Residency Manager

About the role

You will own the end-to-end operational backbone of the Residency program at Astera Institute, ensuring that residents can focus on producing open public goods without being blocked by logistical friction. You will act as the central connective tissue for a growing cohort of residents who work across Biological and Artificial Intelligence, AI-enabled life sciences, and open science, each with unique timelines and team-building needs. In this role, you translate the high ambition of Astera's $3B endowment into practical support structures that scale without imposing bureaucracy. You will anticipate needs before residents articulate them, from budgets and hiring to space and troubleshooting, turning ad hoc processes into repeatable systems. You will manage the full resident journey on a rolling basis, from selection and onboarding through transition, serving as the first and primary contact for residents. You will work hand in hand with track leads and Astera leadership to keep stakeholders aligned with high-signal, concise communication. This position is ideal for someone who thrives in early-stage ambiguity, is exceptionally organized, and is energized by enabling ambitious people to do their most ambitious work.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own the operational backbone of the Residency, including selection, onboarding, check-ins, and transitions, while partnering with track leads who own 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 working on wildly different problems.
• Identify recurring needs and friction across residents and build lightweight, repeatable ways to meet them as the program scales without becoming bureaucratic.
• Offer perspective and informal coaching to residents as they tackle the challenges of growing young organizations and navigate ambiguous milestones.
• Manage the rolling selection process, including scheduling, reviewer workflows, candidate communications, finalist logistics, and maintaining quality as the process iterates.
• Keep senior stakeholders aligned and informed with clear, concise, high-signal updates that avoid unnecessary process layers.
• Smooth the handoff from offer to Day 1, including helping residents stand up teams ahead of their start date and ensuring operational readiness.
• Flex to the "unknown unknowns" of a young, growing program, handling event logistics, hub operations, cross-functional support during peak periods, and special projects across the Operations stack.
• Partner closely with track leads to ensure that operational support enables scientific and technical progress rather than constraining it.
• Maintain and evolve core operational systems, such as residency calendars, communication templates, and onboarding checklists, to support a rolling intake of residents.
• Surface risks and dependencies early to leadership, coordinating with cross-functional partners to mitigate issues before they impact residents.

Requirements

• Bring 5-10 years in operations, chief-of-staff, program management, or another role demanding exceptional organization, relationship management, and judgment.
• Demonstrate excitement about the science and technology Astera supports, with the curiosity that makes getting smart on a new field feel like a perk.
• Show a proven ability to run complex, multi-stakeholder operations independently in a fast-moving environment.
• Communicate with exceptional clarity in written and verbal formats, even when explaining complexity or delivering difficult messages.
• Have experience scaling young organizations and offering perspective to residents as they build their own teams and roadmaps.
• Thrive in early-stage environments where the role will evolve significantly and the path forward is often ambiguous.
• Be comfortable proposing direction while staying calibrated to Astera leadership's priorities and balancing competing demands.
• Value giving and receiving direct feedback as a cultural norm and actively contribute to a constructive, high-trust environment.
• Be aligned with Astera's ethos of enabling science and technology that could reshape the future, and respect the mandate to support public goods over proprietary advantage.