Operations Director, Talent

Operations Director (Talent)— Secure AI Project

Basic info about the role:

• Compensation: $125,000–$235,000
• Location: Remote (US only). We currently have staff in the Bay Area, Washington D.C., Boston, Denver, Durham, and rural Vermont.
• Contact: hiring@secureaiproject.org

We are open to early career through highly experienced candidates and are willing to consider higher compensation in some cases. We prefer candidates with existing U.S. work authorization but may be able to sponsor visas for exceptional candidates.

To apply, submit an application here by 11:59pm PT, July 26, 2026.

About the Secure AI Project

We develop and advocate for pragmatic policies to reduce risks of severe harm from advanced AI. We were founded in December 2024 and operate as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. Our cofounders are Nick Beckstead and Thomas Woodside, and our full team is here.

Our initial focus on state-level AI policy

Thus far, we’ve worked very closely with state legislators to pass some of the most comprehensive AI safety bills in the country; SB 53 in CA, the RAISE Act in NY, and SB 315 in IL. These laws apply to everyone doing business in CA, NY, and IL which includes all major AI developers. You can read more about bills we have supported here.

We’ve prioritized state work because 1) very powerful AI systems may be developed soon, 2) federal action has been stalled, 3) success in state legislatures could build momentum for and/or yield many of the benefits of federal legislation while being much more tractable, and 4) this work otherwise receives little attention from the AI policy community.

In the next year, we want to help ensure effective enforcement of the laws we’ve passed, pass even stronger laws at the state level, and expand into federal advocacy.

To accomplish this, we need to hire determined, entrepreneurial people who have conviction about our mission.

About the position

SAIP's biggest constraint right now is the speed at which we can hire. We are consistently turning down impactful opportunities or delaying major projects because we don’t have the capacity to take them on. To fix this, we want, at a minimum, to double from around ~15 to ~30 people in the next year. Depending on how things go, we may want to grow even faster than that. We are hiring someone to lead this effort.

This person will own internal hiring at SAIP end-to-end. They will partner with the CEO and Chief of Staff on talent strategy. They will design assessments. They will source candidates we wouldn't otherwise reach. They will build the systems and pipelines that let us run multiple concurrent hiring rounds cleanly. And they will have substantial scope for adjacent work and special projects depending on their strengths and interests.

The team will work with you closely. Everyone at SAIP pitches in on hiring. You would lead the function and decide how to use the team’s time and attention. You would also have the budget and support to engage contractors for high-volume stretches.

Responsibilities

We expect this person to own:

• End-to-end hiring rounds across all SAIP teams. Design and push forward the workflow of each hiring round.
• Sourcing. Source proactively, through referrals, your own network, and cold outreach to candidates we wouldn't otherwise reach.
• Assessment design. Partner with hiring managers to define what success looks like in each role and design work tests, interviews, and other evaluations.
• Hiring systems and infrastructure. Maintain and improve our candidate tracking system and build what's missing.
• Employer brand and pipeline. Represent SAIP in the AI safety community; maintain relationships with peer organizations (e.g., 80,000 Hours, Horizon, Coefficient Giving) and other talent sources; build a pipeline of strong people we'd consider even when we don't have an active opening.
• Special projects and other responsibilities. Depending on fluctuations in the intensity of hiring work, and on your interests, this role could grow into other areas of operations and talent development.

About you

Key qualifications

• Exceptional project management or operations skills. You can manage multiple complex projects with a high degree of attention to detail.
• Excellent written and interpersonal communication skills
• Ability to stay organized and get a lot of things done in a given week, as demonstrated by your track record and reference checks.

The following are a strong plus but not required:

• Prior experience in recruiting, executive search, headhunting, capacity building for AI safety or adjacent fields, or building hiring systems at an early-stage organization.
• An existing network in the AI safety, AI policy, or technical AI community.

You may be a good fit if you:

• Have an existing network in the AI safety, AI policy, or technical AI community.
• Work hard and have conviction about reducing risks from advanced AI.
• Are calm under pressure when managing competing deadlines and stakeholder demands.
• Are energized by building a function from near-zero.
• Are relentlessly resourceful.
• Get impatient when a project could be moving forward but is not, and spring into action.

Don’t let a lack of previous hiring experience deter you from applying; sharp people from adjacent fields (operations, programs management, business development, community building) could be excellent fits in this role.

Benefits

• Excellent health insurance integrated with OneMedical membership (we cover 100% for employees and their dependents).
• Dental, vision, and life insurance.
• Five weeks of PTO per year.
• Three months of fully paid family leave.
• An 8% 401k grant (not match).
• A generous professional development stipend and equipment budget.
• Support for remote work. We'll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you need one.

Hiring process:

1. Application review

1. After you submit your application, we’ll review it and aim to follow up within two weeks of the application close date. In some cases, we may follow up with some additional questions to collect further information about your experience prior to evaluating your application.

1. Informational call - optional 15 minute call, to give you a chance to learn more about Secure AI Project.
2. Paid hiring exercise - tasks resembling a core responsibility.
3. 1-3 additional interviews
4. Reference checks
5. Work trial

1. We may request a 2 day paid work trial, to give you a chance to work with us, and for us to learn a bit more about what it is like to work with you.
2. We recognize that this won’t be possible for everyone — while we’d like to do this as a way to give us a chance to get to know finalists better, please don’t let this be a barrier to applying if you’re unable to make this work logistically.

1. Decision and offer

In some cases we may skip a step or change the order slightly.