People Operations Manager

Key information

Apply here until Sunday, 19 July 2026.

Role: Full time.

Location: Remote, UK-based. Exceptional US-based candidates may be considered.

Compensation: £74,387 -  £85,918 + 10% unconditional employer pension contribution [For UK]

Ideal start date: As soon as possible.

 

About SAIF 

The Safe AI Forum (SAIF) is a US 501(c)3 dedicated to advancing international cooperation to reduce extreme AI risks and ensuring the benefits of AI are shared by all. We specialise in international AI governance—fostering coordination, cooperation, and communication between states and non-state actors across the most important AI jurisdictions.

Our work focuses on building a trans-Pacific ecosystem of high-trust dialogue on extreme risk and international coordination, identifying the most important and tractable international governance interventions through research, and providing advisory services to key stakeholders. Our flagship programme (the International Dialogue on AI Safety) brings together senior computer scientists and AI governance experts from multiple jurisdictions to collaborate on AI risk, and we also run workshops and working groups.

We're a team of 12 based across the UK and North America. We're impact-focused and move quickly, balancing rigour with speed and taking genuine ownership of outcomes. Our culture is warm and collaborative. People make time for each other and assume good intentions, even while working at pace on high-stakes problems.

 

About the role

Help strengthen the operational foundation for global coordination on frontier AI risk

We're hiring a People Operations Manager to take ownership of People Operations as SAIF scales to 20+ people, alongside providing embedded operational support to our staff. You'll work directly with our Head of Operations, Harsimrandeep Malhi, and have significant scope to shape how SAIF develops as a workplace.

This is a high-leverage role. Over the next 12 months SAIF will hire 7–10 new staff, launch and expand programmes, and grow our impact substantially. We need someone who can build hiring infrastructure that scales, design people systems that hold up at twice our current size, and support our staff's day-to-day operational needs so they can focus on the work that matters.

The role combines steady, recurring responsibilities (primarily in People Operations) with embedded support to our wider team. If you enjoy scaling and optimising structures, working closely with mission-driven people, and seeing your work directly translate into team effectiveness, you may thrive in this role. As SAIF scales, this role is positioned to grow in seniority and responsibility, with opportunities to shape strategic direction on people and culture as the organisation matures.

 

What you'll do

The responsibilities below reflect our current best estimate:

• People Operations [~50% of time]
  • Lead end-to-end hiring: Own planning, sourcing strategy, talent pool management, candidate experience, and process improvement across multiple concurrent hiring rounds. Partner with hiring managers on role design, scorecards, and interview structure.
  • Own onboarding and offboarding: Design and run programmes that get new hires productive quickly and ensure clean exits. Build infrastructure that scales as we grow.
  • Manage People Operations infrastructure: Oversee EOR/PEO coordination, payroll oversight, benefits administration, leave tracking, and contractor administration. Ensure compliance with multi-jurisdiction employment requirements.
  • Support People Development: Support designing of career ladders, IC growth paths, performance review frameworks, managerial support, and internal mobility infrastructure.
  • Coordinate visa and immigration support: Work with external vendors on appropriate visa pathways for existing staff and new hires.
  • Champion team culture: Design and maintain the cultural infrastructure (team rituals, social cadence, recognition practices, etc) that keeps the team connected as we grow.
  • Maintain People Ops documentation: Employee handbook, hiring SOPs, compensation framework, policies. Keep them current, used, and useful.
• Staff Operations Support [~25% of time]
  • Day-to-day operational support: Be a responsive point of contact for the wider team on operational questions and tasks, removing operational friction so people can focus on their work.
  • Maintain & improve internal tooling and systems: Identify and implement tools and processes that meaningfully improve team workflows, and help keep our internal tools and systems reliable and useful.
  • Create and maintain operational documentation: Develop, update, and communicate clear and useful SOPs, guides, and workflow documentation that reduce organisational entropy.
  • Drive process improvement: Identify inefficiencies, suggest changes, and help implement improvements to how we operate day-to-day.
• Operational Buffer [~25% of time, decreasing over time]

This portion of the role reflects SAIF’s current need for additional buffer capacity to handle emergent operational work. Over time, as SAIF scales, we expect this share to decrease and full attention to shift toward People Operations and Staff Operations Support.

• • Support strategic initiatives: Assist with special projects, event coordination, and other operational needs as they arise.
  • Buffer for emergent work: Provide buffer capacity for the unplanned operations work surge moments.

 

About you

There is no single background that predicts success in this role. We strongly encourage applications from candidates who don't tick every box. If you are excited about this role and think you would be great at it, we want to hear from you, even if your background doesn't perfectly match our list. 

We care most about judgment, reliability, demonstrated learning agility, and commitment to the mission. We expect strong candidates will resonate with several of the following:

Essential requirements

• Relevant professional experience: Typically (though not exclusively) 2–4+ years in operations, talent, consulting, or related generalist role.
• Strong people operations instincts: You've owned at least part of a hiring process end-to-end, designed or substantially improved an onboarding programme, or run performance review cycles.
• Builder mindset:  You work from first principles and create scalable structures rather than just executing on what's been built before.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail: You catch the typos others miss, track many threads simultaneously, and build systems that prevent things from falling through the cracks.
• Great communication: You communicate with clarity, context, and reasoning transparency across all levels.
• Ownership and judgment: You own outcomes, not just tasks. You exercise judgment in ambiguous situations and escalate when appropriate.
• Service orientation: You genuinely enjoy enabling others' success and find satisfaction in behind-the-scenes work that amplifies team impact.

Strong preferences

• Multi-jurisdiction experience: You've worked with employees or contractors across US, UK, or other jurisdictions, and understand the compliance considerations.
• People Development or L&D background: Career frameworks, performance systems, learning programmes, or related work.
• Mission alignment: You're genuinely motivated by reducing AI risks and supporting global coordination.

Nice-to-have

• Familiarity with the AI safety and/or global catastrophic risks ecosystem
• Experience with nonprofit administration (US 501(c)(3), UK CIO, or similar)
• Comfort with HR-tech tools (Deel, Greenhouse/Ashby, similar)

Why you might be excited about this role

• You want to meaningfully reduce catastrophic AI risks.
• You enjoy building and scaling structures and systems.
• You find satisfaction in increasing organisational effectiveness.
• You like learning new skills and solving a wide variety of problems.
• You want to be part of an agentic team where your work directly shapes organisational capacity.

Why this role might not be for you

• You prefer highly specialised, narrowly scoped work.
• You want a very large team with lots of existing processes.
• You find context-switching frustrating rather than energising.
• You want work that is primarily technical or research-focused

We’re trying to be transparent about what the work is actually like.

Other details 

Start date: We expect to make an offer as soon as we find the right match, with a preferred start date as soon as possible. We understand that some candidates may need longer to exit existing commitments. If this timeline doesn’t work for you, please err on the side of applying anyway and let us know in your application in case we can make alternate arrangements.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health insurance
• Equipment and wellness budget
• Professional development support
• Pension contributions (location-dependent)
• In-person team building events

Working arrangements:

• Fully remote position with flexibility on working hours, in-person London office available if desired
• Some meaningful overlap with EST time zone for collaboration
• International travel required for team events and conferences (~4-6 times per year)

Diversity:

• We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who share our mission. We are committed to creating an environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their race, religion, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation.

Requests for accommodation:

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

Application process

To apply, please fill in this application form by 11:59 PM local time on Sunday, 19 July 2026. 

Early applications are encouraged as we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis. The application process will vary depending on the candidate profile, but is likely to include written work and interview components, and potentially a work trial. We offer payment for work samples and trials, conditional on your location.

If you have questions about this role, please contact careers@saif.org.

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