Head of Operations

Role summary

We recently closed a large fundraising round (amounts to be disclosed soon), but in order to turn that money into impact we need to hire an experienced operator. You'll own how we run internally, freeing up our founder to focus on vision, strategy, and external work.

Who is Good Impressions?

We're a nonprofit startup creating the engagement needed to solve the world's most critical problems.

As part of our Growth & Advocacy Program, we've recruited hundreds of people from frontier AI companies, FAANG, and top research organizations into AI safety courses; helped pressure meat companies to release millions of chickens from their cages; and increased the adoption of technology that makes it harder to order pathogens from DNA synthesis companies.

Our Guest Network supports public intellectuals ranging from Peter Singer and Will MacAskill to thinkers that have been featured on The Daily Show, Making Sense With Sam Harris, and Diary of a CEO.

We're a small, talent-dense, and fully remote team funded by Coefficient Giving, Longview Philanthropy, and client fees. There's significantly more demand for our services than our capacity can support.

What you'll do

As Head of Operations, you'll report directly to the Founder/CEO and are responsible for building the Operating System for Good Impressions that enables the entire organization to thrive. We're hiring someone who sets their own goals, builds their own team, and executes their roadmap with autonomy. You're the force multiplier for our CEO and other key leaders.

Run the operating system

• Own the planning and accountability rhythm: quarterly and annual goal-setting, and the follow-through between cycles.
• Run team meetings, plus the documentation and follow-ups between them.
• Pick, build, and run the systems the org works in: goal tracking, project management, CRM, internal tooling, and file organization.
• Build AI and automation into how we work, with the support of our internal AI enablement expert.
• Right-size everything you build and delete what isn't working. Know the difference between processes that speed the team up and bureaucracy that slows it down, and subtract as readily as you add.

Monitor operational health

• Keep a live, org-wide read on the numbers as if it were your personal for-profit business: runway, cost-effectiveness, utilization, and more.
• Own the reporting behind that read, and tell us what it means before it's urgent.
• Track the risks that could hurt us, financial, legal, operational, and security, and get ahead of them.

Build the people function

• Hone our hiring machine: the systems, coordination, and logistics to recruit repeatedly as we grow. We expect to more than double in size in the next year.
• Build people operations: the compensation policy, the employee handbook, and onboarding and offboarding.
• Own team events, either through an agency or an internal hire.

Own the back office

• Own the judgment layer of finance and compliance: treasury (where the money sits and what it can safely earn), tax and regulatory filings, insurance, payroll, and governance administration (board meetings, minutes, annual filings).
• Manage the operations agency that runs our day-to-day back office. They handle the execution; you own the relationship, the quality, and the checking.
• Own the specialist relationships (fractional nonprofit CFO, lawyer) we bring in for the edge cases.
• Manage our vendors, systems, and IT, including security and device policy.

One boundary: this seat does not manage delivery. Delivery sits with our Growth & Advocacy and Guest Network teams.

About you

We are especially excited about people who have owned the operations of an organization as it grew from ~5-30 people and are highly motivated to do impactful work. If you have early-stage for-profit or non-profit startup experience and have scaled growth in those organizations, we definitely want to meet you.

We will evaluate candidates across the following areas:

1. Operator experience. You've owned the operations of an organization roughly our size, ideally as it grew (think 5 to 30 people). You were the operator who made it work and tactically executed on the founder's vision.
2. Reliability. You deliver autonomously with limited oversight. You both identify and own problems end to end, and no one has to check your work. You hit your commitments, catch your own mistakes, and flag risks early before they surface later. If you drop a ball, it's intentional and communicated well.
3. Direction and efficiency. You point your effort at the right things and spend the right amount of time on each. You decide what matters most and sequence your own work. You know the difference between working "smarter" and working "harder".
4. AI forward. You're a Claude Code power user. You talk to your computer as much as you type to it. You see huge value in integrating AI into what you're building.
5. Mission and values alignment. You care about the problems we work on and align deeply with our values (below).
6. [Plus] Nonprofit governance, finance, and compliance. Direct experience with the regulatory side of running a (Canadian) nonprofit.

We're not expecting candidates to satisfy each of these perfectly. If most of this sounds like you, we want to hear from you.

What we offer

• Impact: We have the budget, demand, and talent required to make real progress on some of the world's most critical problems. Every project we take on will run on the engine you build.
• Ownership: The autonomy to build the operating engine your way.
• A team people love: "The productivity and kindness of this team are off the charts." "I honestly cannot imagine working in a more positive culture." "This is the first time in eight years I can confidently say I'm happy at work."
• Salary: $150,000–$200,000 USD based on experience and location.
• Benefits: Premium health coverage, one of the highest plan tiers available in your country, and regular team retreats.
• Fully remote: Flexible working hours and open to candidates globally between California and UK time zones.

Our values

We hire, give feedback, and, if necessary, fire based on these values. Please consider them carefully before applying.

1. Impact first. Impact is our north star. We turn down projects when we don't think we can help, and we initiate important projects nobody is asking for.
2. Own the mission. We take complete ownership of outcomes and push through obstacles until we deliver results we're proud of.
3. Look for better and faster ways of doing everything. We search for approaches that are orders of magnitude better than the standard way, and we leverage AI to work smarter and faster.
4. Be radically helpful. To our clients, because they're doing some of the most impactful work in the world. To each other, because we succeed or fail as a team.
5. Overcommunicate. Most problems can be solved or avoided with more frequent and effective communication. We say what we think, even when others may disagree.
6. Constantly improve. We're hungry for impact, which means we're hungry for feedback. We seek it out and see it as a sign of respect.

Apply today

We assess applications on a rolling basis until the role is filled, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. We respond to every application.

Here's what to expect:

1. Intro call: 30 minutes with a member of our team
2. CEO Interview: 30 minutes with our Founder/CEO
3. Case interview: Take home case prep followed by a 60-min interview with our hiring team. You should allot 2-3 hours of case prep should you make it to this step. We only advance serious candidates to case.
4. Deeper interview: a 90-minute conversation with two members of our team
5. Reference checks and offer