Senior Technical Specialist, AI Risk Assessment

Summary

Join the Center for AI Risk Management & Alignment (CARMA) as a Senior Technical Specialist to conduct original research in AI safety and technical governance. This remote role, with occasional travel, requires methodological rigor in assessing AI risk pathways and developing frameworks for industry standards and policy. You will serve as a subject matter expert, bridging technical AI safety with governance, enhancing research quality, and driving risk assessment methodologies for advanced AI systems. The position involves developing threat models, modeling risk transformation, designing governance frameworks, and ensuring research quality. You will also collaborate across teams, contribute to technical standards, and communicate findings to stakeholders. CARMA is a fiscally-sponsored project of Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in AI safety, alignment, and/or governance
• Strong understanding of multiple risk modeling approaches (causal modeling, Bayesian networks, systems dynamics, etc.)
• Experience with systemic and sociotechnical modeling of risk propagation
• Excellent analytical thinking with ability to identify subtle flaws in complex arguments
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
• Publication record or equivalent demonstrated expertise in relevant areas
• Systems thinking approach with independent intellectual rigor
• Track record of constructive collaboration in fast-paced, intellectually demanding environments
• Comfort with uncertainty and rapidly evolving knowledge landscapes

Responsibilities

• Develop techniques for discovering threat models and generating risk pathway analyses that capture societal and sociotechnical dimensions
• Model multi-node risk transformation, amplification, and threshold effects propagating through social systems
• Contribute to the design of robust technical governance frameworks and assessment methodologies for catastrophic risks, including loss-of-control scenarios
• Provide strategic and tactical quality control for the team’s research, ensuring conceptual soundness and technical accuracy
• Drive or take ownership of original research projects on comprehensive risk management for advanced AI systems, aligned with the team's objectives
• Collaborate across CARMA teams to integrate risk assessment paradigms with other workstreams
• Contribute to technical standards and best practices for the evaluation, risk measurement, and risk thresholding of AI systems
• Craft persuasive communications for key stakeholders on prospective AI risk management

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in complex systems theory, control theory, cybernetics, multi-scale modeling, or dynamical systems
• Work history at AI safety research organizations, technical AI labs, policy institutions, or adjacent risk domains
• Experience with quality assurance processes for technical research
• Ability to model threshold effects, nonlinear dynamics, and emergent properties in sociotechnical systems
• Understanding of international dynamics and power differentials in AI development
• Ability to balance consideration of both acute and aggregate AI risks
• Experience with causal, Bayesian, or semi-quantitative hypergraphs for risk analysis
• Demonstrated methodical yet creative approach to framework development

Benefits

• $140,000 - $220,000 a year
• Good benefits