Head of U.S. Policy

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is looking for a Head of U.S. Policy. Washington D.C. location is preferred, but we are open to candidates in other U.S. locations.  The Head of U.S. Policy will report to FLI's Director of Policy.

FLI works to reduce catastrophic risks from transformative technologies and to develop optimistic yet realistic visions of the future. Our U.S. Policy team advocates for the adoption of forward-thinking AI policy at the state and federal levels.

As Head of U.S. policy, you will:

• Lead and grow our U.S. Policy team

• Develop and execute a policy strategy on how the U.S. can best navigate the current race to build Artificial General Intelligence

• Promote the adoption of future-proofed AI policy at the federal and state level, including mitigation of convergence risk (AI + bio and AI + nuclear)

• Build coalitions with other nonprofits, businesses and academics working on issues relevant to our mission

• Develop informational materials, conduct educational briefings to explain complex AI policy issues to non-expert audiences and represent FLI in the media

Required qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Masters equivalent or higher) in policy, law, or a technical field related to emerging technologies

• Five or more years of relevant work experience, mid-career and senior candidates encouraged to apply

• A detailed understanding of the challenges that artificial general intelligence may pose to society

• Strong self-direction, proactivity, and work ethic

• Comfortable working remotely and independently a significant portion of the time

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience managing high-performing teams

• Direct experience working for or advocating to legislatures and high-level civil servants at the state or federal level

• Advanced knowledge of the policy making process, including legislative procedures and opportunities for intervention 

• Understanding of the technical capabilities and limitations of AI systems

• Willingness to attend our internal retreat from Saturday January 25 to Friday January 31.

Application process 

Please upload your resume and a 3-5 minute video in which you explain where you think FLI can make the biggest difference to US AI policy and how you would set out to achieve this change.

In light of the imminent change in US administration, we are aiming to fill this role as soon as possible and will review applications on a rolling basis. Please apply by December 22 at the latest.

Questions may be directed to contact@futureoflife.org.

About the Future of Life Institute

Founded in 2014, FLI is an independent non-profit working to steer transformative technology towards benefitting life and away from extreme large-scale risks. Our work includes grantmaking, educational outreach, and policy engagement.

Our work has been featured in The Washington Post, Politico, Vox, Forbes, The Guardian, the BBC, and Wired.

Some of our achievements include:

- Pause Giant AI Experiments, an open letter calling for a 6 month pause on the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. The letter has been signed by more than 30,000 people, including Yoshua Bengio, Stuart Russell, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Yuval Noah Harari, and Andrew Yang.

- The Asilomar AI Principles, one of the earliest and most influential sets of AI governance principles.

- Testimony to the US Senate AI Insight Forum on Innovation, and the first civil society presentation to the US House of Representatives Taskforce on AI, encouraging policies that mitigate catastrophic risks from AI.

- Participation in the US AI Safety Institute Consortium.

- Slaughterbots, a viral video campaign raising awareness about the dangers of lethal autonomous weapons.

- The Future of Life Award, which retrospectively awards unsung heroes who made the world a better place. Past winners include individuals who prevented nuclear wars, helped to eradicate smallpox, and solved the ozone crisis.

- Worldbuild.ai, which imagines flourishing futures with strong AI and works out how to get there.

FLI is a largely virtual organization, with a team of 25 distributed across Europe and the US. We have offices in Campbell, California and in Brussels, Belgium, and meet in person as a full team twice a year.