Operations Associate in London

Type: Full-Time

Location: Westminster, London (expectation of working from our office 2-3 days a week)

Salary: c. £55,000 depending on experience

Start date: ASAP

About CLTR

The Centre for Long-Term Resilience (CLTR) is a UK-based, non-profit and independent think tank with a mission to transform global resilience to extreme AI and biological risks. We achieve this by working with governments and institutions, offering targeted, evidence-based advice designed to enhance understanding, decision-making and governance.

Your Role

Operations Associates play a pivotal role at CLTR, supporting the effective operations of our growing policy units. We are hiring two new staff in this position, one to support our AI Policy Unit and one to support our Biosecurity Policy Unit. Embedded within either our AI or Biosecurity unit, your role will be to provide a flexible range of operational, administrative and project support. This includes:

• Administrative responsibilities such as organising meetings, managing team calendars, and providing executive assistance support to unit Directors.
• Substantive project management support to ongoing policy projects, fundraising proposals, and other responsibilities as determined by the priorities of the unit.

These roles also offer the opportunity to develop skills supporting grant writing and other fundraising activities. Although the roles are embedded within their respective policy units, they collaborate regularly with our central Operations unit, and have scope to contribute to operational projects supporting CLTR’s organisational development. This is a hands-on, generalist role suited to individuals looking to develop skills and experience in project management and operations within a thriving non-profit, focused on some of the most pressing issues of our time. With touch points into multiple parts of the organisation, the role offers fantastic exposure to different areas of work in a growing think tank.

What you’ll do:

• Operations support and administration:
• Coordinate team meetings, events and travel logistics.
• Support policy team members in preparing presentations and other written outputs, e.g. website copy.
• Coordinate team publication pipeline and related processes, e.g. liaising with copy editors and designers.
• Coordinating management of contractors supporting policy unit work.
• Support coordination of stakeholder engagement by team members, including upkeep of CRM systems.
• Oversee the team calendar and coordinate planning of team-level activities, supporting the unit Director and Delivery Manager.
• Ensure clear processes are in place at unit level for filing key documents, knowledge management, and other information security related procedures.
• Support onboarding processes for new team members, in coordination with People Operations.
• Support budget tracking and follow up of invoices and expenses at unit level.
• Project coordination:
• Coordinate tracking of multiple unit projects and ensure progress updates are shared in a streamlined way.
• Coordinate activity and impact logging across unit members, in collaboration with the unit Delivery Manager.
• Provide flexible support to project activities as requested, including background research or other project management back stopping.
• Grant writing and fundraising:
• Support in the coordination of input to grant proposals from policy unit staff, in close partnership with the Fundraising unit.
• Contribute directly to grant writing, with appropriate support.
• Contribute to ensuring consistent language and references across funding proposals within the unit, drawing on past project performance and project trackers.
• Executive assistance:
• Support the unit Director with email and diary management.
• Act as a reliable “gatekeeper” for the unit Director’s time, and contribute to strategic decisions around time management (external invites, internal priorities, focus time etc).
• Provide travel booking and logistical support to the unit Director.

Please note this is not an exhaustive list, and you will be expected to carry out other tasks as reasonably required by your line manager.

Person Specification

Essential:

• Demonstrable experience in an operations, administrative or project management role.
• Project coordination skills, with the ability to coordinate work across multiple workstreams simultaneously and deliver to deadlines.
• A genuine passion for administration and operations, and in particular for identifying efficiencies and making systems work for people.
• Exceptional attention to detail, especially for coordinating complex calendars and travel logistics, preparing written documents and website content.
• Experience using tools like Google Slides, Canva or Powerpoint to prepare clear, professional briefing materials and presentations.
• Ability to produce clear written content for different audiences, e.g. funding proposals, website copy.
• The ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality and discretion at all times, including comfort with information-security protocols and sensitive document handling.
• High agency, flexibility and a proactive, ownership-driven approach — you follow through on commitments, adapt quickly, and don’t wait to be told what needs doing.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, able to communicate clearly, kindly and directly — giving and receiving feedback openly, and building strong relationships across teams and with external partners.
• A genuine commitment to CLTR’s mission and an understanding that getting the operations right is what enables high-impact work to land.
• Eligible to live and work in the UK. Unfortunately we are unable to sponsor visas for this role.

Desirable:

• Experience working in a not-for-profit, think tank, research organisation, or similarly mission-driven environment.
• Experience working as an executive assistant.
• Experience working within either the AI safety or biosecurity policy ecosystem.
• Knowledge of project management methodologies such as PRINCE2 or Agile.

This role might not be right for you if you’re looking for a role with significant strategic or line-management scope. This is a hands-on coordination role with growth potential. It also isn’t a stepping stone into policy research; we’re looking for someone genuinely energised by operational excellence and developing a career trajectory within operations and / or project management.

Location and Travel Requirements

Flexible location within the UK, with the expectation of attending our central London office at least two times a week, including Mondays. We are open to discussing remote and flexible working arrangements with candidates.

Salary and Benefits

c.£55,000, depending on experience. If you are interested in this position, but the salary is a barrier to applying, please get in touch with our team to discuss. In addition to your salary, CLTR offers a generous benefits package which includes:

• 30 days annual leave, plus public holidays;
• £5,000 (before tax) annual wellbeing budget, for you to spend at your discretion on items such as gym membership, therapy, meditation, etc.;
• £3,000 annual learning and development budget, plus up to five days paid work time;
• £2,000 onboarding grant for equipment and supplies;
• A pension contribution scheme (up to 7% employer-matched contribution);
• Private health insurance;
• Group life insurance;
• Generous parental leave benefits;
• Paid office lunches twice a week including on Mondays.

Working with CLTR also comes with a commitment to caring deeply about your wellbeing, career development and overall experience working with our team, and to respect your preferred working patterns, including flexible working hours as agreed with line managers, wherever possible.

Application Process

To apply for this role, please submit your CV and a cover letter via this link by 0900 BST on 1st July. Please use your cover letter to outline how you meet the person specification above. We plan to conduct first round interviews with selected candidates on 15th, 16th and 17th July. First round interviews will be held remotely. Final interviews will be held on 23rd and 24th July in person at CLTR’s office in London. If you have any questions regarding the process or dates above, please contact us.

Equal opportunities

As an employer we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply and do not discriminate based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We also warmly welcome applicants returning to work after career breaks. We know that our organisation is strengthened by the rich variety of perspectives that a truly diverse workforce brings. We want to make sure that our selection processes are as fair as they can possibly be, providing a level playing field for anyone who wants to come and work at CLTR. Therefore, if you have any special access requirements or other support needs throughout the application process, including interview, please contact us so we can talk through any adjustments you need in complete confidence, and make arrangements on your behalf. Adjustments can be whatever you need them to be, whether that’s around accessibility, preparation time and space, or just travel expenses to get you to an interview. Let us know what you need, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure you’re getting a fair opportunity to succeed.