Executive Assistant & Office Coordinator

Role Details

• Role: Executive Assistant & Office Coordinator
• Location: London (Hybrid: 4 days in-office, 1 day working from home)
• Working Hours: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

About the job

Our mission is to cultivate and spread ideas about intelligence, and make sure the world benefits from AI. We conduct advanced scientific research into the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, and hold in-person and online conferences to share significant discoveries and findings. Our research arm has backgrounds in computer science, machine learning, psychology, neuroscience, and physics. We are a small team that runs with high autonomy, low ego, and everyone improvising off one another to make the whole team better.

We are hiring an Executive Assistant & Office Coordinator to support our founders, Dr Ruairidh Battleday and Dr James Whittington, and keep our team running seamlessly. This is not a classic secretary role. It is the operating system behind two of the busiest people in AI and the foundation of our physical and operational environment. Done well, it makes the founders 10x more effective and our lab a place where brilliant research happens effortlessly.

What this role really is

A founder’s time is the team’s scarcest asset, and an environment free of friction is our researchers' best tool. Your job is to protect and multiply the founders' time, manage our day-to-day workplace, and handle the crucial admin that keeps our team compliant, organized, and focused on discovery. You run complex logistics, build automated systems with AI tools, and own the physical and operational health of our office.

What you will do

• Executive Support & Calendar Strategy: Own the founders’ calendars and triage incoming requests by priority. Manage emails, draft responses, handle payments, and protect deep-work time so speed and focus remain competitive advantages.
• Lab & Office Operations: Ensure the office remains welcoming, organized, and fully operational—managing vendor relationships, office supplies, utilities, and building management.
• People & Compliance Support: Manage HR administration, keep track of team contracts, oversee basic HR compliance, and coordinate visa sponsorship/payments for incoming international researchers.
• Systemize & Automate: Turn repeatable work into scalable systems using Claude, ChatGPT, Google Workspace, and Notion. Automate the rote tasks so you can operate at a higher level of leverage.
• Event Logistics: Provide administrative support for our community events, research gatherings, and in-person/online conferences.

What you bring

• Proven EA & Office Operations Experience: Prior experience as an Executive Assistant, with a track record that includes managing office management or workplace operations.
• Complex Calendar & Task Management: Extensive experience managing high-volume, multi-time-zone calendars and executing a wide variety of tasks across varying levels of complexity.
• Tech & Tooling Proficiency: Practical experience with modern productivity stacks (Google Workspace, Notion) and an interest in using AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT) and automation (Zapier, GAS) to optimize work.

Who you are

• Adaptable & Low-Ego: You happily move between high-level calendar strategy and making sure the physical office environment looks great. No task is too big or too small.
• AI & Tech Literate: You learn new tools fast and genuinely enjoy automating repetitive tasks with AI and software to build better workflows.
• Resourceful & Strategic: Handed a vague ask, you figure out what is actually needed and execute a step ahead without needing hand-holding.
• Detail-Oriented & Reliable: You stay calm in high-tempo environments, pair accuracy with speed, and take pride in managing sensitive HR, contract, and visa details correctly.
• Mission Driven: You care about AI research and take pride in being the engine behind the scenes that powers world-changing discoveries.

Why this role

• You sit at the operational center of a cutting-edge UK AI lab, working directly with both founders.
• It offers rare breadth: you operate as an executive partner, operations builder, and workplace designer all at once.
• As the lab expands, this role offers a clear path to scale into a specialized Operations Lead, People Ops Specialist, or Senior EA role as team functions split out.

How to apply

To apply, please send your CV and a short note covering why you want to join us, your general area in London, and your most relevant experience to hiring@thinkingaboutthinking.org with “EA position” in the title.