Business Operations Associate

About Basis

Basis is a nonprofit applied AI research organization with two mutually reinforcing goals.

The first is to understand and build intelligence. This means to establish the mathematical principles of what it means to reason, to learn, to make decisions, to understand, and to explain; and to construct software that implements these principles.

The second is to advance society’s ability to solve intractable problems. This means expanding the scale, complexity, and breadth of problems that we can solve today, and even more importantly, accelerating our ability to solve problems in the future.

To achieve these goals, we’re building both a new technological foundation that draws inspiration from how humans reason, and a new kind of collaborative organization that puts human values first.

About the Role

The objective of this role is to turn interest in Basis into signed, funded partnerships: more of them, closed faster, with nothing lost along the way.

Basis works with partners, customers, funders and investors on research collaborations, pilots and longer-term contracts. The founders and project leads own those relationships. The Business Operations Associate has three primary responsibilities:

• Operate the deal pipeline. Keep every partnership, contract, gift and investor conversation in one CRM, each with an owner and a next step. Schedule the meetings, send the follow-ups, take contracts from first draft to signature, and prepare the weekly review of where things stand and what needs a decision.
• Scale Basis's business opportunities. Start more of the right conversations, sooner: research prospective partners and funders, keep inbound interest warm, and prepare the founders for events and introductions.
• Scale the business operations infrastructure. Build the CRM, templates, automations and reporting that let a small team handle many deals, using AI tools wherever they help.

Each deal will have one person responsible for what happens next, and often that person will be you. It is an early point in the life of Basis, and the systems you set up now will be the ones we scale with.

We expect you to

• Finish what you start. Nothing you own goes quiet, and nobody has to remind you.
• Have a record of noticing what needed doing, or a better way to do it, and doing it without being asked. We will ask for examples.
• Keep records accurate. You have run a CRM or similar tool (HubSpot, Attio, Salesforce or equivalent) and kept it correct for the people who depend on it. A missed follow-up or a wrong number in a contract is a real problem, and you treat it as one.
• Write clearly and quickly: follow-up emails, meeting notes, short briefings.
• Keep commercial, funder and investor information confidential.
• Be comfortable among researchers and engineers. You do not need to be a scientist, but you should be curious about the work.

In addition, the following would be an advantage

• Business operations, deal desk, sales operations or partnerships experience at a startup, research institute or deep-tech company.
• Experience with both commercial deals and philanthropic or investor relationships.
• Small automations you have built around a CRM, contract flow or inbox.

Role Details

• FT/PT: Part-time or contract preferred, about 20 hours per week; open to full-time.
• In-person Policy: In the New York office at least two days a week; four days a week if full-time.
• Location: New York City.
• Reports to: Head of business development.
• Compensation: $50–$70 per hour, depending on experience. Full-time equivalent $100,000–$145,000.
• Hiring process: A short practical task, a conversation with the hiring manager, then interviews with the people you would work with.

Not sure you meet every detail? Whether it's qualifications, work pattern, or location, exceptional candidates who don't check every box above are still encouraged to apply.

Non-Discrimination Notice

Basis Research Institute provides equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or genetics and prohibits discrimination based on all protected characteristics.

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