AI@HHMI Project Manager

What you will actually do

• Guide projects from approval to closure. Help with proposals, organize reviews and approval decisions, track milestones and end dates, and keep complete records. When a project ends, you close it: coordinate the final report, archive data and code, offboard staff and collaborators, close accounts and contracts
• Keep budget and staffing accurate. Track spending and staffing against each project's budget, work with Finance on the annual budget, and know which positions are open and who is working on what.
• Keep leadership informed and priorities moving. Schedule and prepare briefings, meetings, correspondence, and reports for the Head of AI@HHMI and HHMI leadership, and follow up on open action items
• Understand the science and help the work move forward. Understand the science and computation behind the program and each project well enough to support them competently and talk with computational and experimental scientists as a peer. You do not need to be an AI expert.
• Help us hire, onboard, and offboard. Organize searches for AI Scientists, engineers, and other staff, coordinating with People & Culture throughout the recruiting lifecycle. You will run screening interviews. Get employees, collaborators, and contractors set up with the appropriate resources to do their work and close out accounts and access when they leave.
• Events and outreach. Organize reviews, meetings, seminars, workshops, and visits. Work with HHMI's Digital and Marketing Communication team on the AI@HHMI website, and keep a calendar of conferences, prizes, deadlines, and nominations.
• Handle the paperwork of partnerships. Work with legal, technology transfer, and finance offices on collaborations, industry partnerships, and contracts.
• Leave a trail. Document decisions and project records so someone can find and understand them years later.

What we are looking for

• Uses AI tools for real work but can still do it without them. You use agentic AI tools every day for things like screening applications, curating data, and drafting. You can tell us where a tool failed you and how you caught it. Take the tools away and the work is still done, to the same standard.
• Follows every open item. You can hold a long list of open items, know which few matter this week, and raise problems early.
• Knows what to escalate. You decide what to bring forward and what to just handle.
• Simplifies. When a procedure no longer serves its purpose, you cut it.
• Numbers have to add up. You read a budget or staffing report and notice when something does not match, before it reaches anyone else.
• Discreet. You will handle confidential personnel, candidate, and budget information

Nice to have

• A science or engineering background.
• Experience in a research institute or university.
• Experience with enterprise systems such as Workday or Microsoft 365.

What this role is not

• A calendar-and-inbox job. Scheduling is part of it, but you will own projects, records, and reports.
• A research role. You need to understand the science well enough to support it. You do not need to be an AI expert or run experiments.
• A job that runs on rules. You will make judgment calls, and you will be trusted to make them.

Practical details

This is a full-time, on-site role at Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, reporting to the Head of AI@HHMI. You need a master's degree or doctorate in any field and at least three years of project management experience, including scientific or industrial research and development programs with budgets, timelines, and staffing. We set the level based on what you bring and what AI@HHMI needs the role to do, not on years alone. As a guide, we expect a minimum of 3 years of experience for Project Manager I with levels II and III representing expanded experience and scope. To apply, use [application link] and include a one-page summary of something complex you managed or analyzed. Tell us which tools, if any, you used to write it.