Community Manager

MATS Research; Berkeley (CA); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private medical insurance

Lunch and dinner provided

Hybrid work options

Job summary

MATS Research in Berkeley, CA is seeking a Community Manager to support fellows and nurture a safe, inclusive AI alignment community. You will build relationships, provide emotional support, and implement our community strategy to help researchers flourish.

This role reports to the Community Lead, requires 2–5 years in related work, and offers in-person work with hybrid options, paid time off, health benefits, and opportunities to advance the field through events and partnerships.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of experience in community building and people management.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; empathetic and proactive.

Responsibilities

• Build meaningful relationships with fellows through one-on-one meetings and provide emotional support.
• Execute on our community strategy and coordinate with the Community Lead.
• Collaborate with Research Management and Operations teams to support fellows.
• Support fellow orientation and offboarding.
• Organize events, socials, and workshops, including evenings/weekends.
• Identify concerns and coordinate with teams to address them.
• Engage with the broader AI alignment community and related organizations.

Skills

Community building

People management

Counselling

Coaching

Mentoring

Job description

About the Role

In addition to helping individuals develop research skills, MATS empowers fellows to make their own positive impact on the AIS field and beyond. Community Managers build a safe, supportive, and nurturing environment where researchers can flourish. You will work in collaboration with the team to support fellow welfare, foster community connections (both within the MATS community and with aligned organizations), and enhance the MATS experience. A great Community Manager builds strong relationships with fellows, anticipates community needs, and creates support systems that promote both individual wellbeing and collective flourishing.

MATS is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming research environment. We welcome applications from individuals with varied backgrounds, and we know that resumes and careers don’t always fit a particular mold. We encourage you to apply even if your experience does not fully match the description and even if you’re very new to AI alignment.

Job Responsibilities

A Community Manager’s primary role is to support the needs of fellows and improve the MATS community environment. This role reports to the Community Lead. Key objectives will be to continue and build upon the team’s work on building a supportive MATS environment and a vibrant community with aligned organizations. Specific responsibilities include:

• Build meaningful relationships with fellows through one-on-one meetings to learn about their needs, help create a plan for the individual to flourish, provide emotional support, talk through challenges, and receive feedback;
• Execute on our community strategy;
• Coordinate with the Community Lead about fellow needs;
• Collaborate with Research Management and Operations teams, as needed, to support fellows;
• Support fellow orientation and offboarding;
• Facilitate MATS community building by organizing and supervising socials, networking events, and workshops (occasional hosting of events on evening or weekend);
• Help improve the program based on fellow feedback;
• Proactively identify concerns and coordinate with appropriate team members to address them, connecting fellows with appropriate resources;
• Support our engagement with the broader AI alignment and security community, deepening relationships with other organizations and facilitating collaboration with MATS fellows.

Desired Skills & Experience (or Knowledge, Skills, Abilities):

• 2-5 years experience across a combination of the following:
• • Community building (with focus on relationship building)
  • People management
  • Counselling
  • Coaching
  • Mentoring
• Autonomy and proactivity;
• Strong interpersonal skills (e.g., patience, active listening, empathy);
• Strong communication skills;
• Comfortable working with private and confidential information;
• Experience providing emotional support and mediating conflicts;
• Able to practice good judgement in urgent and/or high-stakes situations, if necessary;
• Project management (especially in a community building context, e.g. events)
• Mission alignment (no pun intended!): We’re working to ensure AI systems remain beneficial and aligned with human values. You don’t need to be an expert, but we’d love it if you have a genuine concern for good outcomes for AI.

Nice to haves:

We’d be excited about applicants that have one or more of the following:

• Experience setting community policies, for example in an HR function;
• Some data analysis skills are a plus, but not required;
• Some knowledge of (or willingness to learn about) AI safety-specific concerns that sometimes bear on community health (e.g. potential consequences of transformative AI as described in thisvideo).

What we offer

• Opportunity to help accelerate and launch the careers of highly talented early-career AI Safety researchers
• Professional development and skill enhancement opportunities, including training and attending industry and professionally-relevant conferences
• Work in a small team and take on responsibility and initiatives
• Collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment
• Access to our office spaces in London, Berkeley, and other partnered office spaces
• Competitive salary, sick and vacation leave
• Private medical insurance, including dental and vision
• Lunch and dinner provided Monday-Friday

About Compensation

• Salaries at MATS are set by level: each role has defined levels, and each level maps to a salary band.
• • The salary band listed in this particular role covers two levels.
• The essential skills listed above contain the basic requirements, and align with the lower end of this range.
• MATS provides in-office, catered lunches and dinners to employees on workdays.
• Paid work trips, including staff retreats, business trips, and relevant conferences.
• Funding and support for professional development.
• 17 days of annual paid time off for Berkeley-based employees.
• Flexibility for hybrid work (but not for fully remote work).
• Collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment.
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance.
• Both Roth 401(k) and Traditional 401(k) for US-based employees.

Working hours and location

40 hours per week. Successful candidates can expect to spend most of their time working in person from our main office in Berkeley, California. We are open to hybrid working arrangements for exceptional candidates.

MATS is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment at the forefront of our field. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.