Head of Groups

Own Kairos’s support for AI safety university groups and make it far more ambitious.

Note: This role description is a first draft. Scope, salary, and responsibilities may evolve, and we’ll keep you in the loop about any changes if you apply.

Applications are due by September 25, 2026. We’ll review applications after the deadline and get back to everyone shortly after.

About Kairos

Kairos is a nonprofit accelerating talent into AI safety and policy. In just over two years, we’ve trained 1,200+ people through our flagship programs:

• SPAR : The largest AI safety research fellowship, with 400+ mentees per round mentored by researchers from Anthropic, Redwood Research, RAND, MIT, the UK AI Security Institute, and others.

• Generator Residency : In partnership with Constellation, a platform for generalist talent to pitch, build, and ship projects that build capacity and infrastructure across the AI safety ecosystem, with advisors from OpenAI, AI Futures Project, METR, and more.

• Global Challenges Project : A workshop series introducing promising students to careers in AI safety and biosecurity, run several times a year across Oxford, Boston, and Berkeley.

• Pathfinder Fellowship : Helping grow the global network of AI safety university groups from a few dozen to nearly 100, with $1.4M+ in funding to support their work.

We see ourselves as a portfolio of highly impactful projects in a fast-evolving field. Over the next six months, we expect to double in size and launch several new initiatives addressing critical gaps in the ecosystem.

The Role

University groups are where many people first get involved in AI safety, and Kairos provides most of the support these groups get today. Through the Pathfinder Fellowship, we provide mentorship and funding to organizers of AI safety university groups around the world, and through OASIS we bring top organizers together for in-person workshops. Over the past year, this work has grown from a fraction of our time to one of our core priorities, and we’re now building a team around it.

We’re looking for a Head of Groups to own this area as a whole and make it more ambitious. You’d set the strategy for how we plan to support AI safety university groups, decide which new initiatives we pursue, and build the team behind them. You would report to Neav Topaz (co-director).

It’d be up to you what the groups team pursues, but we’re weighing several ambitious directions, like hiring full-time organizers in key regions, running residencies for top organizers, seeding new groups at strong universities we’re not yet reaching, and giving the strongest groups much more hands-on support.

What You’ll Do

• Set the strategy for how we support university groups. You’ll decide where the work goes next, how our programs fit together, and what we should start, stop, or scale.

• Launch new initiatives. You’ll choose which new directions we pursue, like regional organizers, residencies, and focused support for top universities, and get them up and running.

• Own how we support and fund groups. You’ll set the bar for which groups and organizers we invest in, and decide where our funding goes.

• Represent the work externally. You’ll be the face of Kairos’s university groups work with organizers, universities, funders, and partner organizations across the ecosystem.

• Build and lead the groups team. A more ambitious version of this work means bringing on more people. You’ll define the new roles, own their hiring and onboarding, and manage the team as it grows.

• Contribute to Kairos more broadly. As bandwidth allows, you’ll help shape org-wide strategy, weigh in on new programs, and participate in cross-cutting work.

Who You Are

• Experienced with university groups firsthand. You’ve organized an AI safety university group (or similar), run programs that support them, or worked closely with the organizer ecosystem. We expect the strongest candidates will already know this world well.

• AI safety context. You have views on how fieldbuilding translates into impact, and enough context on the ecosystem to judge which groups, organizers, and bets are promising.

• Strong judgment about people. Much of the job is deciding which organizers to back and who to hire, often with limited evidence.

• Ambitious and high-agency. You’re excited to push this work well past its current size and quality bar. You’ll own the portfolio from day one, and should be comfortable building a vision, executing on it autonomously, and answering big open questions as they come up.

• Mission-aligned. You care deeply about the risks from advanced AI, and you think university groups are one of the most promising ways to help reduce them.

Why Work With Us

• You’ll be working toward reducing risks from advanced AI, potentially the most important challenge of our time. The groups you support are where many future AI safety and policy professionals get their start.

• University groups are a central part of Kairos’s strategy over the coming years, and you’d own how we scale that work.

• We’re building a world-class team, so you’ll be in good company. Work alongside people who’ve come to Kairos from METR, Coefficient Giving, Rethink Priorities, the UK AI Security Institute, and CEA who share your commitment to impact.

• Collaborate regularly with leading AI safety researchers, policy professionals, funders, and organizers.

What We Offer

• Salary : $140,000–$195,000 (baseline), $175,000–$245,000 (supported hubs, like London, DC, Boston, and NYC), or $195,000–$270,000 (San Francisco Bay Area), depending on experience, with potential for additional compensation for exceptional candidates

• Location : This is a remote role. We provide access to office space in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston, with optional coworking elsewhere. If you work from an AI safety office in one of these cities, we cover food, lunches, and office expenses.

• Benefits : Flexible working hours, highly competitive health insurance, dental and vision coverage, generous vacation policy, and professional development budget

• Team retreats: We host all-team retreats three times a year to connect in person, collaborate, and build team culture.

• Travel: Work-related travel and expenses covered.

Logistics

• Start date : Ideally by October or early November 2026, with flexibility for the right candidate

• Remote, with expected travel 3–6 times a year for conferences and events, predominantly in the US

• We’d also be happy for you to work out of any of the AI safety hubs in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston.

• We prefer candidates who can attend meetings in the ET time zone (though our team currently spans GMT-8 to GMT+1).

• Visa sponsorship (particularly O-1) may be possible depending on circumstances, but we can’t guarantee it

Our Culture

We’re a small, high-trust team motivated by the urgent challenge of making advanced AI go well. We try hard to figure out where we’re wrong, which means we say uncomfortable things to each other and change our minds fairly often. We value collaborative truth-seeking, a scout mindset, agility, and an alliance mindset with the broader ecosystem.

We also believe meaningful work should be enjoyable. We support each other’s well-being, celebrate wins, and maintain a healthy sense of humor even when the work is hard.

Application Process

Applications are due by September 25, 2026. We’ll review applications after the deadline and get back to everyone shortly after.

1. Application form (10–20 mins)

2. Screening call (15 mins)

3. Take-home assignment (1.5–3 hours, paid)

4. Interview (45 mins)

5. Reference checks

6. Work trial (3 days, paid)

7. Offer

If you’re excited about this role but unsure whether you meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. If you’re interested in multiple roles, apply to the one that best fits your skills and interests, and note in your application the other roles that you’d like to be considered for.

Questions? Reach out at View email address on aiapply.co.

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