Business Operations Manager at Goodfire in San Francisco, CA

About Goodfire

Goodfire is a research company using interpretability to understand, learn from, and design AI systems. Our mission is to build the next generation of safe and powerful AI—not by scaling alone, but by understanding the intelligence we're building.

Scaling has proven powerful, but today's approach is fundamentally limited: we can't meaningfully understand, debug, or shape what models learn. Every engineering discipline has been gated by fundamental science and AI is at that inflection point now.

We're advancing the science of how AI systems actually work. Treating models as black boxes is an unnecessary handicap—we have access to the structures inside them, and understanding those structures lets us steer what models learn, make them safer and more useful, and extract the vast knowledge they contain. Our goal is to make AI that can be understood, debugged, and shaped like software.

Goodfire is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a team of the world’s top interpretability researchers and engineers from organizations like OpenAI and DeepMind. We're backed by over $200M from B Capital, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed, Eric Schmidt, and others.

About the role

We’re hiring a Business Operations Manager to own the operational machinery at Goodfire. This is a hands-on role where you will be expected to own any operational problem from 0 to 1. You’ll need a strong technical background to deeply immerse yourself in our business and the generalist adaptability to pick up anything and turn it into a solved problem. If you don’t have direct expertise in machine learning or interpretability you’ll be expected to develop a working understanding quickly.

Your work will split between recurring tasks that keep the business running (customer contracts, recruiting initiatives, immigration logistics, and vendor negotiation) and strategic projects that push the company forward. You will ensure there is near-zero administrative overhead for the broader team, even if this requires thankless hours of invisible work on your end. You’ll be staffed against whatever matters most and be expected to deliver.

Who you are

• An experienced operator who’s been through rapid scaling before. You know what breaks when companies grow fast and how to pre-empt issues.
• Detail-oriented and fast-paced. You can move extremely quickly without letting anything slip.
• Exceptional communication and organizational skills. You can translate between technical and non-technical teams effortlessly.

What you’ll bring

Required experience

• 4-6+ years of experience in operations, business operations, or a generalist role at an early-stage startup.
• Technical background strongly preferred. CS degree, engineering experience, or demonstrated fluency from working in technical environments.

Our values

Goodfire is looking for individuals who embody our values and share our deep commitment to making interpretability accessible. We are building a team first and foremost.

Put mission and team first

All we do is in service of our mission. We trust each other, deeply care about the success of the organization, and choose to put our team above ourselves.

Improve constantly

We are constantly looking to improve every piece of the business. We proactively critique ourselves and others in a kind and thoughtful way that translates to practical improvements in the organization. We are pragmatic and consistently implement the obvious fixes that work.

Take ownership and initiative

There are no bystanders here. We proactively identify problems and take full responsibility over getting a strong result. We are self-driven, own our mistakes, and feel deep responsibility over what we’re building.

Action today

We have a small amount of time to do something incredibly hard and meaningful. The pace and intensity of the organization is high. If we can take action today or tomorrow, we will choose to do it today.

Where we work

We are hiring for this position in our San Francisco HQ. We are in person 5 days a week, with one company-wide remote week per month.

What we offer

This role offers market competitive salary, equity, and competitive benefits. The expected salary range for this position is $175,000 - $300,000 USD

Most importantly, you'll have the opportunity to join a vital mission at an important point in its trajectory — we are developing groundbreaking technology with a world-class team on the critical path to ensuring a safe and beneficial future for humanity. If you want to do your life’s work with us, even if you believe you do not meet every single requirement, apply now.