Scientific Director, Youth Safety & Wellbeing (Remote)

American Psychological Association; Washington (District of Columbia); Ibrido; USD 131.000 - 204.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

The American Psychological Association is seeking a Scientific Director for Youth Safety & Wellbeing to lead CBSAI with scientific authority, chair the Scientific Advisory Group, and ensure rigorous, defensible science informs AI-related guidance and product specifications.

The role requires a Ph.D., strong leadership, and a proven record in youth development research, with the ability to engage with academia, industry, funders, and policymakers. Remote-friendly with domestic travel.

Competenze

• Ph.D. in a relevant field (e.g., developmental or clinical psychology, public health, human-computer interaction, cognitive/behavioral science, or a related discipline), with an active or recent research record in youth development, media/technology effects, or a closely related area.
• Working knowledge of, and demonstrated engagement with, AI systems — sufficient to inform the translation of scientific findings into technical specifications and to engage credibly with engineering and product teams.
• Established, recognized standing in the youth safety/wellbeing research field, evidenced by publications, leadership roles, and/or peer recognition at a level that supports serving as a facilitator to senior Scientific Advisory members.
• Prior experience chairing, serving on, or otherwise running a scientific advisory board, review panel, or similarly convened expert body preferred.
• Scientific rigor paired with pragmatism: able to set a defensible evidentiary bar and act on it without requiring full field consensus.
• Strong ability to build relationships: can represent CBSAI credibly with senior academics, AI-company leadership, funders, and policymakers alike.
• Demonstrated moral and scientific integrity: a track record of holding independent positions under commercial or institutional pressure.
• Serves as a connector: Strong network across academic, clinical, industry, and policy communities working on youth safety and technology — knows who is doing credible work and who else to bring in.
• Comfortable operating at start-up speed in a newly formed, pilot-phase organization with evolving processes and limited infrastructure.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate scientific nuance for engineering, policy, and public audiences.

Mansioni

• Scientific Leadership & Advisory Management: Chair and manage the Youth Safety & Wellbeing Scientific Advisory, set agendas, recruit and steward members, and run the body as a genuine peer-level scientific forum.
• Scientific Leadership & Advisory Management: Serve as CBSAI's credible scientific face for this priority area — recognized by, and able to recruit from, the researchers the field already looks to.
• Scientific Leadership & Advisory Management: Maintain a broad, current personal network across academia, clinical practice, and industry research on youth development, media, and technology.
• Specifications Workstream (Owner): Own the Specifications workstream for Youth Safety & Wellbeing: translating behavioral science into useable specifications for engineering and product teams.
• Specifications Workstream (Owner): Translate scientific evidence into specific, engineer-ready product and design requirements, in partnership with Center staff.
• Specifications Workstream (Owner): Set the scientific bar for when available evidence supports action, balancing rigor with the need to respond to emerging challenges in a rapidly evolving field.
• Public Guidance Workstream (Scientific Review): Serve as scientific reviewer and sign-off authority for Public Guidance deliverables prior to release.
• Public Guidance Workstream (Scientific Review): Partner with Center staff on cross-workstream questions where a Topic produces deliverables in both workstreams.
• Independence & Scientific Integrity: Hold the line on scientific conclusions and methodology against commercial, reputational, and/or funder pressure, consistent with CBSAI's firewall commitments.
• Independence & Scientific Integrity: Flag independence or firewall concerns to the Executive Director.
• External Representation & Field Engagement: Represent CBSAI's science externally at major convenings, funder and industry conversations, and public forums.
• External Representation & Field Engagement: Build and sustain relationships that keep CBSAI credible with the scientific field, AI companies, and funders simultaneously.
• Team Building & Supervision: Directly supervise the Product Lead and help define how the Specifications workstream team grows.
• Team Building & Supervision: Serve as the working model for how future priority-area Scientific Leads are hired and structured as CBSAI adds priority areas.
• Travel: Some domestic and international travel to represent CBSAI at major scientific, policy, and industry convenings, Scientific Advisory meetings, and academic conferences.
• Other Duties as Assigned

Conoscenze

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Scientific communication

Formazione

Ph.D. in a relevant field

Descrizione del lavoro

The American Psychological Association is seeking a Scientific Director for Youth Safety & Wellbeing to lead CBSAI with scientific authority, chair the Scientific Advisory Group, and ensure rigorous, defensible science informs AI-related guidance and product specifications.

The role requires a Ph.D., strong leadership, and a proven record in youth development research, with the ability to engage with academia, industry, funders, and policymakers. Remote-friendly with domestic travel.