Head of Frontier AI Systems & Strategy

World Economic Forum LLC; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

World Economic Forum LLC, based in San Francisco, seeks a senior leader to shape the Frontier AI Systems & Capabilities workstream. You will define strategy, lead horizon scanning, and coordinate with labs, policymakers, and industry partners to drive responsible AI deployment.

The role reports to Head, Data and AI Innovation and requires on-site work 3 days per week, with a salary range of $140,000–$160,000 per year. CAIE leads this enterprise’s responsible innovation mandate.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in AI, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Business, or Technology Governance.
• 7+ years of frontier AI capabilities, system architecture, AI safety, or related governance experience with real-world deployment.
• Fluency in contemporary AI systems: foundation models, agentic systems, multi-agent coordination, evaluation methods, deployment infra.
• Ability to analyse emergent system-level risk across models, agents, tools, and infra.
• Familiarity with interoperability, identity, observability, and coordination protocols.
• Experience translating frontier research into actionable frameworks for C-level stakeholders, standards, or policy instruments.
• Ability to operate under high uncertainty and develop structured analysis in fast-moving environments.
• Community management and project management experience.
• Strong track record engaging model developers, infrastructure providers, governments, or multilateral institutions, with executive-level communication and coalition-building capability.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve strategic direction for the Frontier AI Systems & Capabilities workstream.
• Lead horizon scanning across frontier models and architectures and translate into system behaviour.
• Develop system foresight analyses to identify emergent behaviours and risk points.
• Analyse model-to-system translation, including planning, memory, simulation, and coordination effects.
• Identify emergent failure modes at model and system level across agents, tools, and environments.
• Develop evaluation, assurance, and deployment frameworks with identity, permissions, observability, and traceability as requirements.
• Lead analysis of embodied and spatially grounded AI systems for real-world interaction dynamics and assurance needs.
• Convene frontier labs, infrastructure providers, standards bodies, safety institutes, and policymakers to set reference points.
• Oversee workstream delivery: planning, resourcing, stakeholder engagement, reporting.

Education

Master’s degree in AI/Systems/CS/Business/Technology Governance

Job description

World Economic Forum LLC, based in San Francisco, seeks a senior leader to shape the Frontier AI Systems & Capabilities workstream. You will define strategy, lead horizon scanning, and coordinate with labs, policymakers, and industry partners to drive responsible AI deployment.

The role reports to Head, Data and AI Innovation and requires on-site work 3 days per week, with a salary range of $140,000–$160,000 per year. CAIE leads this enterprise’s responsible innovation mandate.