Chief Operating Officer - Legal in London

We are hiring a COO (total comp. $220K-330K) to rapidly scale Longview’s team and operations. Longview Philanthropy advises major donors and makes grants in AI safety and nuclear weapons policy. Our mission is to help the world navigate extreme risk and unlock an excellent future. We directed over $75 million to high-impact organizations in 2025, and expect 2026 will be substantially bigger. We’re ~35 people and plan to significantly grow Longview’s team in 2027 and beyond. Scaling this fast without breaking the organization and losing agility and nimbleness is hard.

We want someone who can:

• Scale and manage the leads of critical functions to keep pace with our growth, including People Operations, Business Operations, Finance, Talent, and Grants Management.
• Set up and manage the leads of new functions that go beyond traditional scopes, such as a finance function that also invests funds and a recruiting function that also headhunts founders for seed-stage grantees.

You’re likely a good fit if you’ve scaled an organization before, ideally more than once, and are confident you can repeat that success here. We want to hire people motivated by our mission, but you don’t need a background in AI safety or philanthropy; we expect many strong candidates will come from fast-scaling startups and tech companies.

Location: We prefer candidates who can work in person at one of our offices in Berkeley, Washington DC, New York, or London. We are able to sponsor visas in the US and UK.

Start date: ASAP, to be determined together with the successful applicant.

Deadline: Applications close EOD anywhere, Sunday 6 September 2026. We’ll be reviewing applications on a rolling basis.

Compensation: Director of Operations: $165K–264K+ COO: $220K–330K+. These are total compensation figures. They include both a base salary and a 10% unconditional pension / 401(k) contribution. See below for Longview's benefits, which include health insurance, a professional development budget, a well-being budget, and 36 vacation days per year.

Application process: We plan to run a thorough but quick process comprising an application form, a paid strategy work task, interviews with leadership and direct reports, reference checks, and a paid two-day in-person work trial. We'll tailor the process for individual candidates.

Responsibilities

• Help Longview double in size.
• Design and execute the operations and hiring strategy to double Longview’s headcount, deciding which functions to build out and when, in partnership with the Office of the CEO and the leadership team.
• Own the operations org chart and hiring decisions while maintaining a high bar for excellence and fit.
• Build productive, high-trust relationships between operations and every other department.
• Stay on top of regulatory requirements across the jurisdictions we operate in and keep every function you lead compliant.
• Manage and develop the People Operations, Business Operations, Finance, Talent, and Grants Management leads.
• Be a culture carrier and set the standard for how operations works.
• Set up new ops functions that go beyond traditional scopes.
• Build and manage a finance function to cover both internal finance and investing the capital we hold.
• Build and manage a recruiting function that can grow Longview to the size we need.
• Build simple, robust systems for planning and decision-making that can scale.
• Streamline, standardize, and automate routine operational work.
• Run operations as a service to the rest of Longview.

We’re open to tailoring the role for excellent candidates.

Ideal Candidate

• Someone who has led operations through rapid scaling before.
• Scaled operations at a fast-growing organization.
• Managed managers during periods of high organizational growth.
• Been responsible for at least three operational functions.

Critical abilities

• Great taste for process.
• Moves fast and prioritizes effectively under pressure.
• Excited about coaching and developing people.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and tackling novel problems.

Communication and collaboration

• Exceptionally clear written and verbal communicator.
• Confident pushing back on colleagues.
• Proactively gives regular, candid, direct feedback.

Motivation and fit

• Motivated by Longview’s mission.
• Kind and conscientious.
• Energized by fast-paced, lean environments.

Other nice-to-haves (not required)

• Direct hands-on experience with grants management.
• Prior exposure to AI safety or philanthropy.

If you’re on the fence because you’re not sure you meet every qualification, we still strongly encourage you to apply.

About Longview Philanthropy

Longview Philanthropy was founded in 2018 to advise major donors on reducing extreme risks; our mission is to help the world navigate extreme risk and unlock an excellent future. Longview has four departments: operations, donor advising, AI grantmaking, and nuclear grantmaking. We are a collaborative, dedicated, and positive team.

Longview is an equal opportunity employer. We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who share our passion and believe in our mission.

Longview Benefits

• 100% employer-paid private health insurance with UHC.
• 25 days vacation, plus 8 public holidays, plus an additional 3 days off over the winter break.
• 4 months fully paid family leave.
• $3,000 annual professional development budget.
• Well-being budget for gym memberships and fitness classes up to $200 per month.