What This Role Is
Every year, millions of students use Cialfo to navigate one of the biggest decisions of their lives — where to apply, where to get in, where to go. Behind every student's application journey on the platform is a counselor at one of 2,000+ partner schools who's trusting that the process holds: that data is accurate, that documents are complete, that nothing falls through the cracks at the moment it matters most.
Operations is where that trust gets earned or lost. A missing document, a mismatched form, a status that doesn't get updated, any of these can be the difference between a student's application landing on time and a student missing their shot at a school they've worked years toward.
Cialfo has built the platform counselors actually choose to run this process on, with Saige, our AI layer, live and helping make it faster and more accurate. This role sits inside the operational backbone that makes that promise real, supporting the team that keeps applications moving cleanly from submission to decision.
At the highest level, you own getting the details right on the applications and processes you touch, and making sure nothing pending stays invisible.
What Makes This Role Different
Most operations internships hand you busywork and call it exposure. This one puts you inside a live, high-volume application process at the platform counselors around the world actually rely on, you'll see how operational discipline at scale actually works, not in theory but in the daily mechanics of thousands of student applications moving through a system.
You'll also be doing this inside the wider Manifest ecosystem, where Cialfo's counselor-facing rigor connects to how BridgeU, Kaaiser, and Explore run their own operations, admissions, and outreach elsewhere. Few internships let you see operational excellence practiced at this level of stakes this early in a career.
What You Own
Application Processing & Submission
- Assist in preparing and processing student applications through the Cialfo platform
- Check documents, forms, and data for accuracy against requirements
Documentation & Coordination
- Verify completeness of academic, tagging and supporting documents
- Coordinate with internal teams to close out missing or incorrect information
Tracking & Follow-Ups
- Keep application status current on internal systems and trackers
- Follow up on pending submissions and outstanding responses
Process Support
- Maintain process checklists and timelines alongside the team
- Learn and apply the standard operating procedures for application support
What Success Looks Like
- The markers below reflect where the Operations function is today. We'll calibrate the specifics once you're in the seat. These are directional, not fixed.
- In your first weeks, success looks like understanding the application lifecycle end to end; what a complete file looks like, what different schools and universities actually require, and where things typically go wrong. You're asking good questions and your document checks are catching errors before they become problems.
- By the middle of your internship, your submissions are accurate and on time without close supervision, and the team can hand you a batch of applications and trust it'll come back clean. Your follow-ups are proactive rather than reactive, you're chasing pending items before they become urgent.
- By the end, you've built a real understanding of how a counseling-platform operations function runs under deadline pressure, and the team has a clear view of what you're capable of owning next.
- The specifics will be calibrated once you're in the role. The direction won't change.
What You Bring
- You're currently pursuing or have recently completed a degree, in any discipline — this role is about attention to detail and follow-through, not a specific academic background.
- You're organised in a way that shows up in the work, not just on a resume: you notice when a document is missing a page, when a form doesn't match what's required, when a status hasn't been updated in a week. Interest in college counseling or the international education space is a real plus, even if it's untested; curiosity about how this ecosystem works will serve you well here.
- You're comfortable working inside documents, spreadsheets, and internal systems, and you don't need someone to tell you twice how a tracker should be updated. Prior exposure to college counseling, education technology, or application processes will help you ramp faster, but it isn't required.
- You're coachable, genuinely open to correction, quick to apply feedback, and not precious about getting something wrong the first time as long as you fix it the second. Strong follow-up instincts and clear communication matter more here than any credential.
Why Manifest
Manifest Global is building the infrastructure for global human capital mobility — connecting students, schools, universities, and employers across 50+ countries. Our portfolio spans Cialfo (AI-powered college counseling, 2,000+ schools), BridgeU (university guidance for international schools globally), Kaaiser (trusted study abroad counseling since 1997 across India and Southeast Asia), and Explore (AI-powered university outreach, 1,000+ university partners). Together, we move talent across borders at scale. $700B flows annually in remittances from migrant workers. 85M workers will be missing from developed economies by 2030. We're building the operating system which changes that. $80M raised. Still early.
For this role specifically, operations is where the promise Cialfo makes to counselors and students actually gets kept or broken, application by application. It's foundational, not peripheral, to why schools trust the platform.
Cialfo is part of Manifest Global — a multi-brand group building the infrastructure for global human capital mobility, operating across 50+ countries.
