Head of U.S. Policy

Socket.dev; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Lucid Computing seeks a Head of US Policy in Washington, DC, to shape the theory of change for frontier AI verification and to translate regulatory priorities into precise, verifiable claims for researchers and red teams.

You will build and manage relationships with policymakers, think tanks, standards bodies and international counterparts, and you will author briefings, testimonies and explainers to support governance in AI development.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience in US AI or technology policy with a track record of delivering outcomes
• Ability to read and translate technical work into policy terms
• Proven ability to write clearly for non-experts on governance topics
• Existing relationships across frontier AI oversight communities

Responsibilities

• Define Lucid’s theory of change for frontier AI verification in the US and identify government roles
• Give policymakers and agencies an accurate picture of what is possible now and at what cost
• Translate policy proposals into verifiable claims and coordinate with research/red teams to test them
• Build and own relationships in Washington and with think tanks, standards bodies and international counterparts
• Write policy briefings, public comments, testimony and explainers for relevant audiences
• Track domestic frontier AI regulation and international compute-agreement proposals
• Grow and structure the policy function as the team expands

Skills

US AI policy

Policy communication

Stakeholder engagement

Government liaison

Job description

The Role

We are looking for a Head of US Policy to make the state of the art in AI verification legible in Washington, while also ensuring verification engineers are building towards policy objectives of governments.

This work is critical and urgent: frontier AI developers are now openly asking governments for support to pace the frontier, but the ability to do this verifiably does not yet exist. Lucid Computing seeks to solve this gap. For example, we are retrofitting a 16-GPU H100 cluster in Sweden to create an adversarial testbed for verification mechanisms to go through repeated cycles of being built and then attacked by an independent red team, with the architecture and all results open sourced. This is the quickest way to close the time needed from design to world class red teaming.

This role sits between our technical team and relevant external parties. Externally, you will give policymakers an accurate picture of what can be verified today, what could be with investment, what cannot, and what each option costs. Internally, you will take the priorities emerging in domestic frontier AI regulation and in proposals for international compute agreements and turn them into specific verifiable claims, so that our researchers know what to build and our red team knows what to attack.

Responsibilities

• Define Lucid’s theory of change for frontier AI verification in the US, and where government plays a role in this

• Give policymakers, congressional staff, agencies and the wider governance community an accurate picture of AI verification: what is possible now, what is close, what is not, and at what cost

• Translate policy proposals into precise verifiable claims, and work with the research and red teams to test whether current mechanisms can meet them

• Build and own Lucid's relationships in Washington and beyond, including think tanks, standards bodies and international counterparts. Define the best ways to engage with these stakeholders and deliver on them

• Write regularly for the above audiences, including briefings, public comments, testimony and explainers

• Track domestic frontier AI regulation and international compute-agreement proposals

• Build the policy function as it grows

Requirements

• Substantial experience in US AI or technology policy, with a record of changing outcomes rather than tracking them, whether in government, Congress, a think tank or a company's policy function

• The ability to represent technical work accurately: either enough depth to read a verification paper or system design yourself, or a demonstrated record of getting there quickly in a new technical domain

• Track record of writing that makes technical AI governance accessible for non-experts

• Existing relationships across the communities working on frontier AI oversight

• Comfort operating with limited precedent, and a preference for building structure rather than inheriting it

Useful, not required

• A technical background in security, cryptography, hardware or distributed systems

• Experience with verification regimes in other domains, such as arms control or nuclear safeguards

• Experience making technical or policy work accessible to a wide audience across press, social media, multimedia and explainers, and a habit of pitching ideas rather than waiting for a brief

• Experience in standards bodies or multi-stakeholder governance

• Prior experience building a policy or government-affairs team

The first 90 days

• A defined theory of change and strategy for US policy. This could involve government, but it could also focus on industry standards. The person in role would be tasked with setting the priorities.

• A system for tracking engagement and outcomes with relevant external stakeholders

Practicalities

This role is based in Washington, D.C., or requires substantial time there. Regular travel to San Francisco, London and to policy and industry events should be expected. Compensation is competitive and includes equity.