Generalist (Talent Ops)

Help get the people who come through Kairos’s programs into high-impact AI safety roles, as part of our new talent operations function.

Note: This role description is a first draft. Scope, salary, and responsibilities may evolve, and we’ll keep you in the loop about any changes if you apply.

Update: We’ve updated this description to move recruiting out of this role and into a separate Recruiter https://kairos-project.org/careers/recruiter role.

We’re reviewing applications on a rolling basis.

ABOUT KAIROS

Kairos is a nonprofit accelerating talent into AI safety and policy. In just over two years, we’ve trained 1,200+ people through our flagship programs:

• SPAR https://sparai.org: The largest AI safety research fellowship, with 800+ mentees per round mentored by researchers from Anthropic, Redwood Research, RAND, MIT, the UK AI Security Institute, and others.

• Generator Residency https://generatorresidency.org/: In partnership with Constellation, a platform for generalist talent to pitch, build, and ship projects that build capacity and infrastructure across the AI safety ecosystem, with advisors from OpenAI, AI Futures Project, METR, and more.

• Global Challenges Project https://www.globalchallengesproject.org: A workshop series introducing promising students to careers in AI safety and biosecurity, run several times a year across Oxford, Boston, and Berkeley.

• Pathfinder Fellowship https://pathfinder.kairos-project.org: Helping grow the global network of AI safety university groups from a few dozen to nearly 100, with $9.5M in funding over the next two years to support their work.

We see ourselves as a portfolio of highly impactful projects in a fast-evolving field. Over the next six months, we expect to double in size and launch several new initiatives addressing critical gaps in the ecosystem.

THE ROLE

Thousands of people apply to or take part in Kairos’s programs every year. Talent operations is our new function for identifying the most promising of these people, supporting them, connecting them to high-impact opportunities, and tracking where they end up. Getting people into impactful careers is much of why we run our programs, and there’s much more Kairos and the wider ecosystem can do to help, especially for early-career talent.

We’re looking for a generalist to do much of the hands-on work in this function, working alongside our Head of Talent Operations (a role we’re also hiring for) and making heavy use of Talent Commons, our shared, consent-based talent database for the AI safety ecosystem.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Identify promising people. You’ll gather signals on standout participants, such as SPAR mentors’ views on their mentees and the GCP team’s picks after each workshop, and keep our records on people accurate and up to date, for example with current job histories.

• Support them. You’ll help connect top participants with good next steps during and after our programs, such as career advice, introductions to funders or other organizations, or visits to AI safety hubs.

• Make referrals. You’ll find strong candidates from our programs and network for open roles and fellowships across the ecosystem, as well as for our own programs, and get them in front of the people doing the selecting.

• Track outcomes. You’ll follow up on the referrals we make, find out which led to hires or acceptances, and feed what you learn back into how we match people.

• Pitch in on broader Kairos work as capacity allows. You’ll help on active programs like SPAR, Pathfinder, and Generator, build relationships across the AI safety ecosystem, and ship small cross-team projects.

WHO YOU ARE

• Mission-aligned with context on AI safety. You care deeply about making advanced AI go well, and you have enough context on the ecosystem to make good judgments about who’s promising, what work matters, and where Kairos should focus.

• Good with people. Candidates and hiring organizations should enjoy working wit