Job Description
NGO Jobs. Open Philanthropy Jobs
- Associate Program Officers typically have established expertise in technical AI safety (i.e. 2-4 years of TAIS-relevant experience) or bring professional judgment and transferable skills from other domains while having some technical AI safety expertise (i.e. typically 0.5-2 years of TAIS-relevant experience and 3+ years of other professional experience).
- In addition to the tasks listed above, Associate Program Officers might expect to:
- Develop our grantmaking strategy in particular areas, including ways we could increase impact or use active grantmaking to shape the field of AI safety.
- Actively create highly promising grant opportunities where they do not already exist.
- Own relationships with our largest and most important grantees.
You might be a good fit for these roles if you have:
- Familiarity with AI safety. You have well thought out views on the sources and severity of catastrophic risk from transformative AI, and in the cases for and against working on various technical research directions to reduce those risks. You communicate your views clearly, and you regularly update these views through conversation with others.
- Technical literacy. You are comfortable evaluating a technical proposal for technical feasibility, novelty, and the potential of its contribution to a research area (e.g. to one of the research areas we list in our most recent RFP). You are at home in technical conversations with researchers who are potential or current grantees.
- Good judgment. You can identify and focus on the most important considerations, have good instincts about when to do due diligence and when to focus on efficiency, and form reasonable, holistic perspectives on people and organizations.
- High productivity. You are conscientious and well-organized, and you can work efficiently.
- Clear communication. You avoid buzzwords and abstractions, and give concise arguments with transparent reasoning (you’ll need to produce internal grant writeups, and you may also draft public blog posts).
- High agency. You will push to make the right thing happen on large, unscoped projects, even if it requires rolling up your sleeves to do something unusual, difficult, and/or time-consuming.
- Technical AI safety research experience. You have published TAIS research in the past. This is not a hard requirement, but is useful for these roles (especially the more senior roles).
- We also expect all staff to model our operating values of ownership, openness, calibration, and inclusiveness.
In general, roles within the team are fairly fluid, with people at different levels of seniority contributing to a range of tasks according to where their skillset and experience is most valuable. Even “junior” team members (in terms of professional experience) regularly take on significant responsibility, especially in areas in which they have expertise.
Central tasks across the roles could include:
- Evaluating technical grant applications, for example those that came from our recent RFP.
- Iterating with potential grantees on their research ideas and strategic plans.
- Maintaining strong knowledge of important developments in AI capabilities and safety research, and adapting our funding strategy appropriately.
- Developing strong relationships with key AI safety researchers and other important people in the field, and understanding their views on important developments.
- Explaining our AI safety threat models and research priorities to potential grantees.
- Sharing feedback and managing relationships with grantees, both in writing and conversation.
How to Apply
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