The AI Short Timelines Special Projects team is a new team led by Claire Zabel under our broader focus area of Navigating Transformative AI. It focuses on projects that would be useful if timelines to transformative AI are particularly short, and it arrives before most stakeholders have become high-context on the speed and progress of AI capabilities. The team aims to identify and implement projects we expect to be particularly impactful in those circumstances.

We are seeking a strategic and highly organized Chief of Staff to report directly to Claire and work closely with her to prioritize, spin up, and lead key projects for this team, while supporting her organization, output, and strategy.

Although the team is new, its focus requires the capacity to implement large projects as quickly as possible. As Chief of Staff, you will help it effectively and rapidly prioritize and implement its priorities.

Unique responsibilities

Compared to other roles in this round, this opportunity will particularly emphasize operating with a high degree of autonomy to help get various new projects off the ground. That will involve forming independent opinions on poorly scoped questions by speaking with internal and external experts, conducting research, formulating proposals, and owning the work to see those proposals realized.

Example projects:

• Circulate a proposal for a new project with 15 of the top experts on AI strategy and AI futurism, gather their feedback, and redraft an updated proposal based on what you learn.
• Collaborate with Claire on a decision about which of two possible high-priority projects to prioritize next quarter, and propose a process for getting to the right decision quickly.
• Identify and help with potentially tractable cruxes and other sources of useful information and feedback.
• Work with Claire to scope, launch, and manage hiring efforts to help the nascent team scale up rapidly.

Unique candidate criteria

You might be a particularly great fit for this role if you:

• Can balance nimbleness and efficiency with ensuring that important questions and potential risks are adequately addressed — this is a new team trying to move very quickly on projects where short timelines might matter a great deal.
• Are good at navigating ambiguity — the projects this team is tackling are likely to be unprecedented and poorly scoped even relative to other GCR team work.
• Are broadly familiar with the AI safety ecosystem and are interested in AI futurism (deeper AI futurism expertise is a substantial plus).

Other details

Location: Claire is based in Berkeley, California, and would strongly prefer candidates who can co-work in person.

We are open to candidates working remotely, but require that most of their working hours overlap with Claire’s workday (~10 am - 7 pm PT).

We’ll support candidates with the costs of relocation to the San Francisco Bay Area.

We’ll also consider sponsoring U.S. work authorization for international candidates (though we don’t control who is and isn’t eligible for a visa and can’t guarantee visa approval).

Compensation: This is a full-time, permanent position. The starting compensation for this role will be either $186,861.09 or $204,059.77 per year depending on the experience of the successful candidate, which would include a base salary of $163,861.09 or $181,059.77 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $23,000.00.

These compensation figures assume you’d be working from the San Francisco Bay Area; there would be a downward adjustment for candidates based in other locations.

Start date: We would ideally like a candidate to begin as soon as possible after receiving an offer, but we are willing to wait if the best candidate can only start later.

• Prioritize, spin up, and lead key projects for the AI Short Timelines Special Projects team.
• Support Claire Zabel's organization, output, and strategy.
• Help the team effectively and rapidly prioritize and implement its priorities.
• Form independent opinions on poorly scoped questions by speaking with internal and external experts, conducting research, and formulating proposals.
• Own the work to see proposals realized.
• Scope, launch, and manage hiring efforts to help the team scale up rapidly.

• Strategic thinking and highly organized.
• Ability to operate with a high degree of autonomy.
• Balancing nimbleness and efficiency with addressing important questions and potential risks.
• Navigating ambiguity in unprecedented and poorly scoped projects.
• Familiarity with the AI safety ecosystem and interest in AI futurism.

• Experience in project management and leadership.
• Ability to conduct research and formulate proposals.
• Experience in hiring and team scaling.