Program Officer, AI Model Safety

datadotorg; United States; Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

datadotorg is seeking a founding grantmaker for its AI Model Safety program in a hybrid role based in San Francisco. You will oversee grantmaking across independent testing, safety research, control, and new ideas, sourcing and evaluating opportunities, and granting resources to strong grantees.

You will build relationships with safety organizations, academia, funders, and AI companies, shaping the field through strategic funding and bold initiatives.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in AI safety, including hands-on research in model safety or evaluations.
• Deep fluency in AI model safety: evaluations, red-teaming, auditing, interpretability, control, and alignment research.
• Ability to follow frontier AI capabilities and risks to form independent judgments and identify what the ecosystem should do.
• Insight into where AI is headed and the risks it brings, with views on what needs safety work.
• Proven track record in owning ambitious, loosely scoped projects and driving them to success.
• Strong prioritization mindset: evaluate impact, tractability, and neglectedness, and act on ranking.
• Excellent writing and communication: clear, transparent documents outlining reasoning and risks.
• Deeply mission-aligned and motivated to ensure AGI benefits humanity.

Responsibilities

• Run the program’s grantmaking across domains from sourcing to granting resources to grantees.
• Conduct grant investigations and present recommendations to the board.
• Identify and seed high-impact safety projects and founders to advance the field.
• Collaborate with the AI Resources team to route resources to safety grantees.
• Develop the program strategy with the team lead and map funding priorities and gaps.
• Build and maintain relationships with safety organizations, AI safety institutes, academics, funders, and AI companies’ safety teams.

Skills

AI safety

AI safety research

Risk assessment

Futures thinking

Project leadership

Prioritization

Communication

Mission alignment

Job description

In A Nutshell

Location

Hybrid San Francisco, CA, United States

Salary

$220,000 - $300,000 / year

Job Type

Full-time

Experience Level

Mid-level

Deadline to apply

September 30, 2026

We are looking for a founding grantmaker for the Foundation’s AI Model Safety program: someone with deep technical fluency in how frontier models are evaluated, audited, and made safer, who can turn that into a grant portfolio and a stronger field.

Responsibilities

• Run the program’s grantmaking across its domains (independent testing and evaluations, industry standards, foundational safety research, AI control, and other new ideas) from sourcing through investigation to getting resources into grantees’ hands.
• Run grant investigations and make grant recommendations to the board.
• Proactively identify the most important projects and organizations that need to exist, and make them happen: scope priority projects, find or develop the right founders, and actively build new initiatives, seeding them if required.
• Work with the AI Resources team to route AI resources to safety grantees and help them absorb it productively.
• Develop the program’s strategy with the team lead: what we should fund, what others in the ecosystem are doing, and where the gaps are.
• Build and maintain relationships across the safety ecosystem: independent safety organizations, AI safety institutes, academic groups, other funders (philanthropic and VC alike), and AI companies’ safety teams.

Skillset

• Have at least 3 years of experience in AI safety, ideally including hands‑on research in model safety or evaluations, whether in a research role, on a safety or evals team, in grantmaking, or helping start an organization.
• Have deep, current fluency in AI model safety: evaluations, red‑teaming, auditing, interpretability, control, and alignment research.
• Follow frontier AI capabilities and risks closely enough to have independent judgment about them, with views on the risks that matter most and on what each part of the ecosystem should do.
• Have a view on where AI is going, which risks it brings, and what to do about them: your own takes on how capabilities will develop, and what that means for the safety work that will be needed.
• Excel at owning ambitious, loosely scoped projects: you find the right people, convince them to start new work, and support their success.
• Have a relentless prioritization mindset: you evaluate opportunities on impact, tractability, and neglectedness, and act on the ranking.
• Write and communicate: compelling, transparent documents that explain your reasoning and appropriately highlight risks, uncertainties, and downsides internally.
• Are deeply mission‑aligned and excited to help ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.

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