Director of AI Strategy

The AI & Democracy Foundation (AIDF) is working toward a world where democratic capacity can keep pace with AI advances. We accelerate innovation, evaluation, and adoption of deliberative, democratic, human-centered, governance and alignment systems, for and with AI. We are both a non-profit (501c3) funder, and an advisor to philanthropic organizations, AI organizations, civil society, and governments on the design, funding, and adoption of democratic processes. You can see a partial articulation of our vision in this essay.

We believe that:

1. We need an alternative to both (a) dangerous concentrations of power enabled by AI and (b) the challenges of providing ‘no-guardrails access’ to increasingly capable AI systems.
2. High-quality deliberative democratic processes for decision-making on AI can provide a path forward, addressing both core kinds of risk—and enable us to maintain democracy in a world increasingly dominated by AI. We need “Democracy for AI”.
3. We will need to (carefully) use AI as part of such democratic processes if we want them to keep pace with AI advances. We need “AI for Democracy”.

The Director of AI Strategy will lead ecosystem-wide strategy, coordination, and funding to ensure that AI labs can have high-quality (AI-augmented) deliberative processes for critical decisions that need democratic legitimacy. This involves working closely with a network of organizations that provide democratic infrastructure for governments around the world, and helping accelerate the rate of innovation across those networks.

Responsibilities

• Co-develop and evolve our democratic AI ecosystem roadmap and strategy which will guide AIDF’s work and funding recommendations.
• Develop and coordinate research projects to derisk and overcome critical challenges to the roadmap, in collaboration with ecosystem partners.
• Design and lead ARPA-style programs to resource and support projects that can rapidly move the roadmap forward, in partnership with the head of operations and our deliberative democracy lead. This involves:

• Managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects involving AI labs, deliberative democracy practitioners, AI-augmented democracy innovators, and other allied organizations.
• Identifying and rapidly assessing novel projects in order to place them within a larger strategy and recommend appropriate resource allocations to them.

• Direct our work supporting AI labs in applying democratic processes for their decision-making.
• Build and expand the ecosystem:

• Serve as an ambassador and advocate to bring organizations and individuals focused on AI risks and opportunities into conversation, collaboration, and implementation toward democratic AI (e.g. speaking, writing, participating in workshops).
• Identify and work with the Head of Operations to bring the ecosystem together through convenings, online community spaces, and potentially the incubation of new organizations.
• Co-develop, advise, and support a network of funders, labs, innovators, executors, and evaluators involved in projects in the space.

• Lead a team of consultants, working group members, and advisors.

Qualifications

Strong candidates will have a mix of the following:

• Domain expertise: Strong subject matter expertise on AI risks and governance, a deep understanding of major players and strong existing relationships in the space; and the technical fluency to understand AI research advances and their implications (e.g. sufficient technical experience to understand relevant NeurIPS papers).
• Program management: Experience managing complex research and development projects, including with external stakeholders, with strong organization skills and an ability to manage multiple initiatives reliably and on time.
• Relationship management: High quality relationship management skills, including the ability to coordinate with high-level stakeholders such as tech company CEOs, funders, subject matter experts, and policymakers.
• Systems thinking: Systems thinker and sensemaker, with the ability to rapidly form mental models and build a holistic understanding of complex technical or organizational systems.
• Team management: Experience recruiting and managing team members and advisors.
• Research capability: A track record of executing or guiding high quality research or other impactful high-complexity outputs (e.g., in product, policy, planning), with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Startup experience: Experience working in highly dynamic early-stage startup-like environments. You enjoy taking initiative and problem solving in emergent situations without hand-holding—independently scoping and managing the execution of complex projects.
• High emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, feedback skills, and strong communication skills.

Location: The ideal hire would be available for meetings in San Francisco for 1-3 days per week for in-person collaboration and meetings, though remote candidates will also be considered. Candidates would ideally overlap at least six hours with Pacific Time working hours.

Applying

Please fill out this brief application form to be considered. We strongly encourage you to apply even if you believe you do not fulfill all of the requirements.

This role is open on a rolling basis, with applicants evaluated first come first serve. While we may not be able to respond to every candidate, we are committed to reviewing every application.

Shortlink to this page: go.ai-dem.org/jobs-ai