Principal, Special Projects

Aisafety; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Center for AI Safety seeks senior operators to own high-stakes projects and initiatives. You will identify high-impact opportunities, define strategy, and drive execution end-to-end with autonomous judgment and trusted responsibility.

The role involves shaping ambitious efforts across AI safety research, policy, and engagement with external partners. You should bring a track record of delivering complex initiatives and thrive working independently in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Analytical thinking and data-driven decision making.
• Ability to develop strategies and drive execution on complex projects.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfort working with high autonomy and making sound judgments under uncertainty.

Responsibilities

• Own high-stakes projects end-to-end: identify opportunities, define strategy, build plans, and execute.
• Scope new projects end-to-end with objectives, deliverables, timelines, and budgets.
• Coordinate with researchers, vendors, policy partners, and collaborators to move work forward.
• Stay agile as priorities shift; re-scope and re-prioritize without losing momentum.
• Monitor risks and surface critical issues with recommended paths forward.
• Demonstrate a track record of delivering complex, ambiguous initiatives with outsized results.
• Define goals, success metrics, and constraints through research and interviews.
• Make sound calls with incomplete information and escalate appropriately.
• Operate with high autonomy and escalate the right things at the right time.
• Strong analytical skills for evaluating feasibility, impact, and risk across domains.
• Genuine interest in AI safety and willingness to develop deep domain knowledge.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Strategic planning

Communication skills

Autonomy

Leadership

Risk assessment

Job description

The Center for AI Safety (CAI) is a leading research and advocacy organization focused on mitigating societal‑scale risks from AI. Some of our past achievements include releasing the most widely used measure of AI capabilities used by all major AI companies, running a large compute cluster to facilitate AI safety research which has been cited over 16,000 times, and publishing a global statement on AI Risk signed by Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and top AI CEOs.

The Role

We’re hiring senior operators to own high‑stakes projects and initiatives. You will identify high‑impact opportunities, define strategy, and drive execution end‑to‑end. Above all, we need people who can operate autonomously: someone with the judgment to navigate complex decisions and the track record to be trusted with significant responsibility.

The scope is broad by design. Example projects ongoing or prospective include partnering with the team behind TeamTrees to run a public campaign on AGI risk, supporting researchers in building benchmarks for deception and weaponization risk, finding ways to engage YouTubers and long‑form creators on AI safety, and standing up an AI safety hub in New York. What unites these is the need for someone with the judgment and ability to take an ambiguous mandate and turn it into a concrete outcome, without needing to be managed closely.

Responsibilities

• Own projects and initiatives end‑to‑end: identify opportunities, set strategy, build plans, and execute.
• Scope new projects end‑to‑end, defining objectives, deliverables, timelines, and budgets.
• Coordinate across researchers, vendors, policy partners, and external collaborators to move complex work forward.
• Stay agile when priorities shift: re‑scope, re‑prioritize, and adjust without losing momentum.
• Monitor risks and surface critical issues early, always with a recommended path forward.
• Have a track record of owning complex, ambiguous initiatives and delivering outsized results.
• Able to scope new problem spaces quickly: defining goals, success metrics, and constraints through research, interviews, and good judgment.
• Consistently good judgment under uncertainty. You make sound calls with incomplete information, know when to move fast and when to slow down, and leadership can trust your decisions without reviewing every detail.
• Comfort operating with high autonomy: you find the path forward even when one isn’t obvious, and you escalate the right things at the right time.
• Strong analytical skills for evaluating feasibility, impact, and risk across very different domains.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. You can present complex ideas clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Genuine interest in AI safety and the willingness to develop deep domain knowledge.

Who We're Looking For

You’ve operated at a high level in fast‑moving, high‑stakes environments—and have the track record to prove it. Example profiles we’re looking for include former startup founders and COOs—people with both exceptional ability and judgment. Your specific background may look very different.

The Center for AI Safety is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. In alignment with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.