Hiring Specialist

About the Team

GovAI was founded to help humanity navigate the transition to a world with advanced AI. One crucial input to achieving this mission is ensuring that we can identify and recruit exceptionally talented staff and visiting researchers. 

Since publishing our first research agenda in 2018, we have helped define and shape the field of AI governance. Our researchers have published in top venues, including Science and Nature, and work closely with decision-makers across government, industry, and civil society. Our alumni have gone on to influential roles in government (US, UK, EU), leading AI companies (e.g. DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic), top think tanks (e.g. CSET, RAND), and leading universities (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge).

Our team and affiliate community possess expertise across risk management, threat modelling, frontier AI regulation, technical governance, agent governance, AI economics, international cooperation, US-China relations, and AI forecasting.

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Why you might be interested in this role

• You'll be key to the most important outcomes in talent identification for GovAI. 
  
  • Every outstanding researcher, fellow, or staff member who joins GovAI will have been shepherded through processes you've designed and run. Your operational excellence directly translates to better outcomes for humanity's AI future.
• You'll solve difficult puzzles and work to navigate challenging tradeoffs.
  
  • How do you identify the top 30 candidates from 15,000 applications without missing anyone who might be a good fit? How do you design processes that feel personal and engaging even when handling thousands of applications? These aren't just logistics problems—they're strategic challenges that require creativity and rigorous thinking. You’ll directly work to help us solve them.
• You'll see your systems work in real-time. 
  
  • In this role you'll get to directly watch candidates move through your hiring pipeline, see your process improvements reduce time-to-hire, and get direct feedback from both applicants and hiring managers on what's working or needing improvement.
• You'll build the foundation for GovAI's most important work. 
  
  • Our talent development programs have launched careers at OpenAI, DeepMind, the White House, and top universities. The systems you build will identify and recruit the next generation of AI governance leaders.

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Role Description

This position plays a pivotal part in GovAI’s future success — if we fail to identify the top talent for these positions, our impact as an organisation suffers. Your role is to directly assist and facilitate this talent identification.

You’ll project manage hiring processes from outreach through the offer stage, making sure that candidates have an excellent experience, and that internal stakeholders are quickly grading and evaluating candidates. For many roles, you’ll likely directly evaluate candidates as well. You’ll report to the Hiring Manager, and work closely with other members on the team.

Responsibilities will include: 

• Project managing hiring rounds:
  
  • You’ll directly project manage hiring rounds, shepherding candidates through stages, and ensuring that internal stakeholders are completing tasks (e.g. grading and evaluating candidates).
  • You’ll also work with the Hiring Manager to improve our hiring processes, ensuring they run efficiently and smoothly.
• Recruiting and communicating with candidates:
  
  • You’ll manage headhunting and recruitment efforts for your hiring rounds, and communicate with candidates throughout the hiring process.
• Improving our hiring systems:
  
  • You’ll work with the Hiring Manager on improving the hiring processes at GovAI generally, including by making and improving templates and other materials for hiring processes.
• In your first six months, we expect that you might:
  
  • Directly project manage 1-3 hiring rounds.
  • Work with research managers and other internal stakeholders to ensure that rounds proceed on expected timelines.
  • Develop processes and templatize parts of our work to improve future hiring.

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Selection Criteria

We’re selecting candidates who are:

• Driven by a desire to produce consistently excellent work and an obsession with process improvement.

• Highly organized — our hiring has many moving pieces, and you’ll need to manage these different parts and hiring rounds.

• Strong at interpersonal communication.

• Strong familiarity with Airtable or similar systems preferred but not required.

• Excited by the opportunity to use their careers to positively influence the lasting impact of artificial intelligence, in line with our organisation’s mission.

• Some profiles that might be an especially good fit for this role include:
  
  • Experience in an ops or recruiting role at an AI governance organization or tech company.
  • Experience in a process intensive role with stakeholder management components, such as consulting or product management.

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Salary and Location

This position is full-time. Our offices are located in London, UK, and we strongly prefer team members to be based here, but are open to individuals who would need to work remotely. We are able to sponsor visas. 

The Hiring Specialist will be compensated in line with our salary principles. As such, the salary for this role will depend on the successful applicant’s experience, but we expect the range to be between £66,000 (~$88,000) and £80,000 (~$108,000) if based in London. In rare cases where salary considerations would prevent a candidate from accepting an offer, there may also be some flexibility in compensation. 

We also offer competitive benefits, including a 10% pension/401k contribution and private medical cover.

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How to Apply and What to Expect

Application Process

The selection process has three stages:

1. Written application
2. A paid remote work test
3. An interview and reference checks

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Special Circumstances

Please contact recruitment@governance.ai if you:

• Need a decision communicated by a particular date

• Require assistance with the application due to a disability

• Have questions about the application process

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Addressing complex AI governance challenges requires many different skillsets 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.