kairos-project - Head of Talent Operations
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
• KAIROS RECRUITING (YOUR FIRST PRIORITY) • Kairos is scaling fast and we don’t have a dedicated recruiting function. Getting our own hires right is a top priority: every person we bring on has an outsized effect on how fast we can move. • Own Kairos’s hiring pipeline end-to-end. Build and run processes for new roles, drawing on the same networks and judgment you’ll later use for external placement. • Source, evaluate, and close candidates. Manage screening, trial tasks, references, and offers across multiple concurrent searches. • Build hiring infrastructure that lasts. Set up the systems, templates, and rubrics that let Kairos run good hiring rounds without reinventing the process each time. • HEADHUNTING (JUNIOR AND EARLY-CAREER TALENT PLACEMENT) • We have 400+ mentees per round through SPAR and 65+ university organizers through Pathfinder, plus a growing alumni network. 80,000 Hours handles senior headhunting well, but nobody does this for junior talent, and it’s one of the biggest gaps in the ecosystem’s infrastructure. • Build relationships with hiring organizations across the AI safety and policy ecosystem. • Proactively match early-career people from SPAR, Pathfinder, GCP, and the broader network to open roles. • Track placement outcomes and use them to improve the matching process over time. • Turn informal referral work into structured process, so good matches don’t depend on whether someone thinks to ask Neav. • Talent Commons is a shared, consent-based talent database for organizations across the AI safety ecosystem, letting programs like MATS, GovAI, and Horizon surface leads across pipelines. Jesse and Agus are building the technical platform, and you’d own the programmatic side. • Onboard partner organizations and get them actually using the platform. • Maintain data quality and the trust that makes the system work. • Shape product direction as the platform develops • CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSITION FUND (CDTF) • We’re planning to take over this grantmaking program from Coefficient Giving and expand it significantly. CDTF would potentially have three tracks: career transition grants, hub sponsorship, and a partner fund model. Our budget model estimates $1M–$8M flowing through CDTF over two years. Transfer expected around August/September 2026. • Set grantmaking strategy across the three tracks, with additional team support as volume grows. • Process applications and make grant decisions, holding the bar on judgment calls about who to fund. • Manage the relationship with Coefficient Giving during and after the transfer. • Validate the partner fund model and build the relationships needed to make it work. • Help shape where Kairos goes next. Surface where talent gaps are shifting and what the ecosystem needs. • Work with Neav and Agus on how the function evolves and when to hire into it. We expect this role to grow into a small team, likely in 2027.
Benefits
• You’ll be working toward reducing risks from advanced AI, potentially the most important challenge of our time. Who you fund and where you place people will directly affect whether organizations working on AI safety get the people they need. • There’s no existing playbook for this function. You’d be designing it and have strong ownership over a large aspect of Kairos’s direction. • You’ll have real strategic input building out Talent Operations and co-creating the strategy with Neav and Agus. • The function will probably grow into a team, and you’d be the natural person to lead it. • 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. • Collaborate regularly with leading AI safety researchers, policy professionals, funders, and organizers. • Base salary: $170,000–$260,000, 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.
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