Manager, Operations and Compliance

Introduction: The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence Foundation (WIAI) is a US-based private operating foundation 501(c)(3) committed to leveraging artificial intelligence to address some of the world's most pressing social challenges. Our mission is to create AI solutions that deliver measurable impact in the areas of health, agriculture, and education, particularly in underserved communities across the world. In 2023 alone, our solutions reached nearly ten million people in India, providing critical support across various sectors. Our goal is to continue expanding our footprint through our flagship India program (LEHS) and a newly launched global initiative (Wadhwani AI Global), ensuring that our AI solutions benefit even more individuals globally.

About The Opportunity: We are seeking a Manager of Operations to join our team at a pivotal moment in the organization's growth. This role will serve as the operational backbone coordinating contract and agreement workflows, keeping compliance and operational workstreams on track, and making sure information flows seamlessly between WIAI’s US team, its international program entities, and external advisors. This role provides leverage to senior leadership by owning the follow-through, documentation, and day-to-day coordination that keeps a growing global footprint organized and accountable.

This is a hands-on, execution-oriented role. You won't just help design frameworks - you'll make sure they're followed. You'll work closely with existing team members that are handling grant compliance, financial reporting, and programmatic oversight, coordinate with outside legal counsel when needed, and keep workstreams moving across multiple entities and time zones. Communication is the key to success in this role.

The Manager, Operations will:

• Manage the workflow for MOUs, contracts, and partnership agreements for WIAI's global programs
• coordinating drafts with counsel, tracking reviews, driving execution to completion, and ensuring all parties meet their obligations
• Support day-to-day adherence to compliance policies across all WIAI entities
• including intellectual property, anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, and data privacy
• by tracking obligations, flagging potential issues to senior leadership, and coordinating follow-through
• Serve as the central coordination point for subsidiary in-country compliance and reporting across international program entities
• tracking deadlines, chasing inputs, and ensuring outputs flow back to US leadership in a timely, organized way
• Coordinate IP-related workstreams including trademark filings, ownership frameworks, and protections for proprietary AI tools / open sourcing frameworks
• owning the project management of these efforts in partnership with outside counsel and internal leadership
• Document decision-making, policies, and strategic direction to satisfy regulatory requirements
• Build and maintain processes, trackers, and documentation that keep compliance and operational workstreams organized and visible to leadership
• Manage relationships with outside legal counsel
• scheduling, follow-up, tracking deliverables, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks
• Coordinate with grant compliance, finance, and program teams to identify and address cross-entity risk exposures.
• Maintain the org’s project management and tracking infrastructure (Asana, Monday, Smartsheet, or similar)
• with room to grow into program-level tracking, dashboards, and M&E reporting over time
• Other duties as assigned

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in business, public administration, nonprofit management, or equivalent experience
• 4–7 years of experience in operations, program management, or nonprofit administration, with at least some exposure to international or cross-border work

Core Competencies and Skills / Qualifications

• Demonstrated track record of driving initiatives to completion at an operating organization
• not just advising, but owning execution and follow-through
• Strong process and procedure orientation: builds systems, documents them, and holds stakeholders accountable
• Comfortable managing contract and agreement workflows without being an attorney
• can coordinate reviews, track timelines, and ensure execution across multiple parties
• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams across different entities and time zones
• Excellent verbal communication, active listening, writing, and editing skills
• Strong team collaborator; nimble and flexible, highly resourceful, able to wear many hats
• Comfortable with messy, ambiguous, hands-on work
• Tech-savvy and curious about using AI tools to scale individual output
• comfortable adopting new platforms and using them to work faster and more thoroughly

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at or with a 501(c)(3) operating internationally, particularly in India or the Global South
• Familiarity with cross-border compliance for nonprofits
• Exposure to IP or data privacy workstreams in a technology or AI context, even if purely in a coordination capacity
• Experience with donor compliance requirements from institutional funders

Software

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, AI tools like Claude, Gemini
• Experience with project management or workflow tools (e.g., Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheet, or similar).
• Familiarity with compliance tracking systems a plus