Hiring: Lighthaven Events & Venue Lead

post by Raemon · 2023-10-13T21:02:33.212Z · LW · GW · 2 comments

Contents

    Apply for the position here
  What is Lighthaven?
  The role: what will you do?
    Work culture
    Skills required
  Can you tell me some details about Lighthaven Campus?
  What’s working at Lightcone like?
    Other details 
    Apply for the position here
None
2 comments

Apply for the position here

Lightcone is looking to hire someone to manage Lighthaven [LW · GW], a campus located in Berkeley California. This includes managing our day-to-day maintenance, and running events. You’ll be managing a small team.

We will pay whichever is higher:

What is Lighthaven?

Lighthaven is a campus located in Berkeley, California. It’s run by Lightcone Infrastructure, and we hope to use this place to make the future of humanity go better than it would go otherwise. (Some major focus areas include “ensuring that AI doesn’t kill everyone this century” and “maintain a culture that can think clearly in a confusing world.”)

In practice, we rent out the place cheaply for projects we think will help the future go better. And, to help make ends meet, we may also rent it out for typical market rates to corporate clients.

Your job is to make sure Lighthaven runs smoothly, efficiently, and is delightful/intellectually-stimulating to event participants. We’re looking for someone who brings ambition and agency to the role.

The role: what will you do?

You would be responsible for: 

In addition, you would work on:

Work culture

Skills required

Can you tell me some details about Lighthaven Campus?

We have seven buildings, including rentable retreat centers, offices, and bedrooms.

Some of the things we’ve hosted in the past:

In the future, we hope to host more paid events, in order to build a stable revenue stream that allows Lighthaven the independence of thought and boldness of vision that comes from funding freedom. We also hope to host several subsidized events with the intent of aiding Lightcone and collaborating organizations in orienting to and navigating a gradually more chaotic world. 

What’s working at Lightcone like?

We have a deliberately small and committed team, and the person taking on this role would both have the opportunity to make a major impact on Lighthaven’s operations, as well as increasing the focus Lightcone could dedicate to its other projects (like LessWrong.com). 

You will be leading our existing venue maintenance team (approx 4 people), and during the events where it’s needed you will also be leading an expanded event operations team. We have an existing maintenance team that we’re pretty happy with and expect you will be too, but once you’ve settled into the role you’ll have the power to hire people you work well with.

How exactly you interface with the rest of the Lightcone team will depend a bit on your background. We’re a pretty high context culture. This includes things like generally being familiar with the LessWrong sequences, as well as some more specific organizational philosophy, orientation to existential risk, etc. 

Depending on how well you fit into that context, we may end up integrating you into broader strategy meetings, or, may work out a role where you’re focused on the practicalities of running the campus, and interface primarily with our CEO. We’ll aim to be clear on how this is likely to work by the end of your work trial.

Other details 

Team

Currently there are 7 people on the core Lightcone team, and 4-7 maintenance staff (including contractors we bring in when we need extra event capacity).

Location

Berkeley, CA. Housing onsite available during events or other periods of intense work. 

Hours

On average 50 hr/week, though there will be many quieter weeks, and fair few much longer ones. You will regularly need to flexibly work evenings and weekends since that’s when many events take place; but in exchange you’d be able to take post-event weekdays off to rest.

Hiring process

Interview + potential work test + 2 weeks work trial + 3 months work trial.


Apply for the position here

2 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by ElMonstro · 2024-06-09T02:03:29.338Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Is this still open?

comment by sim · 2023-10-18T08:46:13.195Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Might you include an option in your application form where candidates can opt-in to you sharing their info with other hiring orgs? I'd love to see excellent candidates that you didn't end up hiring for some reason (who had explicitly agreed to have their info shared), as we're often on the look out for top notch events people at Longview.
(The role looks really exciting; I hope you find someone brilliant!)