About GovAI

GovAI was founded in 2016 at Yale University, as one of the first groups to focus on the policy implications of AI progress. We now operate as a 501(c)(3) think tank with offices in London and Washington, DC, as well as remote staff in various locations including San Francisco.

Over the years, GovAI's staff have produced foundational work on topics ranging from China’s growing AI ambitions to the dual-use capabilities of general-purpose AI systems. Our work has informed consequential decisions and has been published in venues ranging from Foreign Affairs to Science to War on the Rocks. Our alumni include senior policymakers, senior AI company staff, and the founders of several nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

GovAI’s mission is to help decision-makers in government and industry navigate the transition to a world with advanced AI. We host active research workstreams on topics including responsible AI development practices, risk analysis, the economics of AI, industrial policy, AI regulation, and AI progress forecasting. We produce a mixture of published outputs and bespoke analysis. In addition to our research, we also run large-scale programs to help foster AI policy talent. This includes a full-time fellowship program that attracts nearly 20,000 applications and more than 100 participants each year.

‍

About the Fellowship

Seasonal Fellowships are three-month opportunities designed to launch or accelerate impactful careers in AI governance and policy. GovAI runs two fellowships a year in our DC office, one in winter and one in summer, which each bring together cohorts of about 20 people.

Our fellowships are extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of only 0.2%. Our fellows come from a wide range of professional and political backgrounds — the DC program is committed to intellectual diversity and bipartisanship, bringing together fellows with a range of perspectives to work on the shared AI policy challenges facing the United States. While we aim to admit a good proportion of early-career individuals, our cohorts have also included senior government officials, Senate staffers, and accomplished professionals such as military veterans, consultants, software engineers, economists, and lawyers. Our fellowship alumni have gone on to influential roles in US government bodies including the Department of Commerce, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Department of War; leading think tanks including CSIS, CNAS, IFP, RAND, the Heritage Foundation, and the Foundation for American Innovation; frontier AI companies (e.g., Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind); and leading universities. 

Our fellowships are consistently rated very highly by participants, with around 90% reporting that they are very likely to recommend the fellowship to friends or colleagues, and that — from the perspective of their long-term career — the fellowship was much more valuable relative to what they would have otherwise done. In our last alumni survey, respondents reported that their time at GovAI increased the impact they will have in the AI governance space by around 40%.

During their time at GovAI, Seasonal Fellows work on research projects of their choice, while supported by an expert supervisor from the GovAI team or network. They spend the first two weeks of the fellowship exploring what project(s) would be most valuable for them to work on, with input from their supervisor, their Research Manager, and the broader GovAI community; and the following ten weeks executing on them. Alongside their projects, fellows also invest time in upskilling on AI governance and widening their professional network. GovAI organizes a series of Q&A sessions with AI governance experts, weekly seminars aimed at developing subject-matter knowledge, workshops for building relevant skills, work-in-progress meetings that facilitate peer-to-peer feedback, networking happy hours, and social events. Fellows are also encouraged to discuss follow-on career opportunities with our team and network.

‍

Role Description

As Research Manager, your core responsibility will be the Seasonal Fellowships in DC. Your responsibilities will include:

• Research managing around 10 Seasonal Fellows per cohort, which will include weekly meetings with each of them. You will have primary ownership of ensuring that your fellows set clear goals and timelines, and that they are supported on executing both their projects and their career search successfully. To achieve this, you will also liaise with the fellows’ supervisors, who have primary responsibility for providing feedback on the fellows’ work.

• Contributing to the selection of fellowship cohorts. This will include application grading, conducting interviews, making candidate recommendations, and providing input on the design of the selection process. It may also include input on our outreach strategy, and attending or organizing events to conduct outreach for the fellowship.

• Contributing to the setup of fellowships. This will include soliciting project suggestions from our team and network, recruiting supervisors and pairing them with incoming fellows, engaging guest speakers and arranging events with them, and developing pedagogical materials for seminars and workshops. 

• Contributing to the day-to-day running of the fellowship. Beyond your research management responsibilities, this will also include running events and workshops, moderating expert Q&As and discussion sessions, and generally taking responsibility for the experience of the fellows while at GovAI.

• Contributing to evaluating the program’s impact.

• Suggesting and implementing changes to the fellowship to increase its impact.
  ‍

Beyond your responsibilities on the Seasonal Fellowship, there are other contributions you could make to our talent development efforts, depending on your capacity, skills, experience, and interests. These include:

• Contributing to the management of our talent databases and providing candidate recommendations for external roles on request.
  

• Providing ongoing career support to our alumni.

‍

Selection Criteria

For all candidates, we will look for:

• Impact motivation. Someone excited by GovAI’s mission and the opportunity to make our programs as impactful as they can be.

• Excellent project management skills and attention to detail. You will concurrently manage multiple complex workstreams, requiring structured work habits, sharp prioritization judgment, and meticulous execution.

• Broad familiarity with US (AI) policy. You will provide feedback on fellows' research plans and outputs, and offer strategic input on projects aimed at US policy audiences, so familiarity with the US policy research landscape, especially with regard to AI policy, is a strong plus.

• Strong interpersonal skills and a coaching mindset. You should be able to support our Seasonal Fellows in overcoming challenges in their work and career search, while holding them accountable for meeting their goals.

• Strong professional judgment and communication skills. You will represent GovAI to fellows, a range of stakeholders (including internal and external supervisors), and fellowship guests, so it is important that you are adept at communicating clearly and professionally across diverse audiences.

• Proactivity and collaborativeness. You should be able to both drive your own work forward independently and partner effectively with colleagues.

• A drive to excellence. You should demonstrate a strong commitment to self-improvement and receptiveness to feedback, since these are core components of GovAI’s culture.

• (preferred but not required) An established network in the DC emerging tech policy community, typically built through at least a year working in or around DC. This will help you connect fellows with relevant experts and opportunities, and support speaker and supervisor recruitment.

‍

Salary and Location

This position is full-time. We require candidates to be based in DC during Fellowship periods (January to early April and June to August). Outside of Fellowship periods, hybrid work is possible, though we have a preference for candidates based in the DC area year-round.

We are able to sponsor US work visas.

We expect that successful candidates’ annual compensation will typically fall between $105,000 and $150,000. In some cases where salary considerations would prevent a candidate from accepting an offer, there may also be some flexibility in compensation. Please inquire with recruitment@governance.ai if questions or concerns regarding compensation or benefits might affect your decision to apply.

We also offer competitive benefits, including a 10% 401(k) contribution; health, dental, and vision insurance; a $6,500 professional development budget; a $6,500 childcare budget; flexible work hours, extended parental leave, in-office meals, and additional budgets for travel, technology, AI usage, and other expenses.

‍‍

How to Apply and What to Expect

The application process consists of a written submission in the first round, a paid remote work test in the second round, and interviews in the final round. We also conduct reference checks for all candidates we interview. Please apply using the form linked below. 

Please feel free to reach out to recruitment@governance.ai if you would need a decision communicated by a particular date, if you need assistance with the application due to a disability, or if you have questions about the application process.

Addressing complex AI governance challenges requires many different skill sets and perspectives. We welcome applicants from a wide range of backgrounds. If our mission excites you, we encourage you to apply, even if your experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification listed. Your unique combination of experience and motivation might be exactly what we're looking for.