Hiring: Head of Operations, Youth AI Safety Institute Company: Common Sense Media Location: San Francisco, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-10 10:24:32 Employment Type: Full-time About the job Experience: •15 years of professional experience in senior operations, strategy, legal affairs, or institutional leadership, with at least five years at a level overseeing teams and cross-organizational relationships. Required Skills: •The Head of Operations will oversee the Operations team, and will serve as the primary representative of the Institute with Common Sense Media's executive leadership, legal, finance, development, and product and engineering teams. •Institute Operations Leadership •Serve as the operational anchor for the Institute's leadership team, ensuring that the research, standards, evaluations, and public engagement functions have what they need to move with speed, quality, and integrity. •Identify and resolve operational risks—legal, ethical, logistical, or reputational—before they become problems, and develop clear escalation protocols for those that require Executive Director or Board attention. •Build and continually improve the Institute's operating model: organizational processes, cross-functional workflows, decision-making frameworks, and accountability systems. •Oversee the Operations team in setting direction, removing blockers, and ensuring coordination across the cross-org functions. •Hold ultimate responsibility for the Institute's governance infrastructure, ensuring that charters, policies, conflict-of-interest procedures, independence safeguards, and decision-making firewalls are in place, enforced, and publicly defensible. •Oversee funder compliance across philanthropic and industry relationships, ensuring that grant obligations, reporting requirements, and restricted-use conditions are met with rigor and documentation for the development team. Qualifications: •10–15 years of professional experience in senior operations, strategy, legal affairs, or institutional leadership, with at least five years at a level overseeing teams and cross-organizational relationships. •Demonstrated experience operating at the intersection of strategy and execution in a mission-driven, research, or standards-setting context. •Track record of building and managing complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships, including negotiating and structuring significant contracts and agreements. •Legal training or equivalent experience working closely with legal counsel on governance design, contract review, and compliance frameworks. •Exceptional judgment: able to identify risk early, make sound decisions under uncertainty, and know when to escalate. •Senior-level written and verbal communication skills; able to represent the Institute credibly in high-stakes conversations with funders, government officials, international partners, and industry leaders. •Background in international organizations, global multi-stakeholder initiatives, or cross-jurisdictional policy work. •Operational familiarity with standards-setting bodies, benchmarking organizations, or independent research institutes. Compensation: •$176,000 - $209,000 / year •Competitive benefits and rewards package Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!