---
title: 'Research Operations Manager at Basis Research Institute'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-operations-manager-basis-research-institute-new-york-95tarn9pj8tz'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Research Operations Manager at Basis Research Institute

- **Company:** Basis Research Institute
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-08-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/basis-research/51c9b501-5139-42af-8558-79b39ea83421

## Job description

## About Basis

[Basis](https://www.basis.ai) 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

Research operations at Basis is the work of building an institution capable of sustained, ambitious inquiry. The quality and impact of research depends to a great extent on the organization in which it happens: how research teams are formed, how collaboration is structured, how resources and spaces are organized, and how the institution responds to uncertainty and new ideas. The Research Operations Manager will own and improve the core systems through which Basis’ research organization functions, across people, recruiting, labs and workplaces, research gatherings, grants, and administration. We are looking for someone who treats operations as a serious craft: someone who enjoys creating coherent structures around exploratory work, making sound decisions, and using thoughtful process design, tools, and automation to translate organizational principles into practices that accelerate our work. This is a broad and hands-on role, requiring both rigorous execution and thoughtful institutional design. You will work closely with the COO and assume independent ownership of major operational domains, identifying problems, weighing tradeoffs, establishing standards, and remaining accountable for outcomes.

We expect you to:

- Have demonstrated the ability to own important operational domains and run them reliably over time.
- Exercise sound judgment and operate with a high degree of autonomy, including under uncertainty.
- Take the details of execution seriously. You close loops, maintain systems, and follow work through to completion without repeated reminders.
- Enjoy operations as a craft, including both the design of new systems and the recurring work required to make them function.
- Be comfortable in a technical research environment. You do not need to be a scientist, but you should be intellectually curious, able to engage with experts, and interested in how research organizations work.
- Communicate clearly and handle personnel, candidate, grant, and organizational information with discretion.
- Be excited about force-multiplying impact. Much of this work is not externally visible, but it is what allows Basis to solve intractable problems at scales we couldn't otherwise reach.

In addition, the following would be an advantage:

- Experience in a research institute, laboratory, scientific or deep-tech organization, or other highly technical environment.
- Experience across several areas of operations, such as People, recruiting, facilities, events, grants, or organizational administration.
- Experience developing policies or operating systems for a growing or changing organization.
- Comfort and experience managing external parters such as facilities providers, university administrators, legal counsel, landlords, and vendors.

Responsibilities:

- Work with the COO and leadership team to develop the operations function as Basis grows.
- Own and improve core systems such as People operations, recruiting and hiring, and project management.
- Implement automations and integrations that reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and allow operational systems to scale. Work with technical colleagues when a problem requires custom tooling or deeper engineering.
- Own the operation of Basis’ offices and labs, including workplace planning, access, supplies, facilities issues, and landlord and vendor relationships. Coordinate workplace needs across our New York and Cambridge locations.
- Design and execute research gatherings, multi-day meetings, the annual retreat, visiting-researcher logistics, and other forms of in-person collaboration.
- Contribute to the operational aspects of grant and contract preparation and administration.
- Maintain and improve the tools, documentation, calendars, and operating processes on which the organization depends.
- Identify recurring organizational problems, determine their underlying causes, and develop solutions.
- Contribute to the culture and direction of Basis through the policies, systems, and organizational practices you build.

## Role Details

Exceptional candidates who may not meet all of the following criteria are still encouraged to apply.

- FT/PT: Full-time.
- In-person Policy: We are in the office four days a week. Be prepared to attend multi-day Basis-wide in-person events.
- Location: New York City.
- Salary range: Competitive salary.

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.

Privacy Notice By submitting your application, you grant Basis permission to use your materials for both hiring evaluation and recruitment-related research and development purposes. Your information may be processed in different countries, including the US. You retain copyright while providing Basis a license to use these materials for the stated purposes. Read our full Global Data Privacy Notice [here](https://www.basis.ai/join-us/privacy-notice/).

## About Basis Research Institute

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Basis Research Institute is a nonprofit applied research organization advancing artificial intelligence through probabilistic modeling and causal inference to solve society's most intractable problems, building open-source software that draws inspiration from human reasoning.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Nonprofit 501(c)(3) Research Institute)
- **Headquarters**: New York City, New York, USA (with additional office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Zenna Tavares, Emily Mackevicius, and Eli Bingham

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Artificial Intelligence Research & Development
- **Target customers**: Municipal governments (via consulting), academic collaborators, for-profit companies (via contract work), and the broader open-source AI community
- **Mission**: Two mutually reinforcing goals: (1) advance basic scientific research in artificial intelligence to understand and build intelligence, and (2) help solve society’s intractable problems by expanding the scale, complexity, and breadth of problems that can be solved

## Products & Services
- **Core Technology Development**: Advanced probabilistic modeling and causal inference frameworks implemented as open-source software, including causal probabilistic programming languages
- **Applied Challenge Projects**:
  - **AI-Driven Robot Design**: Using AI to automate and accelerate robot design and control
  - **Dynamical Modeling for Biological Systems**: Modeling complex biological processes (e.g., neuroscience, cellular dynamics)
  - **Participatory City Modeling**: Consulting with municipal governments to model urban systems and support data-driven policy decisions
  - **Modeling, Abstraction, and Reasoning Agent (MARA)**: A research project focused on building AI agents capable of abstract reasoning and world modeling
- **Postdoctoral Fellowship Program**: A fellowship for early-career scientists to direct their own research within Basis’s mission
- **Open-Source Software Releases**: Publishing research tools and libraries for the broader AI community

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not applicable (nonprofit research organization)
- **Key Metric**: Funded through a combination of research grants, private philanthropy, and contract work with partners; specific funding amounts are not publicly disclosed
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Supported by an advisory board including Armando Solar-Lezama (MIT), Joshua Tenenbaum (MIT), Kevin Ellis (Cornell), Anthony Philippakis (Broad Institute), and Rui Costa (Columbia University). Collaborates with academic institutions (MIT, Columbia, Cornell, NYU) and municipal governments
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount has grown 41.7% year-over-year (LinkedIn data); active job postings increased 107.1% year-over-year; expanding into London with a GTM Lead role; 29 active job openings as of mid-2026

## Competitive Advantages
- **Nonprofit Structure**: Unlike for-profit AI labs, Basis is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, enabling it to prioritize open-source, public-good research over commercial outcomes
- **Unique Research Cycle**: A structured cycle between core technology development and applied challenge projects, where insights from real-world problems feed back into foundational research
- **Interdisciplinary Approach**: Combines insights from cognitive science (human reasoning), computer science (probabilistic programming), and domain expertise (biology, urban planning, robotics)
- **High-Profile Advisory Board**: Advisors from leading institutions (MIT, Cornell, Broad Institute, Columbia) provide deep academic and scientific credibility
- **Open-Source Commitment**: All software is released as open-source, building community trust and enabling broad adoption

## Strategic Focus
- **Core AI Foundations**: Advancing probabilistic modeling, causal inference, program synthesis, neuro-symbolic methods, reinforcement learning, and world models
- **Challenge-Driven Research**: Using applied projects (robotics, biology, city modeling) to identify shared bottlenecks that guide further methodological research
- **Collaborative Expansion**: Actively seeking partnerships with academia, government, social sector, and industry to tackle high-impact problems
- **Geographic Growth**: Opening presence in London (UK/EU GTM) and expanding roles in Ithaca, NY, while maintaining NYC and Cambridge hubs
- **Open-Source Ecosystem**: Building durable foundations that enable other researchers and practitioners to build upon Basis’s work

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Culture**: Employees work on problems that matter beyond publications, with impact on AI science and real-world societal challenges
- **Autonomy and Growth**: Organizational structure allows employees to see their autonomy and responsibilities grow with their projects, distinct from traditional career ladders
- **Collaborative Environment**: Work alongside researchers from top institutions (MIT, Columbia, Cornell) and domain experts from academia, government, and industry
- **Open-Source Impact**: Ship high-quality open-source software used by thousands, contributing to the broader AI community
- **Locations**: Offices in NYC (primary) and Cambridge, MA, with remote flexibility for some roles; London expansion underway
- **Notable Perks**: Postdoctoral fellowships available for early-career scientists; focus on human values and collaborative organization
- **Engineering Culture**: Emphasis on building durable foundations, shipping production-quality code, and working at the intersection of research and engineering

## Sources
1. [basis.ai/about](https://www.basis.ai/about/)
2. [basis.ai](https://www.basis.ai/)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/basis-research](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/basis-research)
4. [basis.ai/join-us](https://www.basis.ai/join-us/)
5. [LinkedIn - Basis Research Institute](https://www.linkedin.com/company/basis-ri)

## Other roles at Basis Research Institute

- [GTM Lead, UK/EU & US](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-lead-uk-eu-us-basis-research-institute-london-b9sq0m016y20) — London, United Kingdom
- [Hardware Systems & Lab Engineer, Robotics & Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-systems-lab-engineer-robotics-operations-basis-research-institute-new-g6a4cmtj6jzd) — New York, NY
- [Data Engineer, Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-platform-basis-research-institute-new-york-z7jf6pnk7yr3) — New York, NY
- [ML Systems Engineer, Infrastructure & Cloud](https://feeny.ai/job/ml-systems-engineer-infrastructure-cloud-basis-research-institute-new-york-fmkf7rgb6w6r) — New York, NY
- [Research Engineer, Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-operations-basis-research-institute-new-york-55vvr38p29sn) — New York, NY
- [Research Engineer, Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-platform-basis-research-institute-new-york-3sep3r6cksy6) — New York, NY
- [Research Scientist, Program Synthesis & Neuro-symbolic Methods](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-program-synthesis-neuro-symbolic-methods-basis-research-yw82mzv4975d) — New York, NY
- [Research Scientist, Reinforcement Learning](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-reinforcement-learning-basis-research-institute-new-york-gprjb8ja06q7) — New York, NY
- [Research Scientist, World Models](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-world-models-basis-research-institute-new-york-xwd9d07xy13d) — New York, NY
- [Postdoctoral Fellow, Open Call](https://feeny.ai/job/postdoctoral-fellow-open-call-basis-research-institute-new-york-gpaxsvg2kqhc) — New York, NY