Office Operations Manager at the Harvard Square EA Office (Closed)

Effective Ventures Operations (EV Ops) is looking for an Office Operations Manager for a newly established office, and outreach space in Harvard Square (Cambridge MA; Name to be determined), who is passionate about helping others make a positive difference by ensuring their working environment is optimised.

You will spend about 60% of your time supporting a community of 10-20 professionals by  ensuring the office is a place that boosts productivity, enables new ideas and collaborations to arise, and supports people’s long-term wellbeing. 

The other 40% will go toward general support for the community building work happening in the space and Boston more generally, with a heavy focus on assisting with events, most of which will be in the office itself, as well as fostering a positive and welcoming environment in the office space.

The role is initially a 2-year development posting, with the potential for an extension depending on performance and circumstances.

EV Ops aims to provide world-class operational support to organisations that are expected to have an outsized positive impact. We do this by providing the financial, legal, administrative, grantmaking, logistical, and fundraising support that enables many high-impact organisations to grow, including: CEA, 80,000 Hours, the Forethought Foundation, EA Funds, Giving What We Can, the Centre for the Governance of AI, Longview Philanthropy, Asterisk, and Non-trivial.

The project and the role

You will work closely with Harvard EA, MIT EA, independent community builders, and the Head of Property at EV Ops. The role will grow as you develop, but you will start out by focusing on the following key responsibilities:

Office Culture, Policies and Community 

• Work on office guidelines, access rules, and office norms as the office is newly founded
• Ensure the office has a thriving community spirit with positive social norms that facilitate information exchange and collaboration
• Have your finger on the pulse of office users and their areas of interest, initiating connections between visiting guests and relevant professional contacts
• Work with others to ensure social events at the office meet the desired aims and are well executed 
• Coordinate with the Boston EA office community’s leaders and other relevant professional groups for events

Office Management 

You will ensure that the hub is a thriving and productive work environment.

• Manage the allocation of office space to different organisations
• Manage a large number of different contractors (e.g. caterers, facility management, etc.) 
• Make sure the office is well equipped and stocked
• Respond to any requests staff have about the office space
• Tech/IT support (no experience needed, but we value willingness to jump in and try things)
• Evaluate and make purchasing decisions where necessary
• Proactively find ways to optimise systems and identify new services we can offer to make the office an even more productive space for our users

Boston EA Office Programming Support

• Organise office events in collaboration with the community’s leader team
• Work with stakeholder leads to help organise external events and conferences
• Provide operational support as needed to assist programming in the office

The ideal candidate

The ideal candidate will:

• Be extremely organised: You’ll be managing lots of small tasks, sub-projects, and relationships. You’ll need to be organised to stay on top of them.
• Be excited about providing excellent service: You’ll treat staff across the organisations as “valued customers,” who we are supporting by providing an excellent office experience.
• Be a proactive problem solver: You will need to notice when things need to be fixed, and then fix them.
• Have great interpersonal and communication skills: You will need to be confident while communicating with a variety of stakeholders, both verbally and in writing, and serving as a friendly and professional representative for the Boston EA community.
• Enjoy work that demands speed, accuracy, and attention to detail: Operations work is often fast-paced. Mistakes can be costly, so it’s really important for you to pay close attention to details.
• Enjoy both independent and collaborative projects: Many of the day-to-day responsibilities of this role will be carried out independently with minimal direct supervision. You will also need to communicate well with hub users, EV Ops staff, and Boston EA office staff and actively collaborate on a variety of evolving projects.

We prefer, but don’t require:

• Enjoying organising events: The office should be a social space in which people connect. Ideally, you enjoy organising events that facilitate that.

Salary and benefits

This is a full-time role, reporting to Jonathan Michel, Head of Property and is based full-time from the Harvard EA office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Your starting salary range is $85,000 – $100,000, depending on prior experience. There may be flexibility in salary for exceptional candidates with significant experience.

Our benefits reflect our belief in investing in our people to build the strongest possible team. We want everyone to be able to perform at their best as we provide world-class support and maximise our positive impact.

• Prioritised health & wellbeing: We provide private medical, vision and dental insurance, up to 3 weeks’ paid sick leave, and a mental health allowance of £5,000 each year.
• Generous vacation: We provide all team members with 25 days’ holiday each year, plus bank (public) holidays.
• Professional development opportunities: We offer a £5,000 allowance each year and build in opportunities for career growth through on-the-job learning, increasing responsibility, and role progression pathways.
• Parental leave and support: New parents have up to 14 weeks fully-paid leave and up to 52 weeks leave in total. We also provide financial support for child care to help parents balance child care needs.
• Pension and income protection plans: We offer a 10% employer / 0% employee pension or retirement contribution, and income protection insurance.
• Equipment to help your productivity: We will pay for high-quality and ergonomic equipment (laptop, monitors, chair, etc.), in the office or at home if you work remotely.
• Global team retreats: As we are a remote team, we hold in-person staff retreats twice a year to work on our plans and build strong working relationships.

Equivalent benefits are offered in different locations.

Our values

Our work is shaped by our core values:

We’re focused on excellent customer service

• We solve problems for our customers before they’re aware of them
• We proactively seek, and take action on, feedback
• We respond to requests politely, quickly, and helpfully

We’re protective of our attention

• We prioritise effectively, focusing on highest expected value
• We design systems to prevent recurring problems
• We take on new organisations and projects deliberately, and we’re comfortable saying no

We’re ambitious with our impact

• We adapt our systems when the expected value is high
• We carefully consider tradeoffs such as opportunity costs, benefits, and risks
• We take on organisations and projects that will change the world

Apply

We will review applications after the closing date and are looking for someone to start as soon as possible. 

After considering your written application, we may invite you to complete a short trial task followed by further interviews. We’ll invite finalists to provide references and participate in a multi-day paid work trial.

We’re happy to consider applicants from overseas and may consider sponsorship if needed. EV Ops serves a global community, and our team works with people and organisations all over the world. We’re committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, gender minorities, and people of colour who are excited about contributing to our mission. We’re an equal opportunity employer.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact careers@ev.org.