*** Please note that the application deadline for this role has now passed, and we are no longer receiving applications. Thank you to those who have applied - we will be in touch in the coming days. ***
SUMMARY:
Job title: Operations Manager and Strategy Adviser
Reports to: Chief Executive
Salary: £38k to £60k, depending on skill set and experience
Location and travel requirements: Flexible location within the UK, with the expectation of attending our central London office on Mondays
Application form: Submit here.
Deadline: Sunday 12 September 2021, 11pm London time. However, for this role we will consider applications on a rolling basis, since this is a position we are keen to fill quickly. We encourage applications to be submitted asap, and will consider closing the applications process early if we find the right candidate before the deadline.
For any questions about the role, please contact Angus Mercer at angus@longtermresilience.org
FULL DETAILS:
About the Centre for Long-Term Resilience
The Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR) is a UK-based think tank that focuses on three of the most crucial long-term challenges of our time – the safe development of AI, pandemic preparedness, and improving the way governments manage these types of extreme risks. We recently launched our first report, Future Proof, which was co-authored by Oxford’s Toby Ord (author of The Precipice) and received coverage in The Times, The Telegraph, Sky News, Wired and UnHerd.
In our first two years, we have helped bring these challenges to the attention of senior policymakers in Westminster. The UK’s recent Integrated Review highlighted the need to boost resilience to catastrophic-impact events, and extreme risks appear to be a key theme of the Government’s upcoming National Resilience Strategy. As the UK begins to develop its longer term policy response to Covid-19, there is now an excellent opportunity to transform the country’s resilience to the full range of extreme risks we face.
We're a small non-profit with big plans. We have just secured the funding required to make our first full-time hires beyond the founding team. We will likely be making four new hires in the coming months: three Heads of Policy to lead policy development and advocacy across each of our three focus areas, and an Operations Manager / Strategy Adviser to help manage our transition to a six-person organisation.
About this role
We are looking for a proactive, conscientious and strategy-minded Operations Manager / Strategy Adviser. This person will be responsible for managing the systems and processes required to transition CLTR from a two-person startup to a six-person organisation. This is a one-off opportunity to join our young and dynamic organisation at the ground level, at a time where significant policy progress in our priority areas looks to be achievable.
Our Operations Manager / Strategy Adviser will report directly to the Chief Executive, and will:
Build the CLTR ‘machine’: Set up and manage the systems and processes that we will need to achieve success in the long run, while retaining our core values and friendly, entrepreneurial culture. They will continuously iterate and improve these systems, and challenge the wider team to keep improving them too. These systems they would set up and manage include those for how we:
track our key actions and priorities, monitor progress being made and highlight when we are off-track;
keep track of the team’s capacity;
measure our impact as an organisation, and reflect on our key learnings;
hire, source and onboard new members of the team;
manage and review our key stakeholder databases;
communicate as a team;
schedule and run key meetings.
Flag any issues that arise while setting up and managing the systems set out above to the Chief Executive, and make recommendations for how these issues can be addressed.
Have day-to-day oversight of the following operational aspects of CLTR, (checking in regularly with the Chief Executive):
Our holiday tracker and HR platform (fortnightly);
Our Salesforce contacts database and key contacts list (fortnightly);
Our company finances, including the management of our external accountants, managing our invoices and end of year company accounts (monthly);
Our crisis comms materials (as and when these need updating);
Our key legal documents, including as our company policies (yearly); and
Health and Safety and Data Protection issues that arise.
Manage our part-time freelancer, delegating operational tasks as appropriate.
Drive our learning and development: Managing our fortnightly learning sessions, ensuring that every team member is contributing and that external stakeholders are brought in as needed. Summarising key L&D articles and other materials in fortnightly emails to the team.
Support our recruitment and onboarding efforts, including managing our hiring process and leading on day-to-day tasks such as drafting job descriptions, promoting vacant roles, preparing for candidate assessments and onboarding successful candidates.
Support our fundraising efforts, including the management of our fundraising task list, helping draft applications / respond to questions from prospective funders and their representatives, and conducting relevant due diligence.
Assist with the development of CLTR’s annual report, and other materials useful to funders, prospective funders and other key stakeholders.
[For the first three to six months in post, while the advocacy and policy development team is getting up and running]: Provide support on CLTR’s core advocacy and policy development work. This will include:
Producing first drafts of briefing notes for key meetings with government decision makers;
Working with academics in our network to submit evidence to select committee inquiries and develop other advice notes;
Drafting emails and letters to government stakeholders and prospective partners.
(We are aware that advocacy and policy development work in the bullet above requires skill sets that are different to those required for the core ‘Operations Manager / Strategy Adviser’ role. We will not be prioritising hiring for these advocacy and policy development skill sets, given the temporary nature of this workstream).
Skills and experience required
We want the best people and we don’t want biases holding us back. We strongly encourage people of every colour, orientation, age, gender, origin, and ability to apply. If you are passionate about CLTR’s mission and think you have what it takes to be successful in this role even if you don’t check all the boxes, please apply. We’d appreciate the opportunity to consider your application. Our intention when hiring is to optimise for talent, values and potential rather than experience.
Strong alignment with CLTR’s core mission and values.
Exceptionally high performer, both in terms of ‘macro’ level ability to think strategically about CLTR’s operations and priorities (which will likely be about 25% of the role), and ‘micro’ level ability to be proactive, diligent, solutions-focused and details-oriented when keeping the organisation’s systems on track and executing written tasks (which will likely be about 75% of the role).
Excellent writing skills, problem solving skills, and ability to bring together information from a range of sources and present it clearly and compellingly.
Strong proactivity, self-direction and work ethic. A ‘get things done’ mindset. Comfortable with working independently on solo projects a significant portion of the time. Eagerness for discussion and feedback.
Experience of working in an operations-focused role (or in a role with transferable skill sets).
A talented and reliable project manager, capable of independently juggling a large number of workstreams simultaneously, and assertively managing ‘up’ and ‘down’ the organisation as needed.
Directness and openness in giving and receiving feedback.
Discretion, and commitment to maintaining appropriate levels of confidentiality.
Comfort working within a fast-paced environment, and with flexing priorities at short notice if a time-critical project comes in.
Ability to help drive a positive team culture, and build strong interpersonal relationships with a small core team.
A growth mindset; willingness to learn and improve.
Excitement about working for a relatively new organisation whose processes are developing as we grow the team.
At CLTR, we value T-shaped people who are both generalists (highly skilled at a broad set of valuable things — the top of the T) while also being experts (among the best in their field within a narrow discipline — the vertical leg of the T).
Skills and experience preferred
A high-level understanding of what makes for effective and motivated workplaces.
A high-level understanding of the policymaking process in the UK.
A high-level understanding of the AI risk, biosecurity and institutional decision making research landscape.
Location and travel requirements
Flexible location within the UK, with the expectation of attending our central London office on Mondays.
Salary and benefits
Salary: £38k to £60k, depending on skill set and experience. The banding is wide because we don’t want to discount great people who are relatively early into their careers, but who have the talent, drive and skill set to become outstanding at this role very quickly.
Benefits package includes generous parental leave entitlements, an employer pension contribution scheme, a cycle to work scheme and an annual grant for your learning and development.
A commitment from CLTR to:
Care deeply about your wellbeing, career development and overall experience working with us;
Respect your preferred working patterns, wherever possible; and
Support you to carve out time for deep, uninterrupted work and avoid the hyperactive hive mind!