Residency Manager

Responsibilities

• Own the operational backbone of the Residency program, including selection, onboarding, check-ins, and transitions, while partnering with track leads on scientific judgment and budgets.
• Serve as the primary operational point of contact for every resident across their full tenure, from initial application to offer acceptance through completion or transition.
• Anticipate and consolidate resident needs across a growing and heterogeneous set of individuals.
• Identify recurring needs and friction across residents and build lightweight, repeatable ways to meet them as the program scales.
• Offer perspective and informal coaching to residents as they tackle the challenges of growing young organizations.
• Manage the rolling selection process, including scheduling, reviewer workflows, candidate communications, finalist logistics, ensuring quality holds as the process iterates.
• Keep senior stakeholders aligned and informed with clear, concise, high-signal updates without generating unnecessary process.
• Smooth the handoff from offer to Day 1, including helping residents stand up teams ahead of their start date.
• Flex to the "unknown unknowns" of a young, growing program, including event logistics, hub operations, cross-functional support during peak periods, and special projects across the Operations stack.

Requirements

• 5-10 years in operations, chief-of-staff, program management or another role demanding exceptional organization, relationship management, and judgment.
• Excitement about the science and technology Astera supports, and the curiosity that makes getting smart on a new field feel like a perk.
• Demonstrated ability to run complex, multi-stakeholder operations independently in a fast-moving environment.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication.
• Motivated by enabling science and technology that could reshape the future.
• Excited to define what a modern research institute looks and feels like, rather than inheriting an established playbook.
• Thrives in early-stage environments where the role will evolve significantly and the path forward is often ambiguous: comfortable proposing direction while staying calibrated to leadership's priorities.
• Values giving and receiving direct feedback as a cultural multiplier, and sees AI tools as an opportunity to uplevel how the work gets done.
• Generous collaborator who doesn't maintain strong boundaries around what "isn't your job".

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience scaling young organizations and can offer perspective to residents as they build their own organizations.