Business Operations Associate / Specialist

The team and role

Our operations team (15 full-time staff) runs HR, recruiting, finance, governance, legal, office management, events and some of our tech systems. We’re planning to grow significantly this year to keep pace with the growth of the organisation.

Your responsibilities may include:

• Planning and delivering events that bring the org together: the annual retreat, lunch-and-learns, office socials, Christmas and summer parties, and occasional external events like networking evenings with people working on AI safety. This would include event design, logistics, venue and vendor work, running things onsite, and collecting feedback to improve each round.
• Taking on specific office projects — for example, AV upgrades in meeting rooms, piloting catered lunches, fitting out a proper podcast studio, or helping the office scale well as the team grows.
• Maintaining and improving our internal comms infrastructure (Slack, Gathertown, virtual events) so information flows cleanly and the org stays aligned as we grow.
• Owning parts of the remote staff experience end-to-end: equipment provisioning, togetherness weeks, virtual events, and ensuring cohesion between remote, hybrid and in-person staff.
• Identifying opportunities to streamline, standardise, and automate — including using AI where helpful — so routine work runs reliably and the team’s time goes to the problems that need judgement.
• Stepping in when other teams at the org hit an ops capacity crunch — e.g. covering for someone on leave, helping a team through a high-pressure project, or taking on complex coordination work they can’t absorb on top of their core work.
• Running ops-heavy work for other teams as a proper service — e.g. producing sub-team retreats or taking over work that multiple teams currently do separately.

We plan to hire people at both the associate and specialist levels during this round. We expect to match candidates to the appropriate level as part of the application process, so you don’t need to decide which one to apply for. To give an idea of how the roles might differ:

• Associates own systems and processes end-to-end, identify improvements within their areas, and take on increasingly complex projects over time.

• Specialists independently lead on more poorly-scoped work, overseeing larger areas of responsibility and making more high-stakes judgment calls.

Over time, there’s room to grow into a more ambitious version of both roles, taking on larger parts of the business operations — for example specialising in a particular area, moving into management, or eventually leading the team. As you do this, you’ll play an increasing role in shaping how we work, making key decisions, and contributing to how the team evolves at 80k.

The role will be managed by Eli, head of business operations.

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for people who are:

• Organised: you’re able to keep track of a large number of tasks at once, rarely drop balls, and follow through on your commitments. Experience managing projects is a bonus, but not essential.
• Detail-oriented: you’re excited about getting into the weeds of our policies and processes, identifying discrepancies, and making sure we don’t miss important details.
• Clear communicators: your communication is straightforward, you demonstrate a high level of reasoning transparency, and you enable others to easily identify the most important aspects of your communications.
• Good at making decisions under uncertainty: you’re able to weigh up tradeoffs between different options and make real-world decisions under uncertainty.
• Flexible: you’re excited about working on a variety of projects and are motivated to do what’s most valuable to push 80,000 Hours’ mission forward.
• Excited about supporting our mission: you’re enthusiastic about getting talented people working on the world’s most pressing problems.

Previous experience

At the associate level, previous experience is not required.

At the specialist level, candidates would ideally have at least two years of previous experience. This doesn’t have to be directly relevant to operations — it might be in another generalist role such as consulting, communications, project management, or community building.

Logistics

This is a full-time role, ideally based in London, UK. We can sponsor UK visas in most cases. We’d also consider remote candidates who can work at least four hours per day between 9 AM–6 PM UK time.

The start date for this role is flexible. Ideally, our chosen candidate would start as soon as possible.

Salary and benefits

The salary will vary based on skills and experience, but to give a rough sense, indicative ranges are £78,091–£100,831 (London), $111,295–$143,704 (Washington DC), $97,008–$125,257 (US remote), and £67,553–£87,224 (other remote).

Our benefits include:

• 25 days of paid holiday, plus public holidays
• Private medical insurance
• Long-term disability insurance
• Pension scheme / retirement plan with employer contributions
• Up to 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave and childcare allowance for children under five
• £5,000 annual mental health support allowance
• £5,000 annual self-development budget
• The option to use 10% of your time for self-development
• Gym, shower facilities, and unlimited free food provided at our London office

How to apply

To apply, please complete this application form by 11 PM BST on June 7, 2026. Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis, so we recommend applying early.

The application process will vary depending on the candidate and role, but is likely to include 1–3 written work tests, an interview, and an in-person multi-day assessment. We offer payment for work tests and trials, conditional on your location and right to work in the UK.

We’re aware that factors like gender, race, and socioeconomic background can affect people’s willingness to apply for roles for which they meet many but not all the suggested attributes, and would especially like to encourage people from under-represented backgrounds to apply, even if you don’t meet all the suggested criteria.