Research Manager, AI Safety

We're open to hiring for these roles at different levels. For the right fit, we are open to this role being structured as a Senior Research Manager, and compensation will be commensurate with experience and expected scope, which could be above the pay rate listed here.

You'll work closely with research fellows and their mentors - renowned researchers from Cambridge and beyond - to support cutting-edge work on interpretability, AI control, formal verification for provably safe AI, evaluations, and various topics in AI governance & policy. We're interested in hiring research managers with technical research experience and governance & policy research experience.

- Conduct frequent 1-1s with your fellows, providing feedback on research progress and helping them overcome obstacles, coaching them through challenges such as but not limited to debugging the research and preparing literature scaffolds, and supporting data collection & analysis, as well as methodology development for the experiments & hypothesis tests

- Provide feedback on your fellows' research and help CBAI create an environment that nudges your fellows to be more rigorous in their approach

- Connect fellows with resources, literature, and opportunities they can explore during and after the fellowship program

- Communicate with your fellows' mentors to define clear research objectives and support your fellows' research progression

- Contribute to the fellow selection process by reviewing and interviewing candidates to ensure the cohort consists of individuals with strong epistemic standards

- Design reading group curriculum components and workshop programs

- Curate a speaker event series based on fellow profiles and recent important studies

- Support special projects aligned with your strengths (e.g., applicant selection, evaluation frameworks, mentor onboarding)

- Stay current on technical AI alignment or governance developments relevant to your fellows' work

- Prepare weekly briefs on the most recent developments in the field for fellows

Experience supporting complex intellectual work. You have helped others execute complex analytical or research projects. This might come from teaching, managing technical teams, conducting your own research, consulting, coordinating academic programs, or providing substantive feedback on others' work.

You understand the research process from the inside. You've done substantial analytical work yourself (whether in academia, policy analysis, consulting, or industry research). This means you can recognize when a research plan is solid vs. hand-wavy, identify blockers in someone's thinking, and suggest concrete next steps.

You're skilled at developmental feedback. You provide constructive feedback that advances the work, rather than simply identifying problems. You can help people strengthen their arguments, tighten their methodology, and present their findings more clearly, even when the specific topic is outside your core expertise.

Interpersonally excellent. You have genuine empathy, active listening skills, and a servant leadership approach. You enjoy helping others succeed and take pride in their accomplishments.

You're skilled at managing stakeholders and coordinating between multiple parties (researchers, advisors, administrators).

Organized and conscientious. You keep complex projects on track, follow through reliably, and maintain clear communication. You're receptive to feedback and continuously improve your approach based on what you learn.

Curious and adaptable. You're excited to learn about diverse research agendas and work with researchers from varied backgrounds. You actively seek out tools and approaches that can improve fellowship effectiveness.

The ideal candidate for this position will possess most of the qualities described above and will have a bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Public Policy, Political Science, or a related field, with research experience demonstrating strong methodological knowledge and a genuine interest in building a career in AI safety research.

- Previous involvement in AI safety/alignment programs or similar field-building initiatives

- Published research in interpretability, AI control, or adjacent agendas

You're supporting others' research. Your primary job is helping fellows execute their research projects, not shaping their research strategy. You'll coach fellows through challenges, provide feedback, and connect them with resources, but you won't set research directions or objectives; mentors and fellows own that.

In some cases, with mentor and fellow approval, you may contribute substantially enough to merit co-authorship, but this is a facilitation role first and foremost.

Your success is measured by fellows' accomplishments. When fellows publish papers, secure positions at top labs, or advance in their careers, that's your win. If you're primarily motivated by building your own research reputation or publication record, this role won't be satisfying.

If this sounds exciting to you - if you want to spend at least a year becoming excellent at supporting talented researchers, developing deep expertise in research facilitation, and gaining broad familiarity with cutting-edge AI safety agendas - then this role could be a great fit. But if you're primarily motivated by leading your own research, driving research strategy, or specializing deeply in a single technical agenda, you might want to wait for a different opportunity.

Salary: $100,000 - 145,000, depending on experience level. For exceptional candidates, we are flexible on the compensation range.

- You will also get the opportunity to closely contribute to frontier research and could be acknowledged as a co-author in some of your collaborations.

- Paid Test Task: Strong candidates from the phone screen will receive a paid test task that mirrors actual research manager

responsibilities - such as providing feedback on a research proposal, designing program components, creating evaluation frameworks, or suggesting a program design change based on the feedback. You'll have a fixed amount of time to complete this.