Kairos - Contract Software Engineer
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
• Design the frontend, backend, and integrations for Talent Commons. This includes the participant dashboard, org query interface, consent flows, and admin tooling. • Design the frontend, backend, and integrations for Talent Commons. • Design the data model and access controls. Talent Commons holds sensitive career data, and we need strong guarantees around who can see what, when, and how everything gets logged. • Design the data model and access controls. • Onboard partner orgs. You’ll set up authorized-user agreements, query interfaces, and data ingestion from Airtable and other systems. • Onboard partner orgs. • Lean heavily on AI coding tools. Claude Code, Cursor, etc. will be your friend here, and will enable us to ship this far faster than we would otherwise. • Lean heavily on AI coding tools.
Benefits
• For US Candidates: $70 – $120 per hour • Build out Talent Commons, a shared talent database for organizations across the AI safety ecosystem. • Note: This role description is a first draft. Scope, salary, and responsibilities may evolve as our plans develop over the coming weeks, and we’ll keep you in the loop about any changes if you apply. • Note: • Kairos is a nonprofit accelerating talent into AI safety and policy. In just under two years, we’ve trained over 1000+ people through our flagship programs: • SPAR: The largest AI safety research fellowship, with 400+ mentees per round mentored by researchers from Anthropic, Redwood Research, RAND, MIT, the UK AI Security Institute, and others. • Generator Residency: In partnership with Constellation, a platform for generalist talent to pitch, build, and ship projects that build capacity and infrastructure across the AI safety ecosystem, with advisors from OpenAI, AI Futures Project, METR, and more. • Generator Residency • Global Challenges Project: A workshop series introducing promising students to careers in AI safety and biosecurity, run several times a year across Oxford, Boston, and Berkeley. • Global Challenges Project • Pathfinder Fellowship: Helping grow the global network of AI safety university groups from a few dozen to nearly 100, with $1.4M+ in funding to support their work. • Pathfinder Fellowship • We see ourselves as a portfolio of highly impactful projects in a fast-evolving field. By the end of 2027, we expect to double in size and launch several new initiatives addressing critical gaps in the ecosystem. • You’ll be working toward reducing risks from advanced AI, potentially the most important challenge of our time. Talent Commons is intended to be infrastructure that orgs across the field rely on. • Clear, well-scoped project. Stakeholders are engaged, design work is well underway, and there’s a clear path to shipping in 3-5 months. • Clear, well-scoped project. • Possibility to extend. If the work goes well, there’s room to extend into other software based field building projects at Kairos. • Possibility to extend. • Collaborate regularly with leading AI safety researchers, policy professionals, funders, and organizers. • Hourly rate: $70-$120/hr (anchored to the US), with variance depending on experience and location, with potential for additional compensation for exceptional candidates • Hourly rate: • Travel covered: Work-related travel and expenses covered • Travel covered: • Logistics • Engagement: 3-5 month contract starting by end of July 2026, with possibility to extend • Engagement • Hours: Open to full-time or part-time, with a minimum of around 20 hours/week. Flexible on how you structure your time within that • Hours • We prefer candidates who can attend meetings in the ET time zone (though our team currently spans GMT-8 to GMT+1). • Our Culture • 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 scout mindset, agility, and collaboration with the broader ecosystem over territorial thinking. • 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 • Application form (10–20 mins) • Screening call (15 mins) • Take-home assignment (1.5–3 hours, paid) • Interview (45 mins) • Reference checks • 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. • Know someone who might be a good fit?
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