Programs Manager

A quick note before you apply: This is a senior role for someone with 6+ years of experience designing and running field-building programs, such as fellowships, workshops, convenings, or speaker series. It isn’t a technical project management or product management role, and it isn’t a fit for recent graduates. We’d love to hear why you want to work at CAIS. That question is optional, but it’s the first thing we read.

Location: San Francisco, CA (on-site 5 days/week - local candidates only)

About The Center for AI Safety (CAIS)

The Center for AI Safety (CAIS) is a leading research and advocacy organization focused on mitigating societal-scale risks from AI. Some of our past achievements include: releasing the most widely used measure of AI capabilities used by all major AI companies, running a large compute cluster to facilitate AI safety research which has been cited over 16,000 times, and publishing a global statement on AI Risk signed by Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and top AI CEOs.

The Role

CAIS builds the field of AI safety by bringing the right people together: researchers, students, policymakers, and professionals new to the problem. We do this through fellowships, workshops, convenings, speaker series, and educational courses. We’re hiring a Senior Manager, Programs to turn early ideas into programs, run them at a high bar, and make them repeatable. You’ll report to the VP of Operations and lead members of the Programs team.

You’ll define the goals and scope, identify the right stakeholders and partners, build the plan and budget, and carry it through delivery and evaluation. You’ll do this independently, bringing leadership recommendations and decisions rather than waiting for direction at each step.

The scope of a program varies by design. You might stand up a new fellowship from scratch, run a convening of leading researchers and policymakers, launch a speaker series, or take a program that works and build the systems that let it run again next year without you holding every piece. What unites the work is the need for someone who can take a rough mandate and turn it into a well-run program with measurable impact.

You don’t need a technical background in AI, but you do need to care about why AI safety matters and be able to talk about it credibly with the researchers and leaders you’ll convene.

Who We're Looking For

You’re an experienced program manager who has owned consequential, multi-stakeholder programs from concept through delivery. You know how to take an ambiguous idea and make it real: scope it, find the right people, build the plan, secure partners, manage the budget, anticipate what could go wrong, and make sure it ships to a high standard.

You combine strategic judgment with operational strength. You can decide what a program should be and why, then get into the details required to make it work. You lead your own team directly and lead everyone else through influence, holding participants, partners, vendors, and internal teams accountable.

This is a senior role with significant autonomy. We’re looking for someone who wants to own a portfolio of programs, build institutional knowledge, and raise the bar for how CAIS designs and runs programs.

This role is not a technical project management, product management, or software delivery role. The core of the work is designing experiences that bring people together, recruiting the right participants and speakers, and moving a field forward.

What You'll Do

• Conduct preliminary research and exploration for new programs to establish clear goals, scope, and requirements.
• Collaborate with the VP of Operations to define program plans, including goals, audience, format, speakers or participants, timeline, and budget.
• Recruit and select participants, speakers, and facilitators, and design agendas and formats that lead to productive conversations and lasting connections.
• Build and maintain relationships with researchers, academic institutions, and partner organizations across the AI safety community.
• Independently gather context in new domains by consulting experts, reviewing research, and using available resources.
• Take ownership of program delivery and ensure each program meets the agreed scope, timeline, and quality expectations.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate risks, address challenges proactively, and escalate critical issues to the VP of Operations as needed.
• Ensure accurate and comprehensive program documentation and reporting, including setting up and maintaining program details in appropriate project management software.
• Manage relationships with external partners, vendors, and other stakeholders to ensure program requirements are met.
• Manage program budgets and resources, including tracking expenses and ensuring alignment with financial goals.
• Lead cross-functional teams and external partners to deliver programs, in close partnership with the VP of Operations.
• Delegate tasks to team members and partners, providing clear guidance and oversight.
• Lead, manage, and mentor members of the Programs team.

What We're Looking For

• 6+ years of experience designing and running programs that convene people, such as fellowships, workshops, conferences, speaker series, or community or educational programs, including owning them end to end.
• Experience directly managing and developing program staff.
• A track record of designing new programs, not only running existing ones: taking an idea from concept to a successful launch with limited guidance.
• Experience managing several programs at once, with sound prioritization across them.
• Strong budget ownership and resource management.
• The ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority and to establish accountability across internal teams and external partners.
• Demonstrated systems thinking: you build repeatable mechanisms, not one-off plans, and you know how much process a problem needs.
• The ability to get up to speed quickly in unfamiliar domains by learning from experts, papers, and other sources.
• Sound judgment under uncertainty, knowing when to move quickly, investigate further, or escalate.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including distilling complexity and trade-offs for leadership.
• High agency and a high bar for quality. You’re open to feedback and honest with yourself and others, even when it’s uncomfortable, because getting to the best answer matters more.
• A genuine understanding of why AI safety matters, and the ability to explain it in your own words.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.

Nice to Have

• Existing relationships in the AI safety, AI research, or AI policy community.
• Experience in a research organization, AI or technology company, or policy or field-building organization.
• Experience at an early-stage or fast-growing mission-driven organization.

Salary Range

$150,000 - $200,000 annually, depending on experience.

Benefits

• Health insurance for you and your dependents
• 401K plan + 4% matching
• Unlimited PTO
• Lunch and dinner at the office
• Annual Professional Development Stipend
• Access to some of the top talent working on technical and conceptual research in AI safety

Referral Program

Know someone who could be a great fit for this role? Submit their details through our Referral Form. If we end up hiring your referral, you’ll receive a $1,500 bonus once they’ve been with CAIS for 90 days.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Center for AI Safety is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. In alignment with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.​   If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact contact@safe.ai.​   We value diversity and encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.