off problems as they arise (creating security procedures for the office, 

Areas You Can Grow Into

If you perform well and have interest, you might end up contributing to any of the following areas over time. Most generalists start with a few and broaden or deepen from there:

• Events: planning and running seminars, lightning talks, workshops, socials, the symposium, and our presence at conferences, including logistics and audio-visual support.
• Facilities management: keeping office and event spaces working well, from vendors and maintenance to supplies, safety, and setup.
• Fellow housing: coordinating housing for fellows, including sourcing, check-in and check-out, and working with providers and contractors.
• People operations and human resources: supporting hiring, onboarding and offboarding, documentation, and the policies and systems that help people do their best work.
• Finance: supporting budgeting, expense tracking, reimbursements, accounts payable, and clean bookkeeping.
• IT: first-line technical support, managing accounts and access, and keeping hardware, networks, and security dependable.
• Digital infrastructure: designing, building, and maintaining our databases, our knowledge management systems, and our task/project management systems, automating workflows.
• Project management: coordinating cross-team projects, breaking work into steps, and keeping initiatives and their stakeholders on track.
• Office management: keeping the office stocked, welcoming, and well run, including stocking inventory, arranging for catering, handling guests, and taking care of day-to-day requests.
• Special projects: taking ownership of new initiatives and one-off problems as priorities shift and the organization grows.

Essential Qualifications and Skills

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• Based in or willing to relocate to Berkeley, California, and comfortable working in-person at our office in downtown Berkeley on most days.
• Experience in operations, project management, events, administration, or another role where you owned getting things done. We care about demonstrated skill rather than credentials: internships and non-traditional paths count, and no specific degree is required.
• Organized and reliable: you juggle a high volume of small tasks without dropping them, and colleagues trust you to follow through. You naturally create order from chaos, creating structure and standardization with every workflow you encounter.
• Strong judgment and problem-solving: you prioritize well, can work through ambiguity, and know how to figure things out with limited information.
• A clear, service-minded communicator: your writing is plain and kind, and people leave interactions with you feeling supported.
• Proactive: you have an eye for noticing what could be better and take the initiative to improve it.
• Comfortable with the software tools we use (Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, Airtable) or you are able to pick up new tools quickly.
• Motivated by the MATS mission. You do not need to be an expert on AI safety; you should have a general understanding of what we are doing and you should be able to articulate why it matters.

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Desirable Qualifications and Skills

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We expect the most competitive applicants to also have one or more of the following. You do not need all of them, and this is where breadth or depth in any of the areas above helps.

General

• Hands-on experience in one or more of the “Areas You Can Grow Into” listed above.
• Knowledge of US visa and immigration processes, or experience with international program administration.
• Experience managing a high volume of concurrent requests in a customer-service context.
• Familiarity with the core ideas of AI alignment, control, security, and governance.

Technical

• Strong command of Airtable, Google Sheets/Docs/Drive, Notion, and Slack.
• Comfortable using LLMs as a tool in your work, without outsourcing your judgement or decision-making.
• Experience building automations and integrations across tools, or doing data analysis to inform decisions.
• Experience with technical support and ticketing systems, applicant-tracking or CRM software, or audio-visual support for events.
• Graphic design, video editing, web design, or branding.

Experience

• Financial administration: budgeting, expense tracking, reimbursements, or bookkeeping.
• Work in fellowship programs, study-abroad, summer programs, or similar short-term educational programs.
• Community-building and alumni engagement.
• A certification or coursework in project management or operations management.

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We welcome applications from individuals with varied backgrounds and levels of experience, and we strongly encourage you to apply if one or more of these profiles describes you:

• Operations or project managers
• Office managers
• Human resources or people operations professionals
• Bookkeeping and accounting professionals
• Community builders, especially in the AI alignment, control, security, and governance research space
• Generalists in small or growing organizations
• People with work experience in start-ups, tech, or non-profits
• Builders of digital infrastructure and automations that support scaling
• People who love bringing order to chaos and naturally create repeatable systems and processes

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We know that resumes and careers do not always fit a particular mold. If you believe that something in your background or skillset makes you a good match for this role, we encourage you to apply even if your background does not match those listed above. When in doubt, apply: our process is designed to test skills directly, and we would rather hear from you than have you rule yourself out.

Reasons This Might Not Be the Right Role for You

• Much of this work is behind the scenes. When operations is going well, it is largely invisible, and many of the wins are things that quietly did not break.
• The role is frequently interruption-driven. Things break on their own schedule, and priorities can shift week to week.
• It rewards breadth over depth, at least at first. You will touch many areas rather than going deep in one, though clear specialization paths open up over time.
• It is in-person in Berkeley. We offer limited hybrid flexibility, but fully remote work isn’t feasible.
• We are scaling fast and building as we go. Processes and structure will change under you, and feedback is frequent. The ability to deal with ambiguity and to adapt to new circumstances is a strength.

What We Offer

• Compensation will be $45 to $65 per hour, depending on qualifications and experience. The essential qualifications above align with the lower end of the range.
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance.
• Both Roth 401(k) and Traditional 401(k).
• 17 days of annual paid time off, plus federal holidays and paid sick leave.
• In-office, catered lunches and dinners on workdays.
• Funding and support for professional development, including relevant conferences.
• Paid work trips, including staff retreats.
• Flexibility for hybrid work between cohorts.
• A collaborative, intellectually stimulating environment, including access to AI safety-focused communities in Berkeley.
• The opportunity to help accelerate and launch the careers of talented AI safety researchers.

Working hours and location

Job type: Full-time

Reports to: Operations Director (but likely to change to another member of the operations team due to the current growth period for MATS and anticipated operation team organization structure changes)

Location: Berkeley, California (in-person, with some flexibility for hybrid work between cohorts; this is not a fully remote role)

Visa sponsorship: No

Application Process

We have designed the process to be transparent and respectful of your time. We expect it to include:

1. Application form (about 15–20 minutes). Short answers are fine, and no cover letter is needed.
2. Screening call (about 20–30 minutes).
3. Paid work sample test (about 120 minutes), with a stipend. The tasks mirror real operations work,so that we can see your own reasoning. Work sample tests are completed without AI assistance.
4. Structured interview (about 30-60 minutes).
5. A second, longer interview, and in some cases an additional paid work sample test.
6. Reference checks
7. Job offer.

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Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority given to candidates that apply by September 30, 2026, with an anticipated start date of October 15 - December 14, 2026. To apply, please fill out the form here. If you use an LLM chatbot or other AI tools in this application, please follow these norms. MATS uses LLMs to help draft job descriptions, identify candidates to source, and transcribe interviews.

Join us in shaping the future of AI safety & security research!

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MATS is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.