IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate — Ciph Lab
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Professional Certificate · Cohort 1 — October 2026

IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate

The certificate for AI governance operators —
and those ready to become one.

A 4-week professional certificate for the people coordinating AI deployments inside organizations — managing access, bridging legal and IT, and making sure AI governance actually holds. Built on the IR™ framework. Grounded in AI safety research. Issued by Ciph Lab, PBC.

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You're in ops, IT, legal ops, or compliance and you've been building AI governance infrastructure without a title or credential that reflects it.
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You're moving into AI governance from policy, project management, risk, or an adjacent role — and you want the framework and the credential to make the transition real.
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You want something defensible on your LinkedIn — not a course completion badge, but a credential grounded in AI safety research and built with expert advisory input.
Enroll in Cohort 1 — $497 →
4 weeks · Fully remote|Starts October 6, 2026|Enrollment closes September 26
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What is the IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate?

It's a 4-week professional certificate program that teaches the Intelligence Resources™ framework — the operational methodology for deploying AI governance inside organizations.

The program runs fully remote, on a schedule built for professionals with full-time jobs: two live Zoom sessions, two async video modules, and a capstone project applied to a real organization you know.

A certificate is issued on completion. It lives at a permanent URL on ciph-lab.com, is verifiable by anyone, and can be added directly to your LinkedIn profile as a credential — the same way Coursera and other professional programs work, but hosted entirely on Ciph Lab's own domain.

Cohort 1 starts October 6, 2026. Enrollment closes September 26. The Cohort 1 price of $497 will not be offered again — Cohort 2 is $997.

$497
Cohort 1 price — one-time, full program + certificate. Cohort 2 is $997.
Oct 6
Cohort 1 start date. Closes Sept 26, 2026.
3–4 hrs
Per week. Built for professionals with full-time jobs.
Oct 27
Certificate issuance date. Issued upon completion of all four weeks and the capstone governance gap analysis.
15×
Growth in legal job postings mentioning AI — almost none have a governance operator behind them
80%
AI project failure rate — not because of the technology, but the governance infrastructure around it
0
Existing certificates built specifically for the AI governance operator who deploys AI governance in organizations
$497
Cohort 1 price — locks in before September 26
Oct 6
Cohort 1 start date
4 wks
Fully remote · 3–4 hrs/week
$997
Cohort 2 price — don't wait

AI governance is a job. Right now, almost nobody has the title for it.

Every organization deploying AI needs someone who owns the operational layer — the pre-deployment groundwork, the coordination across security, IT, legal, and compliance, the accountability structure that holds when deployment pressure is high. State AI laws in California, New York, and Texas are already in effect. The window to build this function before it becomes a liability is closing.

The IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate is the first credential built specifically for this role. Not a compliance badge. Not a policy course. A professional certificate that requires you to apply a real framework to a real organization — and demonstrates that you can build and run AI governance infrastructure, not just describe it.

Already in the field
The experienced AI governance operator
You've been coordinating AI deployments inside enterprises — managing access, navigating security reviews, bridging IT and legal — without a certificate that reflects the depth of what you do. This formalizes it.
Making the transition
The governance-track professional
You're moving into AI governance from ops, IT, compliance, legal operations, or policy — and you want a structured framework and a recognized certificate to anchor that move and make it legible to employers.

What you get from Cohort 1.

Four weeks of structured curriculum built directly from the Intelligence Resources™ framework — research developed through a UC Berkeley AI Safety Policy Fellowship. Not a course with an exam. A certificate with a body of knowledge behind it.

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The Phase 0 Framework
The complete pre-deployment governance checklist — 8 sections, 24 preconditions — and how to apply it inside a real organization.
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The Coordination Map
The six-role framework that maps who owns what in every AI deployment — and how to make sure nothing falls through the gaps between security, IT, legal, and operations.
⚙️
The GRACI™ Matrix
The governance accountability framework for AI workflows — how to assign G (Governance) and V (Verification) ownership across every AI task.
💰
Access Tax Fundamentals
How to quantify governance gaps in dollar terms — giving AI governance operators the financial language to defend governance investment to the CFO.
🎓
IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate
Issued upon completion of all four weeks including the capstone. A verifiable credential at a permanent URL on ciph-lab.com — LinkedIn-ready, employer-shareable.
🤝
Cohort 1 Community
Direct access to Juanita Alvarez and peers building this function in real organizations. The first cohort sets the standard.

Four weeks. Two live, two async.

Built for AI governance operators with full-time jobs. Two live sessions bookend the cohort — orientation at the start, wrap-up and Q&A at the end. The two middle weeks are async video modules with a discussion channel. Your capstone is submitted as a slide deck, reviewed by Juanita directly.

01
Live Session · October 6, 2026
Orientation: What IR™ AI Governance Operators Do and Why It Matters
The Phase 0 framework in full — why governance fails even when formally adopted, who owns the operational layer, and what the cohort will build together. ~90 minutes on Zoom.
Live · Zoom
02
Async · Week of October 13
The Coordination Map and GRACI™ Matrix
Pre-recorded module. The six-role AI implementation framework, G and V ownership, and how to build the accountability structure that makes governance hold at the point of deployment.
Async · Video
03
Async · Week of October 20
Access Tax, Financial Governance, and the CFO Conversation
Pre-recorded module. How to quantify governance gaps in dollar terms — giving AI governance operators the financial language to defend the function internally and get budget approved.
Async · Video
04
Live Session · October 27, 2026
Wrap-Up, Q&A, and Certificate Issuance
Capstone decks due October 24. The Week 4 live session is a group Q&A, open discussion, and certificate celebration — not a high-stakes performance. ~90 minutes on Zoom.
Live · Zoom
Cogito, ergo sum.Cogito, IR™go sum.

I think, therefore I govern.

Ciph Lab, PBC · Intelligence Resources™

The IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate.

Issued by Ciph Lab, PBC — a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation with a stated mission of building the governance infrastructure that makes enterprise AI deployment safe.

The certificate is not a course completion badge. It is recognition that you can build and operate the AI governance function — that you have applied the framework to a real organization and produced a defensible governance gap analysis.

Cohort 1 AI governance operators set the standard. The frameworks you apply in your capstone become part of the body of knowledge that defines what every future IR™ AI Governance Operator must demonstrate. You are not just earning a certificate — you are helping build the category.

Ciph Lab
IR™ AI Governance Operator
Cohort 1 · 2026
IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate
Issued by Ciph Lab, PBC · Cohort 1, October 2026
  • →Phase 0 framework competency
  • →GRACI™ matrix implementation
  • →Coordination map and access architecture
  • →Access Tax financial quantification
  • →Capstone governance gap analysis

Enroll in Cohort 1.

Starts October 6, 2026. Enrollment closes September 26. Fully remote, built for AI governance operators with full-time jobs.

Cohort 1 Enrollment
$497
One-time · Full program + certificate
Cohort 2 price: $997 — enroll now to lock in the Cohort 1 rate
--Days
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--Hours
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--Mins
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--Secs

Closes Sept 26, 2026

Cohort 1 · Limited seats
  • ✓Week 1 live orientation (October 6)
  • ✓Week 2 async video module + discussion
  • ✓Week 3 async video module + discussion
  • ✓Week 4 live wrap-up + Q&A (October 27)
  • ✓Capstone slide deck reviewed by Juanita Alvarez
  • ✓IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate upon completion
  • ✓Direct access to Juanita Alvarez
Enrollment closes September 26, 2026. Cohort starts October 6.
Questions before enrolling? Book a 30-minute call →
Private LinkedIn Community

Join the IR™ AI Governance Operator Network.

The professional home for everyone serious about AI governance — whether you're enrolled in Cohort 1, making the transition into the field, or already doing this work inside an organization. Free to join. Curated membership.

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Private group
Membership is reviewed. Not a public feed — a real professional community.
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Active discussion
Curriculum previews, governance resources, and conversation from people doing the work.
🎓
Cohort home base
Cohort 1 members get early access. The group is where the community lives before and after.
Request to Join on LinkedIn →Opens your LinkedIn app or browser · Free · Membership reviewed
Built on research. Backed by expertise.

The IR™ AI Governance Operator curriculum is taught by the person who built the framework — and informed by research at the frontier of AI safety and security.

Juanita Alvarez

Juanita Alvarez

Founder & CEO, Ciph Lab PBC · Cohort 1 Instructor

I built the Intelligence Resources™ framework from 13+ years inside enterprise legal departments and Fortune 500 technology organizations — watching the same governance failures repeat at every scale. The IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate is the professional recognition I wish had existed when I was doing this work without a title for it.

Cohort 1 runs in a hybrid format: two live sessions with me directly (orientation and wrap-up) and two async video modules I recorded. You get the framework from the person who built it, structured around your schedule.

  • ✓UC Berkeley BASIS AI Safety Policy Fellow, 2026
  • ✓Cert., Business Administration · UC Berkeley
  • ✓MBA Candidate · Univ. of the People
  • ✓B.S. Legal Studies, Magna Cum Laude · FGCU
  • ✓Speaker · AI in Legal Virtual Summit, Feb 2026
Dr. Jessica Staddon

Dr. Jessica Staddon

Principal Advisor, AI Safety & Security · Ciph Lab PBC

Dr. Staddon is a principal advisor to Ciph Lab whose research on how users safely make security and privacy decisions with LLM assistance informs the intellectual foundation of the Intelligence Resources™ framework.

Her work — spanning nearly 25 years across Google, JPMorgan Chase, and academic research — represents the kind of AI safety rigor the IR™ framework is built to operationalize inside organizations. Dr. Staddon provides AI safety research advisory input to the curriculum — bringing academic rigor to the framework Juanita Alvarez developed from 13+ years of operational field experience.

  • ✓PhD, Mathematics · University of California, Berkeley
  • ✓~25 yrs research leadership · Google/YouTube, JPMorgan Chase
  • ✓9,000+ research citations
  • ✓Dept. editor · IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine (7 yrs)

Common questions

No. The IR™ AI Governance Operator Certificate is built specifically for people who don't have a JD or an engineering background — ops professionals, IT coordinators, compliance leads, legal operations specialists, and enterprise project managers. If you've been doing this work without a title, you're exactly who this is for.
Weeks 1 and 4 are live Zoom sessions (~90 minutes each). Weeks 2 and 3 are async video modules you complete on your own schedule, plus participation in the discussion channel. Total time commitment is roughly 3–4 hours per week.
You submit a slide deck — a governance gap analysis for a real organization, ideally your current or recent employer. You apply the Phase 0 framework, the GRACI™ matrix, and the coordination map to diagnose what's missing and what needs to be built. Decks are due October 24 and reviewed directly by Juanita and Dr. Staddon. The certificate is issued based on the quality of the analysis. No live presentation required.
Both live sessions are recorded and shared with the cohort. Attendance is strongly encouraged but not required to complete the program. Since the capstone is submitted as a slide deck rather than a live presentation, missing Week 4 does not affect your ability to earn the certificate.
Cohort 1 participants are building the certificate alongside the instructor — their capstone projects and feedback directly shape the curriculum for future cohorts. That contribution is worth the reduced rate. The Cohort 1 price will not be available again.
Full refund available up to 7 days before the cohort start date (September 29, 2026). No refunds after that date as cohort preparation will be underway.

The real AI work starts before the AI.

Enroll in Cohort 1 and earn the certificate that names what you've already been doing.