Redwood Research

About Redwood Research At Redwood Research, we strive to ensure the safe development of artificial intelligence through rigorous technical research, thoughtful analysis, and strategic advising. About the role Redwood Research is hiring our first dedicated People Operations Lead to join our Operations team. You'll own and shape the core of our people function: onboarding and offboarding, our HRIS, payroll and benefits, compliance and immigration cases. Most of our staff are researchers, and a big part of this job is keeping their HR and admin experience simple so they can focus on research. As our first People Ops hire, you'll be actively building and shaping People Operations at our growing organization. This role is a good fit for a highly proactive person with solid People Ops experience who likes designing and improving processes. Key responsibilities People Operations Overall, you will create, maintain, and improve processes, while finding and closing any potential gaps or inefficiencies. Own and improve onboarding and offboarding. Manage our HRIS (Rippling), including integrations, automations, and data integrity. Lead payroll and benefits administration, including workers' compensation insurance. Serve as the main point of contact for staff questions and vendor relationships. Own HR compliance: spot risks, resolve them, and make our systems and processes more resilient over time. Write and maintain People Ops policies, programs, and internal resources. Support our performance evaluation process. Own immigration case management: coordinate with outside legal counsel and staff or candidates. Own immigration-related compliance administration Support leadership in making judgment calls. Handle People-related contracts, compliance, and all related processes. Outside the scope of this role Setting compensation. Recruiting: Sourcing candidates or making hiring decisions for non-operations roles. Owning team culture. What People Ops looks like at Redwood We are a nonprofit with a culture of honesty, trust, and transparency. We want our staff to be paid well – we proactively review and adjust compensation. Most of our staff are highly specialized researchers. We want the operations team to handle most of the operations work, so that both departments can focus on what they do best. People will often ask why a policy exists rather than just following along, and we happily explain the reasoning. Our staff is highly passionate about AI Safety – for many of us this work is a vocation. Skills and experience 3+ years of experience in People Operations or HR. A track record of owning processes, including building them from the ground up. Experience handling high-stakes compliance matters. Good judgment in ambiguous situations, including ones with no precedent or existing process. Experience managing immigration cases. Meticulous attention to detail, especially with paperwork. Highly organized and dependable. You always follow through. A self-starter and what we call a "grey area eater": when you see a gap or inefficiency that nobody clearly owns, you take care of it. Clear written and verbal communication. We value clarity, brevity, and reasoning transparency. Familiarity with HRIS platforms. Nice to have Experience with Rippling. Experience working with scientists, engineers or researchers. Experience at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, startup or research organization. Comfortable making prioritization calls and communicating the tradeoffs. You might be a good fit if you Care about AI safety and share our values. Are excited to work alongside top AI safety researchers. Hold yourself to a high standard and leave things better than you found them. Compensation and benefits The pay range for this role is $200,000-$250,000. Benefits include: Access to our office with an in-office gym and shower; unlimited snacks and drinks. Healthy catered healthy lunches and dinners (with plenty of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options). Generous equipment and software budget. We invest heavily in your productivity. Unlimited PTO. Flexible hours. We have a daily standup and some fixed meetings, but outside those we trust you to manage your own time. 401(k) with employer match. High-quality health, dental, and vision insurance. Location and schedule This is a full-time, on-site role in our Berkeley office, a short walk from BART and bus stops. On-site parking is available. After an onboarding period of at least three months, working from home a few days per week can be discussed. Relocation bonus may be available. We are committed to diversity and equal opportunity in all aspects of our hiring process. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply for our open positions. We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.