Federal Policy Lead

The Center for AI Safety (CAIS)

The Center for AI Safety (CAIS) is a leading research and field-building organization on a mission to reduce societal-scale risks from AI. Alongside our sister organization, the CAIS Action Fund, we tackle the toughest AI issues with a mix of technical, societal, and policy solutions. Our work includes:

• Publishing a global statement on AI risk signed by Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, and CEOs from the major AI labs.
• Leading the charge on a major AI safety bill (CA SB 1047).
• Running a large compute cluster for global academic researchers working on AI safety research.

Our founder and Director, Dan Hendrycks, is a leading AI researcher who contributed the most widely used LLM benchmark and has over 25,000 citations. He also serves as an AI Safety Advisor to xAI.

Federal Policy Lead Role

The Federal Policy Lead at CAIS is a pivotal role that involves steering and managing the organization’s federal policy and advocacy work. This position requires a strategic mindset and the ability to navigate complex policy landscapes, along with an understanding of the evolving political landscape and public viewpoints regarding AI risks and safety.

The Federal Policy Lead will be responsible for setting and implementing the strategy for CAIS’s policy priorities and goals. For 2024-2025, this may include working on compute governance, securing funding for NIST, liability for AI companies, and broader advocacy efforts.

In This Role You Will

• Set and manage the federal advocacy and policy strategy for CAIS.
• Liaise with the CAIS Action Fund to ensure alignment on advocacy and policy priorities and related activities between the organizations.
• Demonstrate up-to-date knowledge of global and USG regulatory environments and broader policy debates that impact CAIS’s mission to reduce societal-scale risks from AI.
• Work with the research and leadership teams to translate CAIS’s work into actionable policy recommendations.
• Prepare members of the CAIS staff to meet with Congress, federal agencies, and others to provide technical advice on policy, including developing written policy materials.
• Write policy analysis documents for particular policymakers.
• Prioritize and respond to government RFIs, public, or inbound requests from policymakers and others.
• Organize workshops and events, in partnership with the project management team, to bring together different stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in public policy, law, or STEM degree; an advanced degree is preferred.
• Experience in a technology company, government, NGO, or similar organization managing technology policy issues, including AI.
• 5+ years of experience in policy development and implementation.
• Experience working closely with technical teams and the ability to understand technical issues.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to balance competing priorities and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment.

Benefits Include

• Health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents.
• Competitive PTO.
• 401(k) plan with 4% matching.
• Free lunch and dinner at the office.
• Commuter benefits.
• Personalized ergonomic technology set-up.
• Access to top talent working on technical and conceptual research in the space.

Further Info

The salary range for this role is $180,000 – $200,000 and is located in Washington DC or San Francisco, CA. If you have any questions about the role, feel free to reach out to [email protected].

Equal Opportunity Statement

The Center for AI Safety is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Some studies have found that a higher percentage of women and underrepresented minority candidates won’t apply if they don’t meet every listed qualification. The Center for AI Safety values candidates of all backgrounds. If you find yourself excited by the position but you don’t check every box in the description, we encourage you to apply anyway!

Apply on our job site:  https://jobs.lever.co/aisafety/ae89cdb1-49e0-49b1-9c26-6f7235fe9a6d