Political Programs Lead

About the company

the company’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About the role

the company is hiring a Political Programs Lead to build and run the programs through which the company, its political action committees, and its employees take part in the political process, including our engagement with candidates and causes at all levels of government.

You will report to the head of Political Programs, Campaigns & Coalitions, who sets political strategy with company leadership. Your job is to help shape that strategy, turn it into programs, and run those programs day to day. This is a foundational role: you will design the programs, do much of the early work yourself, and hire as they grow.

the company's political participation is bipartisan, disclosed, and governed by written criteria with oversight. the company and/or its political action committees support elected officials and candidates in both parties who share a commitment to the safe development of AI and to democratic governance. Employee participation is always voluntary. We hold ourselves to a standard above what the law requires, and this role carries that standard every day.

the company is equal parts research lab, policy think tank, and technology company. Decisions made over the next two years will shape the future enormously. We want every serious candidate and elected official, in both parties, to understand the technology and the case for governing it well.

Key responsibilities

• Build and run the company's presidential engagement program for the 2028 cycle: map the prospective fields in both parties, offer AI policy education to candidates and their advisors on equal terms, prepare the company's executives for those conversations, and plan ahead for the platform, convention, and transition periods
• Build a candidate outreach and education program for federal, state, and local races: introduce the company to candidates in both parties, and brief them and their advisors on AI and AI policy on equal terms
• Build the company's field programs: grassroots and grasstops organizing on AI policy in priority states and districts
• Run the day-to-day of the company's political giving as one portfolio: the employee-funded PAC at the federal level and in certain states, voluntary employee participation programs, and corporate contributions where the law permits
• Develop, in partnership with the government relations teams, recommendations for the PAC board and company leadership on which candidates and committees to support, applying our written criteria on AI safety and democratic governance
• Build the company's political intelligence: a current read of races, committees, states, and the presidential fields that informs leadership decisions and helps our government relations teams plan
• Design the education and events that help employees who choose to participate in politics do so in an informed way
• Build senior relationships in both parties, and represent the company credibly in that community
• Support the head of the function in advising the company's leadership on political risk and opportunity
• Design and run every program and communication with Legal and outside counsel so that it operates within campaign finance, lobbying, and gifts and ethics rules, and maintain the separations those rules require
• Work closely with the Federal, State and Local, Policy, and Communications teams so political programs fit the company's policy positions and public voice
• Report on what the programs do, internally and as part of the company's public disclosure
• Hire and manage a small team as the programs grow

Minimum qualifications

• Experience in campaigns, party committees, political organizations, or corporate or association political programs, including at least one role where you ran a program or budget and answered for its results
• Working knowledge of the ways a company and its employees can lawfully take part in politics (PACs, individual giving, 501(c)(4) and trade association engagement, grassroots and grasstops, candidate education) and the campaign finance, lobbying, and gifts and ethics rules that govern each
• Experience advising senior executives on political matters

Preferred qualifications

• 12+ years in campaigns, party committees, political organizations, or corporate or association political programs
• Senior-level experience in national politics: on a presidential campaign, at a major party committee, or at a national political organization with programs across the country, with knowledge of how candidate fields form, how campaign policy operations work, and how early-state and platform processes shape what candidates commit to
• A record of working credibly with both parties
• Experience building or running grassroots or grasstops organizing programs
• Federal and state experience, including familiarity with governors, attorneys general, and state legislators as well as federal candidates
• Experience building a program, team, or approach that did not exist before, and still enjoying doing the work yourself
• Sound judgment and discretion in reputationally sensitive work, treating legal and ethical limits as part of program design
• Credibility at the leadership table
• Belief in the company's mission, and interest in helping candidates and officials in both parties understand the stakes of AI governance

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.

Annual Salary:

$295,000—$345,000 USD

LogisticsMinimum education:

Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience

Required field of study:

A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience

Minimum years of experience:

Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position

Location-based hybrid policy:

Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship:

We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.