Operations Associate

About aiEDU

The AI Education Project (aiEDU) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that creates equitable educational experiences that excite and empower learners everywhere with AI literacy. We educate students—especially those disproportionately impacted by artificial intelligence and automation—with the conceptual knowledge and skills they need to thrive as future workers, creators, consumers, and citizens. 

About the Operations Team

The Operations Team supports aiEDU’s mission by continuously evaluating and improving our team to deliver high quality processes, offerings, and services. We are goal-oriented, focused, and efficient, and seek to empower everyone at aiEDU to do their best work. When our systems and processes are working well, they might be described as "invisible" – that is, working smoothly and seamlessly behind the scenes. This is our ideal. We identify issues before they become problems, acquire the resources and tools needed for success, and implement reliable and compliant solutions. We value consistency, agility, security, and operational simplicity while focusing on meeting organizational objectives. 

About the Role

We’re seeking an Operations Associate who will work with our Operations Team (our Operations Lead, Chief Operating Officer, and contracted vendors) to enable our organization with the resources, processes, and environment needed to do our very best work. You will be responsible for solving the team’s most pressing operational challenges, as well as ensuring that our day-to-day processes run smoothly. Your work will be vital to helping our organization thoughtfully build and scale, and will construct a stable and growing team to adequately prepare students and teachers for an AI-empowered future.

You will report directly to our Operations Lead. The responsibilities of your role will require you to prioritize amongst competing requests for attention, set and meet clear deadlines, communicate clearly, and self-enforce high quality work. 

✅ Your responsibilities will include working on projects like:

People Operations - 40%

• Streamline onboarding and offboarding processes to ensure every employee has positive impressions of aiEDU that align with our cultural values.

• Support active hiring rounds, including handling candidate communications, assisting hiring managers, conducting phone screens, scheduling interviews, conducting references, and keeping stakeholders informed at key stages.

• Improve recruiting systems to expedite our work and enhance the experience for candidates and hiring managers.

• Coordinate remote and in-person staff engagement events (e.g. team lunches, team-wide retreats, and team building activities).

• Coordinate remote staff celebrations (e.g. employee milestones, birthdays, etc.).

• Support processes that develop and retain employees — our team handles performance reviews and promotions, collects feedback on employee engagement and manager satisfaction, and works to make sure staff at aiEDU have the tools they need to grow and succeed.

Finance - 40%

• Manage accounts payable and accounts receivable by collecting all relevant information and paperwork to ensure a smooth and seamless process.

• Manage all record keeping in Salesforce related to donations, grants, and other revenue and liaise with our bookkeeper to keep Quickbooks up to date.

• Manage staff expense reporting, and troubleshoot finance-related questions from staff and contractors.

• Onboard aiEDU contractors and make improvements to our contractor process.

• Conduct recurring and/or ad hoc financial analysis or reports.

Adhoc projects and assignments - 20%

• Design new processes and provide support on projects that will maximize aiEDU’s impact and help the organization scale effectively.

• Communicate clearly and regularly with staff members through synchronous meetings and Slack channels. Be available as needs arise from team members.

• Make aiEDU more organized, efficient and productive – you’ll both directly support staff with time-consuming tasks (like cleaning up data) and investigate scalable solutions to commonly-faced problems.

• Handle anything else that needs to get done — it’s impossible to anticipate everything we might need, so you’ll often take on special projects and ad hoc tasks as they arise.

🚀 About You

You might be a great match for this role if you:

• Have at least 4 of experience working on operations/people teams/finance teams for a fast-growing organization. Experience in education, technology, or a startup environment is a plus.

• Have implemented new policies/processes that were successfully adopted by a team – bonus points if the team was remote.

• Approach your work with a customer-service mindset; you see internal stakeholders as customers, and want to make sure they walk away feeling helped whenever they come into contact with you or your team.

• Are comfortable managing sensitive conversations around employee satisfaction and performance, demonstrating discretion and respect for confidentiality in handling sensitive employee data such as employee survey feedback and compensation data.

• Understand the importance of having a strong organizational culture and are excited about the supportive, equitable kind of culture we are building.

• Are mission-motivated and flexible; you want to contribute to aiEDU’s most pressing needs and are oriented around getting things done, even when it’s not glamorous. Any job is your job if it helps the team succeed. You enjoy having many and varied tasks rather than a few heavily concentrated tasks. You derive satisfaction from helping others and will dig in to get things done with a positive attitude.

• Are excited to contribute to impact-driven work in a supportive capacity; you know that behind-the-scenes tasks are important, even if they seem indirect or tedious at face value.

• Are passionate about technology, education, AI, and/or social impact.

• Have a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field.

Please note that there is no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we would strongly encourage you to apply. Share your relevant experiences in a thoughtful cover letter!

⭐ Role details and benefits

• Location: This full-time, exempt position can be done on a flexible schedule remotely from anywhere in the U.S. with access to high speed internet. We are not able to sponsor visas for this role, and therefore require candidates to have current US work authorization.

• Compensation: The baseline compensation for this role is $70,000 per year.

• Benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including full health, dental, and vision for you and any dependents, plus life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, flexible work hours and location, flexible paid time off, paid parental leave, a generous annual stipend for home office expenses and professional development, and a 401k match of 4% vested immediately. For more details regarding our benefits, visit: aiedu.org/careers

• Start date: We’d like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer, though there is some flexibility.

• Travel: We anticipate the need for occasional travel in this position up to 6x per year for a few days each trip. This is preferred, but not required.

Our initial application deadline is June 2, 2023, at which point we will begin reviewing submissions. We will still accept applications after this deadline, and will keep applications open until the role has been filled; however, applying after the initial deadline may significantly reduce your chances of being hired compared to candidates who are further through the selection process. 

Equal Employment Opportunity

The AI Education Project is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that building and empowering a diverse team is a strategic imperative in our work, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits and termination. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.