Research Lead (AI Safety)

Location: Remote in most countries or in person in Berkeley, California or Singapore.

Salary: $290,000–$450,000 annually, adjusted for location and experience.

Company

hirify.global is a nonprofit AI research institute focused on reducing risks from advanced AI and supporting the development of safe and beneficial AI systems.

What you will do

• Define and own a research agenda addressing catastrophic risks from human-level or superhuman AI systems.
• Build and lead a technical research team, directly or with an engineering co-lead.
• Lead novel research projects involving unclear progress or success criteria.
• Develop experiments and prototypes in areas such as adversarial robustness, interpretability, scalable oversight, red-teaming, and AI evaluations.
• Communicate findings through publications, presentations, policymaker briefings, and collaborations with AI companies and governments.
• Build a research field through grantmaking, events, independent testing, and government advising.

Requirements

• Strong existing research track record in AI or another highly technical field such as computer science, mathematics, or physics.
• A clear research agenda with a theory of change, or a strong track record and research area that can be developed into an agenda.
• Experience leading teams, mentoring graduate students, or supporting early-career researchers.
• Ability to communicate novel methods and solutions to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Substantive prior engagement with AI safety through research, employment, or sustained independent contribution.
• Availability for full-time work, 40 hours per week.

Nice to have

• Established publication record in AI safety.
• Experience writing grant proposals and collaborating with external research organizations.

Culture & Benefits

• High autonomy in a mission-driven research environment focused on real-world impact.
• Access to sizable compute budgets on a managed cluster.
• Health insurance with 94% of the premium paid for eligible US employees.
• 401(k) plan with up to a 2% match, paid time off, and paid sick, bereavement, family, medical, and pregnancy disability leave.
• Work computer, work-from-home stipend, and reimbursement for work-related travel and equipment.
• Catered lunches and dinners at the Berkeley office on workdays.

Hiring process

• Application and asynchronous portfolio review followed by a 60-minute fit call.
• Research deep-day with a presentation and two interview sessions, followed by a five-day paid work trial.
• Structured reference calls and a final decision panel; the process typically takes 4–6 weeks.