Operations Manager — Finance & Compliance

Key details

• Location: Remote. Some overlap with European working hours required (EST, GMT, CET timezones preferred)
• Compensation: $130,000–$200,000 depending on experience and location
• Type: Full-time (1.0 FTE); open to 0.8 FTE for the right candidate
• Start date: As soon as possible
• How to apply: Submit an application here. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

About Macroscopic Ventures

We’re a team of 14 deploying up to $100 million this year to fund work on some of the most important problems in the world. We make grants and investments across artificial intelligence (governance, policy, welfare, and cooperative AI), societal long-term risks (reducing risks from fanatical ideologies and malevolent actors), and animal welfare. We’re growing fast and expect to deploy significantly more capital in the years ahead.

We're a small, value-aligned team. We move quickly, give people real ownership, and pair unconventional thinking with careful deliberation and common-sense judgment. The problems we work on are cutting-edge and often unprecedented — risks and opportunities most institutions haven't started thinking about. Your contributions make an immediate, tangible difference, and you'll have ample room to grow alongside colleagues who care deeply about getting this right.

About the role

Our funding volume is growing rapidly, and the financial and compliance infrastructure needs to keep pace. We're creating this role to own that infrastructure. You'll operate with a clearly scoped mandate from day one — independently, with strategic direction and sign-off on complex calls from the COO.

Getting this right matters: the infrastructure you build directly determines how quickly we can move resources to the projects and people that need them. When a grant is delayed by a compliance question no one anticipated, that’s real impact lost. When the infrastructure works well, the team can focus on finding and funding the best work.

This is not a role that requires being a CPA or a lawyer — it requires being meticulous, intellectually curious, and comfortable with real autonomy. The compliance work itself is genuinely interesting because our activities are unusual: multi-jurisdiction structures, charitable investment in AI-related ventures, and grantmaking in areas where few precedents exist.

What you’ll own

The role spans six areas. We've kept this summary brief — we're happy to go deeper in conversation.

• Bookkeeping & financial reporting. Interface with our external accounting firm, review monthly books, prepare management accounts, and manage year-end close.
• Reporting, compliance & audit. Maintain a compliance calendar across jurisdictions, coordinate filings and regulatory submissions, and manage the annual audit.
• Grant & investment compliance. Research legal and regulatory constraints on our grant and investment activities, maintain a compliance framework, and flag issues before they materialize.
• Financial infrastructure. Manage banking and brokerage relationships, handle onboarding and administration, and monitor liquidity.
• Corporate structure. Keep entity registrations current across jurisdictions, handle statutory compliance, and identify opportunities to improve the structure.
• Internal policies. Draft and maintain policies on conflicts of interest, expenses, data handling, and more.

What success looks like

We've tried to be specific about what good looks like in this role. This is to help you assess fit honestly, not to set an impossibly high bar.

In the first few months, success looks like understanding the landscape — what entities exist, what our compliance obligations are across jurisdictions, where the gaps are — and not letting anything fall through the cracks in the meantime.

By six months, we'd expect to see:

• Own the compliance calendar. You've built a comprehensive view of all filing deadlines and regulatory obligations across our jurisdictions, and nothing is at risk of being missed.
• Clean books we can rely on. You've taken over the day-to-day relationship with our accounting firm, you're reviewing the monthly bookkeeping independently, and you're producing useful management accounts for the team.
• A working knowledge of our corporate structure. You know which entities exist, where they're registered, what their obligations are, and what’s coming up. You've identified at least one area where something could be improved.
• Grantmaking compliance reviewed and strengthened. We have existing write-ups and templates, but there are open questions worth answering. You've assessed our current practices and made at least a start on upgrading them.
• Operating with minimal direction. You're making routine calls independently, escalating the right things, and the COO is confident that the functions you own are in good hands.

What we’re looking for

We hire for character first, abilities second, and skills third. Skills can be taught; character is what you bring every day. If you're strong on the first two tiers and thin on the third, you should still apply.

Character & values

• Meticulous and thorough. You close loops. When you complete something, it's actually done — documented, checked, and ready for someone else to pick up.
• High integrity. You flag problems early, even when it's uncomfortable. You treat compliance as a real constraint, not a box to tick.
• Intellectually curious. You find regulatory frameworks, corporate structures, and financial instruments interesting rather than just annoying.
• Calm and pragmatic. You handle surprises without drama. You know the difference between a situation that demands exhaustive care and one that demands a good-enough answer quickly.

Abilities

• Operational judgment. You make good calls without constant supervision and know when to escalate.
• Financial literacy. You can read a set of accounts, spot when a number looks wrong, and think clearly about transactions and their accounting treatment. You don't need to be an accountant.
• Research and synthesis. Given a regulatory framework or complex compliance question, you can produce a clear, actionable summary. You write well.

Skills

We expect some of these but not all. We'll invest in helping you develop gaps.

• Bookkeeping fundamentals — you understand double-entry conceptually and can review a set of accounts.
• Some experience with regulatory compliance, annual filings, or corporate administration.
• Experience in a small organization with broad ownership rather than a narrow slice.
• Comfort with spreadsheets, accounting platforms, and financial reporting tools.
• German language skills are helpful but not essential.

What you don’t need

We want to be specific about this, because we suspect the right candidate might be uncertain about whether they're qualified.

• An accounting or legal qualification. What matters is that you can read financial information clearly, make sense of legal and regulatory questions, work effectively with external specialists, and exercise good judgment. Formal credentials are a bonus, not a requirement.
• Years of experience. We care about ability, not tenure. Two years of highly relevant experience with strong fundamentals is worth more than ten years of adjacent but shallower work.
• A background exclusively in finance or compliance. Strong operational generalists with financial literacy and compliance instincts are welcome. If you've owned complex, ambiguous operational functions and the areas of finance and compliance genuinely interest you, we want to hear from you.

What we offer

• Outsized impact. We’re a small team deploying up to $100 million this year, and significantly more in future years. The infrastructure you build directly enables our ability to fund high-impact work at scale. You’re building the systems behind serious capital flows.
• Real ownership from day one. In a larger organization, this role might be split across three or four people, each handling a narrow slice. Here, you’ll own the full picture—and that means you’ll understand how the pieces fit together in a way that most people in similar roles never get to.
• Autonomy and trust. We hire people we trust and then give them room to work.
• Intellectually interesting work. No two weeks are the same. The compliance questions are genuinely novel—multi-jurisdiction charitable structures, emerging regulatory frameworks around AI, uncommon investment structures. This is not routine compliance work.
• Scope to grow. As you prove yourself in the core role, there is scope to expand into adjacent areas based on your interests and the organization’s needs. We’re growing, and we want the people who grow with us.
• Competitive compensation. We pay fairly. The specific package will be discussed during the interview process.
• Flexibility. Remote-friendly with a focus on outcomes, not hours.

Hiring process

We run a structured hiring process designed to be thorough but respectful of your time.

1. Application review. We review applications on a rolling basis, so applying sooner improves your chances.
2. Screening call (30 minutes)
3. Paid work test (approximately 3–4 hours). Candidates must have the legal right to work in the location where the task is performed.
4. Final interview (approximately 1 hour) and reference checks
5. Work trial (1–2 days). We understand this is a significant time commitment. An honorarium will be provided to all candidates who complete the trial. We’re committed to being flexible and accommodating—if a work trial might not be possible for you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The starting date will be determined together with the successful applicant.

Not sure if you’re qualified? Apply anyway.

We’re open to candidates from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels. The right candidate may not have done this exact role before. If you have strong fundamentals, are meticulous and honest about what you know and don’t know, and find the work genuinely interesting—please apply. The worst that can happen is we don’t advance your application; the best is that we find someone excellent who would have self-selected out.

By applying, you acknowledge that we will process your personal data for recruitment purposes. Read our Candidate Privacy Notice for full details.

English

German skills are helpful, but not essential