kairos-project - SPAR Research Manager / Generalist

Remote - USA *$130k - $190k4mo ago

Remote Senior NA Gaming Research Engineer General Manager Mentoring Event Planning Program Management Slack

Requirements

• This could include things like: • Completing an AI safety course from BlueDot, CAIS, or AI Safety Atlas • Reading an AI safety book like The Precipice, The Alignment Problem, Uncontrollable • Engaging with projects like AI 2027, Situational Awareness, etc. • Reading/posting on LessWrong • Note that we don't require experience with AI safety. • What's something unusual you've accomplished (ideally outside of work)? • We're looking for things that don't fit the typical resume—the weirder the better. Think: starting an underground dinner series, speedrunning an obscure video game at a competitive level, building a solar-powered vehicle from scratch, whatever. Can also just be something you're proud of. • Tell us what it was, why it stands out, and what drove you to do it. • Logistical information • What is your career staage? • Undergraduate student • Master's student • 5 years of professional experience)">Mid Career (>5 years of professional experience) • When is your earliest available start date? • Start date context • Please indicate if you have any other time sensitivities we should be aware of or any more context you'd like to provide. • Where are you currently located? • Where do you anticipate working from if you were to be hired for this role? • Will you require visa sponsorship now or at any point in the future? • We might be able to sponsor O-1 US visas, but this is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. • If you selected "Other" in the previous question, where do you have work authorization? • Are you interested in similar opportunities at other AI safety organizations? * • We’ll only share your details if you give us permission below. This won’t influence your application decision, and you can opt out at any time by emailing [email protected] • If you selected "Other" in the previous question, please elaborate on whether you'd like us to recommend you and share your information with similar types of AI safety orgs • How did you hear about this opportunity? • Please provide specifics for how you heard about these roles (e.g the name of the Slack workspace you saw it in, which job board you found it from, the name of the person whose LinkedIn post you saw, etc.) • Feel free to share any additional information you think might be relevant. For example, details about your availability, constraints on your potential dedications, or relevant things you left out of your LinkedIn profile. • Submit Application

Responsibilities

• Support mentors. You’ll check in with mentors regularly across the round, provide ongoing Slack and email support, help scope projects, and troubleshoot mentee situations. • Support mentees. You’ll have brief 1:1 chats with mentees during the round, respond to questions in Slack and email, and follow up when midterm feedback flags issues. • Run programming for the cohort. You’ll plan and deliver monthly events for mentors and mentees, like workshops or speaker sessions. • Co-own Demo Day. You’ll help run our end-of-round Demo Day, where teams present their research to the broader community. • Help run SPAR more broadly. Beyond direct mentor and mentee support, you’ll contribute to how SPAR runs, including timeline decisions, recruiting, matching, and feedback systems. The exact scope here depends on your interests and experience. • What you won’t do. With 400+ mentees and 130+ mentors per round, you won’t be able to engage with each project’s research in depth the way a research manager at a smaller program (like MATS) does. Your job is to support the people and keep the program running well, not to direct, co-author, or closely supervise the research itself. • As SPAR grows and we bring on more research managers, the role may move toward somewhat deeper research involvement over time. Even so, given the program’s scale, we don’t expect it to ever resemble the high-touch research supervision you’d find at smaller fellowships.

Benefits

• You’ll be working toward reducing risks from advanced AI, potentially the most important challenge of our time. SPAR shapes who becomes an AI safety researcher and what they work on. • You’ll be in regular contact with mentors at top labs and orgs (Anthropic, Redwood, RAND, the UK AISI, and more), giving you a strong launchpad for future research or program roles in the ecosystem. • SPAR already has a strong brand, a robust mentor and mentee pipeline, and working relationships with most of the top AI safety orgs. • We’re building a world-class team, so you’ll be in good company. Work alongside people from METR, Coefficient Giving, Rethink Priorities, and CEA who share your commitment to impact. • Base salary: $130,000–$190,000, depending on experience and location, with potential for additional compensation for exceptional candidates • Retirement: 10% 401(k) contribution or equivalent pension contribution or salary increase • Location: Access to office space in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston; optional coworking elsewhere. If you work from an AI safety office in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston, we cover food, lunches, and office expenses. • Benefits: Flexible working hours, highly competitive health insurance, dental and vision coverage, generous vacation policy, and professional development budget • Team retreats: We host all-team retreats twice a year to connect in person, collaborate, and build team culture. • Start date: Ideally by the end of July 2026 • Remote, with expected travel 3-6 times a year for conferences and events, predominantly in the US • We’d also be happy for you to work out of any of the AI safety hubs in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston, though we have a light preference for people to work out of Berkeley. • We prefer candidates who can attend meetings in the ET time zone (though our team currently spans GMT-8 to GMT+1). • We may be able to provide visa sponsorship to the US, depending on the circumstances (especially, but not exclusively, O-1As). • We’re a small, high-trust team motivated by the urgent challenge of making advanced AI go well. We try hard to figure out where we’re wrong, which means we say uncomfortable things to each other and change our minds fairly often. We value collaborative truth-seeking, a scout mindset, agility, and an alliance mindset with the broader ecosystem. • We also believe meaningful work should be enjoyable. We support each other’s well-being, celebrate wins, and maintain a healthy sense of humor even when the work is hard. • APPLICATION PROCESS • 1. Application form (10–20 mins) • 2. Screening call (15 mins) • 3. Take-home assignment (1.5–3 hours, paid) • 4. Interview (45 mins) • 5. Reference checks • 6. Work trial (3–4 days, paid) • If you’re excited about this role but unsure whether you meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. • Questions? Reach out at [email protected]. • Know someone who might be a good fit? If your referral gets hired and completes 6 months with us, we’ll pay you a $5,000 referral bonus. Learn more here https://kairos-project.org/referrals.