Business Operations Manager
About Violet Research Institute
Violet Research Institute (VRI) is building the future of personalized medicine for patients with genetic diseases. We're at the frontier of a new era in medicine — one where treatments can be designed for individual patients based on their unique biology. Recent breakthroughs in science, engineering, and regulatory pathways have made this possible, but much of this work remains nascent and distributed across disparate efforts globally. We're unifying, refining, and scaling these efforts into a cohesive platform. For each patient we serve, we deeply understand their biology, then design and manufacture a targeted treatment that can be delivered in months instead of years.
We combine the urgency and execution mindset of a startup with the mission-driven openness of a nonprofit, allowing us to collaborate broadly and move quickly on behalf of the patients we serve. We've brought together leading researchers, engineers, and organizations across omics, therapeutic design, manufacturing, clinical care, and AI to move from insight to action as quickly as possible.
VRI is founded by the family of our first patient, Violet, and is led by Michael Buckley, Siranush Babakhanova and Steve Turner. Our team is deeply cross-disciplinary and first-principles driven. We value builders, experts, and generalists who are excited to work across domains, challenge conventional approaches, and increase access to personalized medicine.
What We're Looking For
We're seeking a sharp, execution-focused Business Operations Manager to own the operational infrastructure that keeps VRI running. This person will manage corporate governance, people operations, and IT systems — converting organizational priorities into reliable processes, driving compliance, and enabling the team to focus on science. This role demands exceptional organizational discipline, clear communication, and the adaptability to operate with high autonomy in a fast-moving nonprofit environment.
What You'll Own
— Serve as the primary liaison for external legal counsel on corporate formation, entity maintenance, and filings — tracking deadlines and ensuring documentation is complete and accurate
— Own the end-to-end process for business insurance applications, renewals, and compliance
— Execute and track NDAs, SOWs, and other agreements in coordination with legal and compliance teams
— Manage payroll processing, ensuring accuracy and timeliness for all employees
— Administer employee benefits programs including health insurance enrollment, changes, and renewals
— Maintain accurate employee records and own the operational side of onboarding
— Ensure people operations processes comply with applicable employment laws and company policies
— Manage software licensing, provisioning, and access controls across the organization
— Serve as day-to-day operational owner of our external IT vendor relationship by tracking deliverables, resolving issues, and ensuring SLAs are met
— Coordinate procurement, setup, and deployment of employee devices
Minimum Qualifications
— Bachelor's degree in business administration, life sciences, engineering, or a related field
— At least one year of full-time professional experience outside academia in a high-competence, fast-paced environment
— Demonstrated ability to manage multiple workstreams independently without reminders
— Strong proficiency with productivity and operational tools (project management software, HRIS, payroll systems, Google Workspace or equivalent)
— Excellent written and verbal communication skills — you write clearly, respond quickly, and over-communicate when it matters
Preferred Qualifications
— Experience in a startup, nonprofit, or early-stage organization where roles were loosely defined and self-direction was required
— Familiarity with employment law, HR compliance, or benefits administration
— Experience managing external vendors or legal and insurance relationships
— Technical comfort — picks up new tools quickly; exposure to coding or technical systems is a plus
Behavioral Essentials
— Execute independently from loosely specified tasks
— Ask for help only when truly blocked, communicating clearly what's needed
— Thrive in early-stage, ambiguous, high-pace environments
— Mission-driven with genuine care for patient impact
Compensation
The estimated US base salary range for this full-time position is $120,000-$180,000 + Benefits. This is a mission-driven nonprofit; the compensation reflects the urgency and importance of the work, not a startup equity play.
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