National Security Expert

Palisade Research; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Dental coverage

Long-term disability

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Palisade Research is hiring a National Security Expert in Washington, DC to help the national security community understand and respond to AI risks by developing policy and capability recommendations and advocating for them across government, media, and the nonprofit sector.

Palisade's mission is to help people and institutions build the understanding needed to avoid permanent disempowerment by strategic AI agents.

Qualifications

• Familiarity with AI national security risks and policy implications.
• Willing to work in a project-based environment with shifting deliverables.
• Ability to navigate sensitive relationships with discretion and integrity.

Responsibilities

• Develop policy and capability recommendations for the national security community.
• Advocate for policy recommendations with government, media, and the nonprofit sector.
• Demonstrate sound judgement on using trusted relationships in the national security space.
• Support the head of policy and help grow the team.

Skills

AI policy knowledge

Project-based mindset

Discretion with sensitive information

Education

Intelligence/defense national security background

Job description

Palisade Research is hiring a National Security Expert in Washington, DC to help the national security community understand and respond to AI risks by developing policy and capability recommendations and advocating for them across government, media, and the nonprofit sector.

Palisade's mission is to help people and institutions build the understanding needed to avoid permanent disempowerment by strategic AI agents.

Description

About us: Palisade's mission is to help people and institutions build the understanding needed to avoid permanent disempowerment by strategic AI agents.

We believe that organizations in and around the national security community are increasingly tackling challenges around these risks – not just more-well-understood AI risks like the scope of lethal autonomous weapons deployments – and that they need to understand them to do their missions well. We need your help to make that case to national security experts and help them navigate this deeply-uncertain, exponentially-accelerating threat environment.

Responsibilities:

• Support our head of policy. He has some background in national security contracting, and held a clearance for a while, so understands some parts of the national security world well, but does not have as much recent experience "inside the building" (for any building you care to name) and is eager to grow our team with someone with more recent experiences there
• Develop recommendations for the national security community; these recommendations might include both policy as well as recommendations for how to better use national security capabilities and resources to protect against AI risks
• Demonstrate exceptional judgement about when to use, or not to use, your trusted relationships in the national security community; share our policy perspectives with friends and former colleagues with sensitivity and discretion
• Advocate for our policy recommendations with the government, media, and the non-profit community

Desired qualifications:

We expect that a successful candidate will have many, but not all, of these qualifications. Please apply for this role even if you are not sure if you meet them. In particular, if you are a motivated individual who cares about AI policy but is transitioning from another field, please DO apply.

• Familiarity with AI national security risks, particularly:
  • Loss of control to powerful AI systems
  • Recursive self-improvement
  • Catastrophic misuse
  • The rapid and exponential pace of AI capabilities growth
• An intelligence community, defense, regulatory, or academic background demonstrating expertise in national security
• A willingness to dive in and get things done – a successful employee in this role must be comfortable with a project-based approach where key deliverables might change every few months
• Understanding of DC policy processes, communities, and mechanisms, such as "how does the PDB get written, and why does it matter?" or "how does the Department of War make key recommendations to the President?" (We’re aware that many roles in the national security community define themselves as not doing policy themselves, and instead doing things like providing analytic insights to or carrying out the direction of policymakers. You do not have to have previously been in a role with “policy” specifically in the title to be eligible for this opportunity.)

Details of position:

• Based in Washington, DC with occasional travel to our Berkeley home office or other locations as required
• Full-time salaried employment; either hybrid or full-time in-person work
• Salary: $140K to $180K per year, dependent on experience
• Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and long-term disability coverage, unlimited PTO
• Reports to our Head of Policy, Dave Kasten