[Hiring] Head of Operations @Singapore AI Safety Hub

Role Description

We are looking for an experienced operator to own critical operational and organisational functions, working closely with the leadership team.

• Building out the function:
• Lead the review and upgrade of our entire operating stack, including hiring, payroll, onboarding, expense management, office management, and applicant management for programmes with up to 6,000 applicants each.
• Stand up the organisational processes we don't yet have at the right maturity: goal setting and review, project management, performance management, talent development, and benefits.
• Organisational infrastructure and scaling:
• Finalise the incorporation and Charity Commission registration of our UK entity, Seabridge AI, including the visa sponsor licence and London office decision.
• Own the operational implementation of our China engagement, working with leadership on legal and strategic questions.
• Lead the operational work required to establish “Neo Research” as its own company.
• Develop and implement security best practices across the organisation.
• Lead our move to a permanent Singapore office for up to 40 people.
• Partnering with leadership:
• Work directly with the leadership team to develop our organisational culture and refine strategy.
• Translate culture and strategy decisions into updated employee policies, handbooks, and governance structures.
• Support the implementation of our rebrand into a more global organisation.

Qualifications

• Track record of scaling organisations from 1-n.
• Multi-jurisdiction financial and legal/regulatory fluency, or the ability to get up to speed on it fast.
• Comfortable executing on ambiguous goals, with a bias toward identifying operational needs and executing proactively.
• People leadership: hiring, performance management, and building HR/organisational infrastructure from a low base.
• Excellent stakeholder and people management skills, including with government, funders, and academic partners.
• Sound judgement on sensitive, high-stakes situations.
• High reasoning transparency.
• Enjoys building things.

Requirements

• China/Asia work experience or language skills (nice to have).
• Experience in a similar mission-driven nonprofit or fast-scaling startup (nice to have).
• Charity/nonprofit legal or compliance background (nice to have).
• Interest in or motivation around AI safety specifically (not required, but a plus).
• Experience operating a distributed or remote-first team (nice to have).

Benefits

• Salary: We expect this to fall somewhere in the USD $125k-175k+ range, co-created with the candidate.
• Location: We can sponsor work visas in the UK or Singapore and are open to remote work.
• Willingness to travel up to 20% of the time (largely Singapore).

Process & Practicalities

• After application review, we will conduct a screening interview.
• This would be followed by a 3h work test and 1-2 formal interviews and reference checks.
• We prefer a multi-day work trial to get to know the broader team.
• Open to alternative arrangements, e.g., starting as a part-time contractor and transitioning to full-time if it's a good fit.