Chief of Staff, AI Alignment Foundation

The AI Alignment Foundation (AIAF) is a 501(c)(3) that does hands-on AI alignment research and backs promising directions that typical funding models overlook. Our active portfolio includes gradient routing, self-other overlap, endogenous steering resistance, and self-interpretation adapters. We're funded by the UK AI Security Institute, Amaranth Foundation, Coefficient Giving, AE Studio, and other large philanthropic donors, and we collaborate with researchers at Anthropic, DeepMind, and Redwood Research, across academia, and with DARPA and other US government research programs. We believe alignment is solvable and that people just haven't tried hard enough. Strikingly little genuine alignment research is happening anywhere in the world. AIAF exists to scale alignment research, doing the actual research and funding the neglected bets. ABOUT THE ROLE Alignment isn't just bottlenecked on ideas. It's bottlenecked on execution. Every week there are more live opportunities than hands to run them: funder relationships, policy openings, research collaborations, US Government memos, hiring leads, essays that need writing. You'll be Chief of Staff to our Partnerships Lead, and your job is to make sure none of it dies on the vine. Some of that is your own object-level work, like writing the memo, drafting the proposal, or updating the CRM. Some of it is holding others accountable so nothing slips. And a lot of it is judgment, knowing which of the twenty things in flight actually matter this week. This is a high-trust, high-autonomy role for someone who wants to operate at the center of a fast-growing alignment organization. You'll write for funders and the AI alignment community, sit close to strategy, and help build the operational spine of an organization aiming to scale substantially over the next few years. WHAT YOU'LL DO Translate a stream of updates into prioritized, actionable tasks, track the big projects and the minutiae alike, and own the follow-through. Write, a lot. Draft funding proposals, one-pagers, donor memos, and AI-alignment-facing communications. Scale up our grantmaker two-pager pipeline. Hold the org accountable as it scales, running the daily “did this get done?” across contractors, staff, and collaborators so commitments don't quietly slip. Keep the funder, partner, and opportunity CRM current so nothing goes cold. Talk with technical researchers and government-relations people and turn their work into proposals for extended, future work. Turn each new funder, program, or collaboration into a tracked workstream with a real owner and a real deadline. ABOUT YOU You've never once said 'that's not my job.' You reply before the meeting ends, fix things before anyone flags them, and would rather ship a good memo today than a perfect one Friday. You write exceptionally well and fast. You can turn a messy voice memo into a clean memo, and a scattered brief into a persuasive funding proposal. You're organized by default. Your task lists are where things get done, not where they go to die. You have genuine context on AI safety and the alignment landscape. You don't need to be a researcher, but you should be able to follow a conversation about alignment work, understand what makes it fundable, and prioritize accordingly. You're high-responsiveness and low-ego. You'll dive into whatever needs doing and get it done without being asked twice. You thrive in ambiguity and move fast. Nobody is handing you a checklist each morning. REQUIREMENTS Excellent writing and written communication. This is the single most important qualification. Strong operational instincts, prioritization, and project-management skills. Genuine familiarity with AI safety and the alignment landscape. Full-time availability, with willingness to travel occasionally (AI safety events, DC). BONUS POINTS FOR A track record of writing that's landed with AI safety audiences (LessWrong, Alignment Forum, grant applications). Prior experience supporting a founder or executive as a chief of staff, executive assistant, or ops generalist. Experience with grant writing, nonprofit operations, or CRM tools. Technical background (CS, engineering, or similar) or fluency reading AI/ML research. COMPENSATION Salary range $120k–$200k/year, depending on experience. We're prepared to go above this range for candidates who bring a particularly strong technical or writing background. We’re open to more junior or senior versions of this role.