[Closed] Chief of Staff

Institute for Law & AI; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 96,653 - 185,872; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

5 weeks PTO

12 weeks paid parental leave

Employer pension contribution up to 4%

Health insurance

$5,000 productivity reimbursement

$2,500 for equipment and supplies

Job summary

A leading research think tank in Cambridge is seeking a Chief of Staff to collaborate closely with the Director and leadership team. The role encompasses strategic guidance, team management, and driving organizational goals. Candidates should possess strong leadership, analytical thinking, and communication skills. A passion for AI and law is essential, along with a commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace culture. This full-time position requires UK working hours, with flexibility in location and significant overlap expected.

Qualifications

• Strong leadership and management skills with high emotional intelligence.
• Results-oriented, able to prioritize, and adapt effectively.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic guidance and manage organizational health.
• Drive organizational scale, capacity, and hiring processes.
• Conduct horizon scanning and mitigate organizational risks.

Skills

Leadership and management skills

Analytical and critical thinking

Strong communication skills

Emotional intelligence

Self-awareness

Job description

$130,000 – $250,000 (depending on experience and location; additional flexibility for exceptional candidates)

The Institute for Law & AI (LawAI) is an independent think tank that researches and advises on the legal challenges posed by artificial intelligence. We believe that sound legal analysis will promote security, welfare, and the rule of law. We conduct research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, law, and policy and advise governments, research organizations, and private actors. You can learn more about LawAI here, alongside our recent publications and an overview of our workstreams and research directions.

About the role

LawAI is looking for a Chief of Staff to work closely with our Director (Christoph Winter) and the rest of the leadership team (Cullen O’Keefe and Mackenzie Arnold) to ensure that LawAI achieves its goals. As a key member of our team, you would provide strategic guidance, manage team members and organizational health, move forward key projects, and serve as a trusted confidante and sounding board, with the overarching aim of ensuring that LawAI fulfills its organizational objectives. This is a strategic role that will help to determine the trajectory of the organization.

Your main responsibilities would include:

• Setting organizational goals with the Director. For example, this could include refining LawAI’s impact metrics as the organization grows and the field evolves, or proposing new projects.
• Operating as a thought partner and source of objective counsel and feedback for the Director and leadership team.
• Making LawAI a great place to work. You would be responsible for our organizational health and culture, creating an environment where team members from all backgrounds feel a sense of belonging, have high job satisfaction, and perform well.
• Ensuring that LawAI meets its organizational goals and works in accordance with its theory of change. This might include developing and implementing processes for tracking goals and project milestones, seeking feedback from team members and external stakeholders, and periodic evaluation.
• Driving organizational scale and capacity. You would be a key part of hiring processes and decisions, project systems, and organizational goal-setting and tracking.
• Identifying opportunities for operational improvements as LawAI expands its team and work.
• Conducting horizon scanning. You would track organizational risks, working to mitigate risk factors and take advantage of arising opportunities where possible.
• Managing staff across teams to ensure that strategic objectives are being met and new opportunities identified.

Depending on the background and experience of the candidate, responsibilities could additionally include:

• Managing and offering mentorship, as needed, to the leadership team.
• Owning high‑priority meetings for the Director, for example by structuring the agenda and attendee lists, preparing and reviewing meeting materials, and following up on post‑meeting tasks.
• Representing LawAI in meetings with external partners, grantmakers, and institutions. You would be a trusted extension of our leadership team and the Director.

About you

You might be a good fit for this role if you:

• Are committed to our mission to promote security, welfare, and the rule of law in the age of AI. You need not be a subject matter expert, but we are looking for someone interested in learning more about AI, law, and policy to contextualize your work.
• Have strong leadership and management skills. You have high emotional intelligence and are able to manage teams, both directly and through the example you set, in a fast‑moving environment. You are able to convey the reasoning behind decisions when necessary and motivate a team. You both give and are receptive to constructive feedback.
• Are results‑oriented and able to prioritize effectively, with a bias towards adaptability and impact.
• Have strong analytical and critical thinking skills, especially the ability to quickly grasp complex issues, identify and evaluate key questions, and make strategic decisions. You can creatively problem‑solve in light of complex organizational issues.
• Are highly self‑aware. You know your strengths and seek opportunities to use them. You also know your limits and proactively seek input and guidance to fill gaps in your knowledge or skills. You can be trusted to act quickly when you know what to do and to pause and seek input when the stakes are high or when you would benefit from assistance.
• Are a good evaluator of talent and expertise. You are comfortable seeking input from experts outside your own domain and can leverage outside support to improve the quality and efficiency of your work and that of the team. You have good judgment in evaluating the quality of external advice and talent and know when to defer to people and when to challenge.
• Have excellent verbal and written communication skills. You can communicate appropriately with a variety of different stakeholders, demonstrating directness and professionalism.
• Can engage in both big‑picture thinking and detailed execution, managing and maintaining momentum on multiple projects.
• Are willing to occasionally work outside of conventional work hours.
• Can travel 2‑3 times a year for team retreats and conferences, typically in the United States or Europe.

This role might also benefit from you having some of the following qualifications, although you could still be a highly competitive candidate even if you don’t have any of them:

• Experience cultivating relationships and credibility with key stakeholders, such as policymakers, leaders in the private sector, grantmakers, and civil society organizations. You might already have strong connections in the AI law & policy space.
• Experience founding or scaling an organization.
• Good understanding of U.S. or international policy environments, the basic dynamics of the technology industry, and other ecosystems important to LawAI’s work.

All of the above said, there’s no such thing as a perfect candidate; we don’t expect a successful hire to excel in all of the dimensions here. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $130,000 – $250,000, depending on experience and location. For exceptional candidates whose experience exceeds our expectations in terms of relevance and seniority, we may consider higher compensation.

We’re ideally looking for someone able to start as soon as possible, but we’re open to waiting for longer if the ideal candidate isn’t available immediately.

Time zones and location

This is a full‑time, permanent position that requires significant overlap with UK working hours. We encourage in‑person work from our office in Cambridge, UK, but we have staff working from many different countries and support flexibility where needed.

Visas: We may be able to support visa applications in some instances for this role, though individual eligibility is not within our control.

Our benefits include:

• Flexible working hours, with in‑person work encouraged from our office in Cambridge, UK
• 5 weeks of PTO recommended per year, plus public holidays
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave that can be taken prior to birth or adoption and during the first year, with the option to take additional unpaid leave
• Employer pension or matching 401(k) contribution up to 4% of your salary
• Health insurance for employees residing in countries without nationalized healthcare
• An annual reimbursement fund of $5,000 for productivity and professional development
• An annual reimbursement fund of $5,000 for mental health support
• An annual reimbursement fund of $2,500 for equipment and office supplies
• A friendly, open work culture that encourages feedback and close collaboration, and a team that appreciates the contributions of all team members

Diversity

We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who share our mission. We are committed to creating an environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their race, religion, disability, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation.

Requests for accommodation

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability or incompatible assistive technology, please contact hiring@law‑ai.org to request reasonable accommodations.