Head of Residencies

Tarbell Center for AI Journalism; United States; Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 164,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible annual leave

Paid parental leave

Health insurance

Pension/401(k)

Equipment budget

Office stipend

Job summary

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism is hiring a Head of Residencies in our Talent Programs department to relaunch and own our yearlong journalist-in-residence program. You will recruit journalists in residence, help them set goals, and oversee their reporting projects while at Tarbell.

You'll expand the program from one journalist annually to 3–5 starting in 2027, identify core AI beats, mentor residents, and partner with the broader Talent Programs team to design meaningful programming.

Qualifications

• Seven+ years of relevant experience in journalism, editorial leadership, or fellowships/residencies.
• Strong familiarity with AI journalism landscape and ability to identify strong journalists by name.
• Excellent project management and asynchronous communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the journalist-in-residence program and scale from 1 to 3–5 journalists annually by 2027.
• Identify beats/topics in AI and network with journalists.
• Mentor journalists in residence and oversee their reporting projects.
• Collaborate with Talent Programs to design residency programming.

Skills

AI journalism landscape

Project management

Mentorship

Communication (asynchronous)

Job description

Own and run Tarbell's journalist-in-residence program to support writers doing world-class coverage of AI, including recruiting journalists in residence and working with them during their time at Tarbell.

About the Tarbell Center

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism supports journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI. We provide funding and training to strengthen AI reporting at major news outlets.

Since 2023, we've raised >$30M in funding and supported 75+ journalists through fellowships, grants, and residencies. We're now entering a period of rapid expansion as we scale from a $4M budget in 2025 to $14M+ in 2027.

Across our programs, we’ve supported a wide range of impactful reporting:

• Accountability reporting: Our journalists have broken corporate accountability stories about OpenAI’s legal tactics against nonprofits and xAI violating its own safety policies. An investigation into Character.AI's failure to protect minors on its platform contributed to the company banning under-18s within a week of publication.
• AI policy coverage: Our reporters have produced expert policy analysis, revealed exclusive information about state-level AI policy developments, and investigated AI policy lobbying.
• Effects from AI: Fellows have covered both the effects of current systems, ranging from climate to mass discrimination, and the emerging risks from frontier models, such as sabotaging shutdown mechanisms or helping engineer pandemics.
• Sensemaking: We’ve supported explanatory journalism that helps the public make sense of circular funding deals, advancements in automating AI R&D, military integration, and developments in China.

We believe journalism will be essential to helping society understand and respond to AI advancements in the coming years. By 2030, we aim to grow Tarbell into the leading institution supporting AI journalism globally.

The opportunity

We’re hiring a Head of Residencies in our Talent Programs department to relaunch our yearlong journalist-in-residence program as it becomes a robust and ambitious effort to support the best working freelance journalists covering AI. In this role, you’ll work with the Program Director, Talent Programs to redesign the residency program and then own it end-to‑end, including assisting with recruiting journalists in residence, helping them set and meet their goals, and overseeing the work they do while at Tarbell.

What you'll do

• Lead the journalist-in-residence program as it expands from supporting one journalist annually to 3-5 each year, starting in 2027
• Identify the most important beats and topics within AI for Tarbell to support, and network within journalism to identify potential journalists-in-residence who cover them
• Work with journalists in residence on their reporting projects during their time at Tarbell, providing mentorship and accountability for achieving their goals
• Partner with the broader Talent Programs team to design programming for journalists in residence
• Help build Tarbell. As a small team, we all step in where we’re needed. You’ll occasionally take on work outside this description, and we’ll make sure it helps you grow.

In your first 6 months, success looks like:

• You’ve run an application cycle for journalists in residence and identified up to 3 promising candidates for a Spring 2027 start.
• You’ve worked with the Program Director, Talent Programs to refine the journalist in residence program’s objectives and goals.

Who we're looking for

You'll be a great fit if you:

• Have at least seven years of relevant experience, including work with senior reporters, either as an editor in a newsroom and/or through a fellowship or residency program
• Have deep familiarity with the AI journalism landscape. You don’t need extensive technical AI expertise. We’re looking for someone who has followed AI coverage closely enough to identify strong journalists by name and build relationships with them. By the end of your first year, you should be able to hold your own in discussions of the intellectual and technical questions around transformative AI.
• Have strong project management skills and excellent communication skills, especially asynchronously.
• Care about journalism that helps the public understand the development and deployment of transformative AI systems.

It's a bonus if you:

• Have previous experience with journalist-in-residence programs or yearlong fellowships for mid-career journalists
• Have management experience or aptitude. This isn’t currently a management role, but we anticipate that the Residencies team could add members as the program grows.

Compensation and benefits

In line with our commitment to transparency, we don’t negotiate salaries. Instead, we make every candidate our best offer from the start. Starting salaries by location are listed below, and where your offer falls within the range depends on your experience and how you do in our hiring process.

• US remote $135,000-151,000
• Washington DC $142,000-158,000
• New York City $147,000-164,000

Benefits include:

• 33 days of flexible annual leave, plus a paid week-long office closure at the end of the year
• 10 days of sick leave
• 20 weeks of paid parental leave
• Up to 8% employer contribution towards a standard pension/401(k)
• Gold health insurance plans for US staff. Private medical plan for UK staff. Tarbell pays 95% of employee premiums and 75% of dependent premiums.
• Dental and vision insurance for US staff, Tarbell pays 95% of employee premiums and 25% of dependent premiums.
• Long-term disability, term life and AD&D for US staff. Group life and income protection for UK staff.
• An equipment budget to set up your workspace, plus a yearly allowance to keep it up to date
• Collaborative offices in London, and a monthly stipend for staff without access to a Tarbell office.

For the right candidate, we’re flexible on location, as long as you can overlap with some of our team’s working hours. We do give preference to applicants based in the following locations in the UK and US: London, Washington D.C. New York, or the San Francisco Bay Area. London-based candidates will be expected to work from our office two days a week. As we open offices in other locations, the same expectation will apply there.

Our hiring process

Our process includes:

• Application
• Structured interview
• Reference checks
• Paid work trial: 1 day, with additional interviews scheduled at your convenience

We acknowledge every application and aim to get back to candidates within 15 business days of the applicationdeadline. Our ideal start date is February 2027.

If you need an adjustment or accommodations to apply or interview, email [e-mail] and we'll make it work.

Tarbell is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, sexual preference, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.