Operations Senior Manager

Take LISA's most consequential operational problems from ambiguity to durable results.

About LISA and the Role

What you’ll do

About you

What we offer

Run our programme and business operations

Be the Director of Operations' right hand – tracking actions across workstreams, chasing things through, and doing the detailed work so nothing falls through the cracks.
Stand in for the Director of Operations where they can't be present themselves, representing their priorities and thoughts faithfully.
Contribute to prioritisation across programme and business operations, including recommending what to start, pause or stop.
Model the judgement, rigour and ownership we expect at senior levels in operations.
Run cross-functional projects end to end, from scoping and planning through to delivery, coordinating internal colleagues, contractors, and suppliers. You will lead through influence, multiplying the effort of the wider team.
Take end-to-end ownership of LISA's most complex, sensitive or high-consequence operational priorities, from first framing through to an embedded outcome. Define the problem, frame the decision with clear options and a recommendation, and follow-through once a call is made.
Turn loosely defined needs into new operational capabilities, including, systems, processes, policies and ways of working, within defined objectives, boundaries, resourcing and measures of success.
Spot systemic risks and emerging problems early, surface them to the right people, and act before they start to create operational problems and inefficiencies.
Challenge assumptions constructively, including those held by senior leaders, so that decisions are taken with a realistic view of risks, trade-offs and second-order effects.
Support the delivery of an office fitout and relocation, working with the Project Lead and other internal and external stakeholders, to deliver specific workstreams, including but not limited to IT, AV, catering and facilities.

Support the organisations we host

Triage incoming requests from organisations: resolve what you can directly, route the rest to the right person or provider, escalate where needed, and keep requesters informed so nothing goes quiet.
Help to deliver the day-to-day operational services we provide to resident organisations, across legal, HR, and more. You will start by understanding the challenges our organisations face, develop the service offering and transition these activities into business as usual - ultimately acting as a coordinator between the functional experts and the customers.
Develop, document, and refine the processes and systems behind our organisational support offering so it scales as the community grows.

Field building and ecosystem convening

Work with the field building and ecosystem convening teams to turn strategically important initiatives into deliverable plans - scope, sequencing, owners, budget, and the operational infrastructure required to run them.
Build the systems and workflows to enable LISA to scale, including application and selection pipelines, participant and stakeholder tracking, event delivery runbooks, vendor and budget management, post-event follow-up, so that each initiative strengthens LISA's operating platform in a scalable manner.
Provide delivery discipline on key field building and convening activity. Apply LISA's project controls to major field building and convening projects: planning, milestone tracking, risk and issue management, and clear reporting into the Director of Operations and initiative owners.
Capture and institutionalise what works, instrumenting initiatives so delivery data and participant feedback are collected consistently, and translate learnings into standard templates, playbooks and service standards for future cycles.

Essential

Take ownership: own open-ended, ambiguous, high-consequence problems, including the things that fall between other people's remits, and you drive them to completion. You’ll know when to be hands on, and when to let others take the lead.
Broad experience: you don't need to be an expert in any one area, but you've worked across several of them – facilities, HR, IT, legal, programme operations.
Brilliant coordinator: you've coordinated plenty of internal and external stakeholders, held people to account, and driven projects through to completion. You know exactly what to prioritise, and when, and be able to influence without formal hierarchy.
Systems thinking: you’ll be able to make decisions from imperfect evidence, while able to incorporate factors from across the whole system.
Excellent judgement: about when to be rigorous and when to be light-touch – you know where strong systems are non-negotiable and where a simpler approach will do.
Force multiplier: you're happy to take full ownership of complex areas and run them independently to a high standard, freeing up senior time for the highest-leverage work.

Desirable

You care about making transformative AI go well, and you're keen to deepen your understanding of the field and your part in it.
Direct exposure to scaling an organisation through a period of rapid growth.
Experience working in a comparable setting - for example a scaling tech company, research institute, professional services firm, membership organisation, or other complex multi-function environment.

Compensation: £100,000 - £120,000.

Benefits: Pension (10% employer contribution), private medical insurance (including dental and optical), life assurance, critical illness cover, income protection and a £500 wellbeing allowance.

How we hire: We are more interested in trajectory, judgement, and fit with the role than in a perfect match against the list above.

Right to work: Candidates must have, or be eligible to obtain, the right to work in the UK. LISA can support visa applications for the right candidate.

The London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA) is the UK's central hub for AI safety. Our mission is to build the ecosystem the world needs to navigate transformative AI safely, by strengthening the capacity, capability, and cooperation of the AI safety field.

Our London hub hosts some of the brightest individuals and organisations in the field: researchers, founders, government officials, and AI safety staff from organisations like Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and the UK AI Safety Institute. By co-locating these people in the same building, we lower the friction to collaboration, accelerate the careers of those entering the field, and strengthen the organisations working to make AI go well.

The physical hub is the primary way we deliver our mission, which makes how well it runs central to everything we do.

LISA is growing quickly. To support our growth we need to build a team of Operations generalists, staffed with experienced Operators who can make an impact quickly. As part of this, we are recruiting Operations Senior Managers, who can take LISA’s most consequential operational problems from ambiguity to durable results.

Reporting directly to the Director of Operations, you'll help make LISA – and the organisations working inside it – run better, and in doing so help build the foundations of the AI safety ecosystem.

You'll support the Director of Operations right across their remit:

Programme operations: turning strategy into execution – prioritising, planning, tracking and delivering LISA's key organisational priorities.
Business operations: Owning finance, HR, legal, IT, and the core systems and processes that allow LISA to function effectively.

The defining feature of this role is adaptability. Depending on where the Director of Operations and the wider team need you, you'll pick up work across facilities, HR, IT, legal and programme operations – both for LISA and for the organisations we support. One week you might be representing the Director of Operations in discussions with external advisors, writing board papers, helping one of our organisations solve an operational problem, or working with an external stakeholder to review a potential strategic opportunity.

This isn't a fixed list of duties to work through. Growth is creating challenges that are important, cross-cutting and not yet fully defined. You'll be trusted to take whole problems and own them end to end – scoping them, framing the decision with clear options and a recommendation, and seeing the follow-through once a call is made. You will lead internal and other stakeholders, allocating senior attention and delivery capacity across the organisation, remaining accountable throughout.

You will also work closely with our field building and ecosystem convening teams to turn strategically important initiatives into deliverable plans, driving operational excellence for strategically important field building and ecosystem convening initiatives.

Few roles offer this much exposure this early. You'll work across every operational function in the organisation, side by side with the Director of Operations – a strong springboard for anyone aiming to become a Chief of Staff, Director of Operations or Chief Operating Officer.

Apply now

Operations Senior Manager

About LISA and the Role

What you’ll do

About you

What we offer

Run our programme and business operations

Be the Director of Operations' right hand – tracking actions across workstreams, chasing things through, and doing the detailed work so nothing falls through the cracks.

Stand in for the Director of Operations where they can't be present themselves, representing their priorities and thoughts faithfully.

Contribute to prioritisation across programme and business operations, including recommending what to start, pause or stop.

Model the judgement, rigour and ownership we expect at senior levels in operations.

Run cross-functional projects end to end, from scoping and planning through to delivery, coordinating internal colleagues, contractors, and suppliers. You will lead through influence, multiplying the effort of the wider team.

Take end-to-end ownership of LISA's most complex, sensitive or high-consequence operational priorities, from first framing through to an embedded outcome. Define the problem, frame the decision with clear options and a recommendation, and follow-through once a call is made.

Turn loosely defined needs into new operational capabilities, including, systems, processes, policies and ways of working, within defined objectives, boundaries, resourcing and measures of success.

Spot systemic risks and emerging problems early, surface them to the right people, and act before they start to create operational problems and inefficiencies.

Challenge assumptions constructively, including those held by senior leaders, so that decisions are taken with a realistic view of risks, trade-offs and second-order effects.

Support the delivery of an office fitout and relocation, working with the Project Lead and other internal and external stakeholders, to deliver specific workstreams, including but not limited to IT, AV, catering and facilities.

Support the organisations we host

Triage incoming requests from organisations: resolve what you can directly, route the rest to the right person or provider, escalate where needed, and keep requesters informed so nothing goes quiet.

Develop, document, and refine the processes and systems behind our organisational support offering so it scales as the community grows.

Field building and ecosystem convening

Work with the field building and ecosystem convening teams to turn strategically important initiatives into deliverable plans - scope, sequencing, owners, budget, and the operational infrastructure required to run them.

Provide delivery discipline on key field building and convening activity. Apply LISA's project controls to major field building and convening projects: planning, milestone tracking, risk and issue management, and clear reporting into the Director of Operations and initiative owners.

Capture and institutionalise what works, instrumenting initiatives so delivery data and participant feedback are collected consistently, and translate learnings into standard templates, playbooks and service standards for future cycles.

Essential

Take ownership: own open-ended, ambiguous, high-consequence problems, including the things that fall between other people's remits, and you drive them to completion. You’ll know when to be hands on, and when to let others take the lead.

Broad experience: you don't need to be an expert in any one area, but you've worked across several of them – facilities, HR, IT, legal, programme operations.

Brilliant coordinator: you've coordinated plenty of internal and external stakeholders, held people to account, and driven projects through to completion. You know exactly what to prioritise, and when, and be able to influence without formal hierarchy.

Systems thinking: you’ll be able to make decisions from imperfect evidence, while able to incorporate factors from across the whole system.

Excellent judgement: about when to be rigorous and when to be light-touch – you know where strong systems are non-negotiable and where a simpler approach will do.

Force multiplier: you're happy to take full ownership of complex areas and run them independently to a high standard, freeing up senior time for the highest-leverage work.

Desirable

You care about making transformative AI go well, and you're keen to deepen your understanding of the field and your part in it.

Direct exposure to scaling an organisation through a period of rapid growth.

Experience working in a comparable setting - for example a scaling tech company, research institute, professional services firm, membership organisation, or other complex multi-function environment.

Compensation: £100,000 - £120,000.

Benefits: Pension (10% employer contribution), private medical insurance (including dental and optical), life assurance, critical illness cover, income protection and a £500 wellbeing allowance.

How we hire: We are more interested in trajectory, judgement, and fit with the role than in a perfect match against the list above.

Right to work: Candidates must have, or be eligible to obtain, the right to work in the UK. LISA can support visa applications for the right candidate.

The London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA) is the UK's central hub for AI safety. Our mission is to build the ecosystem the world needs to navigate transformative AI safely, by strengthening the capacity, capability, and cooperation of the AI safety field.

The physical hub is the primary way we deliver our mission, which makes how well it runs central to everything we do.

Reporting directly to the Director of Operations, you'll help make LISA – and the organisations working inside it – run better, and in doing so help build the foundations of the AI safety ecosystem.

You'll support the Director of Operations right across their remit:

Programme operations: turning strategy into execution – prioritising, planning, tracking and delivering LISA's key organisational priorities.

Business operations: Owning finance, HR, legal, IT, and the core systems and processes that allow LISA to function effectively.

You will also work closely with our field building and ecosystem convening teams to turn strategically important initiatives into deliverable plans, driving operational excellence for strategically important field building and ecosystem convening initiatives.

Few roles offer this much exposure this early. You'll work across every operational function in the organisation, side by side with the Director of Operations – a strong springboard for anyone aiming to become a Chief of Staff, Director of Operations or Chief Operating Officer.