Program Associate/Senior Program Associate

Summary

Join Open Philanthropy's Potential Risks from Advanced AI team as a Program Associate or Senior Program Associate. This role involves investigating funding opportunities, developing new grantmaking initiatives, and conducting research to inform program strategy. Successful candidates will evaluate grant applications, totaling over \$10M annually for Program Associates and \$25M for Senior Program Associates, or contribute to projects of equal or higher value. Responsibilities include scoping priority projects, building relationships with stakeholders, and conducting research. The ideal candidate possesses strong analytical and critical thinking skills, excellent writing abilities, and a good understanding of AI safety topics. Open Philanthropy offers a competitive compensation package, including health insurance, paid time off, family leave, and professional development opportunities.

Requirements

• Have strong analytical and critical thinking skills, especially the ability to quickly grasp complex issues, find the best arguments for and against a proposition, and skeptically evaluate claims. You should feel comfortable thinking in terms of expected value and reasoning quantitatively and probabilistically about tradeoffs and evidence
• Are a strong writer
• Have a good inside-view model of AI safety topics — for example, you can debate AI safety ideas and proposals convincingly, and explain cruxes and disagreements between different perspectives. (Note this role does not require that you have technical AI safety expertise — for example, you do not need to be able to replicate a technical paper.)
• Feel excited by the idea of getting to know many different people and projects, and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses like an investor would
• Have good social awareness and flexibility — i.e., you can effectively communicate with and understand a wide variety of people in a range of professional contexts
• Are inclined to take full responsibility and ownership over the outcome of a task, including poorly-scoped tasks that require first-principles thinking
• Communicate in a clear, information-dense, and calibrated way, with good reasoning transparency, both in writing and in person. You should be willing to ask questions if you are confused, and push back on conclusions you disagree with or don’t understand, even if they come from your manager or someone else more senior than you

Responsibilities

• Investigate grant opportunities. Essentially, a grant investigation is a focused, practical research project aimed at answering the question “should Open Philanthropy fund this, or not (and if so, at what level, for what length of time, etc.)?"
• Design, implement, and advertise new grantmaking initiatives. A recent example is our RFP on improving capability evaluations
• Scope out priority projects in AI safety and “pitch” them to potential founders
• Do research to inform program strategy, such as helping Open Philanthropy investigate a new grantmaking area within AI safety or evaluate the historical cost-effectiveness of a certain kind of grant
• Build and maintain relationships in the field, ensuring that feedback flows between us, our grantees, and other stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Feel excited by the intellectual work of evaluating possible funding areas and developing visions for them
• Enjoy the practical work of taking on fuzzily-scoped projects, refining their scope, deciding what to do next, and iterating
• Have strong networks in the relevant fields and communities, and are generally in the habit of talking to people and making connections
• Are highly diligent and detail-oriented
• Have strong project management skills, rarely drop balls, and complete a wide range of work tasks quickly and efficiently

Benefits

• Excellent health insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the U.S. for you and any eligible dependents) and an employer-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangement for certain other personal health expenses
• Dental, vision, and life insurance for you and your family
• Four weeks of PTO recommended per year
• Four months of fully paid family leave
• A generous and flexible expense policy — we encourage staff to expense the ergonomic equipment, software, and other services that they need to stay healthy and productive
• A continual learning policy that encourages staff to spend time on professional development with related expenses covered
• Support for remote work — we’ll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you need one, or connect you with an Open Philanthropy coworking hub in your city