Position Overview

The Project Coordinator helps execute the operational and administrative aspects of the FutureTech research project to ensure that it is a highly innovative and impactful research environment. They will collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of leading researchers and experts across computer science and economics/business. The position will assist in project management within a cutting-edge research center in artificial intelligence and computing.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

Operations

• Reviews and evaluates schedules, plans, and proposals to assist researchers in facilitating their work and overcoming logistical challenges.
• Supports operations and administration for the project by coordinating with MIT or CSAIL units that support FutureTech (FT) in administration, finance, IT, compliance, communications and outreach.
• Coordinates project timelines, resources, and deliverables to ensure efficient progress in FT's goals
• Ensures allocated FT resources, including financial, technical and personnel, are deployed according to project plans and goals
• Coordinates with internal team members and Industry partners to ensure seamless project execution.
• Implements relevant MIT or CSAIL administrative requirements, policies and procedures for the FT
• Determines appropriate administrative action based on experience, rules and precedent
• Ensures compliance with, MIT, CSAIL and external regulations and guidelines

Analysis and Reporting

• Contributes to, and supports, grant proposals and other research writing
• Develops methods for collecting project data and ensures tracking of key program/project metrics.
• Tracks and analyzes program/project data and provides recommendations to the Project Manager
• Prepare and oversee preparation of program documentation and reports

Project Planning

• Assists in developing strategic plans for FT
• Implements operational plans to support goals
• Develops methods for tracking progress and key metrics
• Analyzes data on progress to suggest next steps and resolve issues

Fiscal

• Assist with developing project budgets
• Manages project budgets, expenses, reconciling, and forecasting
• Works with CSAIL Fiscal Staff to provide relevant reports and documentation for Institute or Lab requirements

Leadership and Talent Management

• Assists in FT talent acquisition and recruiting effort
• Reviews job expectations, focused on meeting specific standards or targets with program staff
• Ensures key Human Resources guidelines and initiatives are meet
• Ensures staff performance problems are elevated to the Project Manager and/or Director
• Provides feedback to employees and training help them to meet project goals

Other duties as needed or required.

Supervision

Supervision Received: Reports to Project Manager. Works under general oversight with direction on non-routine issues.

Supervision Exercised: May guide the work of internal and external project support staff and writers. May provide coaching and on-the-job training.

Qualifications & Skills

Minimum Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Minimum 3 years of administration, project/program management, or operations experience required.
• Experience supervising others and leading projects, programs, or functions
• In-depth understanding of principles and practice of managing a complex organization

Preferred Education and Experience

• Prior experience in project management or operations, preferably in research, academic, or technology-oriented environment
• Research paper and grant writing experience.

Note: One year term based on grant funding. Work is primarily on-site in lab.

About MIT FutureTech

MIT FutureTech is an interdisciplinary group of computer scientists, engineers, and economists who study the foundations of progress in computing and Artificial Intelligence: the trends, implications, opportunities and risks. Economic and social change is underpinned by advances in computing: for instance, improvements in the miniaturization of integrated circuits, the discovery and refinement of algorithms, and the development and diffusion of better software systems and processes. We aim to identify and understand the trends in computing that create opportunities or risks and help leaders in computing, scientific funding bodies, and government to respond appropriately.

Our research therefore helps to answer important questions including: Will AI progress accelerate or decline – and should it? What are the bottlenecks to growth from AI, and how can they be solved? What are the risks from AI, and how can we mitigate them?

To support our research, we run seminars and conferences to better connect the field of computer scientists, economists and innovation scholars to build a thriving global research community.

To disseminate it, we advise governments, nonprofits and industry, including via National Academies panels on transformational technologies and scientific reliability, the Council on Competitiveness' National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers, and the National Science Foundation's National Network for Critical Technology Assessment.

Our work has been funded by Open Philanthropy, the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Accenture, IBM, the MIT-Air Force AI accelerator, and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Some of our recent outputs:

• The AI Frontier: Transformative Role of Foundation Models Across Scientific Disciplines
• LLMs in Citation Intent Classification: Progress, Precision, and Reproducibility Challenges
• Mapping the Impact of Foundation Models on the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• The AI Risk Repository: A Comprehensive Meta-Review, Database, and Taxonomy of Risks from Artificial Intelligence 
• How industry is dominating AI research   
• A workshop on AI scaling and its implications for AI development, automation, and more  
• How Fast Do Algorithms Improve? 

Some recent articles about our research:

• Techcrunch: MIT researchers release a repository of AI risks
• CNN: AI and the labor market: MIT study findings
• TIME: AI job replacement fears and the MIT study
• Boston Globe: AI's impact on jobs according to MIT

You will be working with Dr. Neil Thompson, the Director of MIT FutureTech. Prior to starting FutureTech, Dr. Thompson was a professor of Innovation and Strategy at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His PhD is in Business & Public Policy from Berkeley. He also holds Master's degrees in: Computer Science (Berkeley), Economics (London School of Economics), and Statistics (Berkeley). Prior to joining academia, Dr. Thompson was a management consultant with Bain & Company, and worked for the Canadian Government and the United Nations.

About the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) 

CSAIL is one of the world’s top research centers for computer science and artificial intelligence (currently ranked #1).  It has hosted 9 Turing awards winners (the “Nobel Prize of Computing”) and has pioneered many of the technologies that underpin computing.

How to apply

Please use this Operations Expression of Interest form to register interest in this role or to submit a general expression of interest.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

Please add an “AI in Science” note in the application.

Selected candidates will be first interviewed via Zoom. We are recruiting on a rolling basis and may close applications early if we find a suitable candidate, so please apply as soon as possible to maximize your chances.

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