Head of Kairos Labs

Design, launch, and lead our incubator for new AI safety organizations.

Note: This role description is a first draft. Scope, salary, and responsibilities may evolve, and we’ll keep you in the loop about any changes if you apply.

Applications are due by September 25, 2026. We’ll review applications after the deadline and get back to everyone shortly after.

About Kairos

Kairos is a nonprofit accelerating talent into AI safety and policy. In just over two years, we’ve trained 1,200+ people through our flagship programs:

• SPAR: The largest AI safety research fellowship, with 400+ mentees per round mentored by researchers from Anthropic, Redwood Research, RAND, MIT, the UK AI Security Institute, and others.

• Generator Residency: In partnership with Constellation, a platform for generalist talent to pitch, build, and ship projects that build capacity and infrastructure across the AI safety ecosystem, with advisors from OpenAI, AI Futures Project, METR, and more.

• Global Challenges Project: A workshop series introducing promising students to careers in AI safety and biosecurity, run several times a year across Oxford, Boston, and Berkeley.

• Pathfinder Fellowship: Helping grow the global network of AI safety university groups from a few dozen to nearly 100, with $1.4M+ in funding to support their work.

We see ourselves as a portfolio of highly impactful projects in a fast-evolving field. Over the next six months, we expect to double in size and launch several new initiatives addressing critical gaps in the ecosystem.

The Role

We’re looking for a founding Head of Kairos Labs to design, launch, and lead Kairos Labs, our upcoming incubator for new AI safety projects and organizations. Kairos Labs will help founders take promising ideas from concept to independent organization, with hands-on advising and operational support. Where our Generator Residency gives generalists a platform to build projects within the ecosystem, Kairos Labs is aimed at people setting out to start something new.

Kairos Labs is at an early stage. The program is fully funded for its first two years and a priority for us, but most decisions about its shape haven’t been made yet, so you’d be building the program from the ground up. We hope to design it in late 2026 and launch in early 2027.

What You’ll Do

• Design the program. The plan is an incubator for new AI safety organizations, but there are still many open questions. You’ll help decide which kinds of organizations we take on, whether projects join in cohorts or on a rolling basis, how long they stay, what support they get, and when they’re ready to operate on their own.

• Own the launch. You’ll build the application and selection process, recruit the first projects, and set up the program’s operations.

• Support incubated projects. You’ll be the main advisor to Kairos Labs founders, helping them with strategy, fundraising, and hiring, and making sure their operational needs are met.

• Own Kairos Labs’ strategic direction. You’ll decide how the program grows, including how many projects to take on, what kinds of organizations the ecosystem most needs, and how Kairos Labs relates to our other programs.

• Contribute to Kairos more broadly. As bandwidth allows, you’ll help shape org-wide strategy, weigh in on new programs, and participate in cross-cutting work.

Who You Are

• Experience building organizations. You’ve founded something yourself, or run a comparable incubator, accelerator, fellowship, or fiscal-sponsorship program, and you’ve seen firsthand what early-stage organizations need.

• AI safety context. Kairos Labs’ theory of change depends on a clear picture of what the ecosystem is missing. You should have views on which organizations are worth starting, which gaps matter most, and who is positioned to fill them.

• Strong judgment about projects and people. You’ll make calls about which founders to back and which ideas are worth turning into organizations, often with limited evidence.

• High agency. Because you’re owning Kairos Labs from the beginning, you should be comfortable building a vision from scratch, executing on it autonomously, and answering big open questions about the program as they come up.

• Mission-aligned. You care deeply about making advanced AI go well, and you believe getting new AI safety organizations off the ground is one of the most promising ways to help.

• Operationally fluent. Incubating organizations comes with serious legal, financial, and compliance work, likely including fiscal sponsorship. You don’t need to be a lawyer or accountant, but you should be comfortable handling that side of the work with expert help.

Why Work With Us

• You’ll be working toward reducing risks from advanced AI, potentially the most important challenge of our time. Kairos Labs will shape which new organizations get built in AI safety. If you do this well, several new AI safety organizations will exist because of you.

• You’ll get to design and own the program from scratch, with the backing of an established, funded organization.

• We’re building a world-class team, so you’ll be in good company. Work alongside people who’ve come to Kairos from METR, Coefficient Giving, Rethink Priorities, the UK AI Security Institute, and CEA who share your commitment to impact.

• Collaborate regularly with leading AI safety researchers, policy professionals, funders, and organizers.

What We Offer

• Salary: $140,000–$195,000 (baseline), $175,000–$245,000 (supported hubs, like London, DC, Boston, and NYC), or $195,000–$270,000 (San Francisco Bay Area), depending on experience, with potential for additional compensation for exceptional candidates

• Location: This is a remote role. We provide access to office space in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston, with optional coworking elsewhere. If you work from an AI safety office in one of these cities, we cover food, lunches, and office expenses.

• Benefits: Flexible working hours, highly competitive health insurance, dental and vision coverage, generous vacation policy, and professional development budget

• Team retreats: We host all-team retreats three times a year to connect in person, collaborate, and build team culture.

• Travel: Work-related travel and expenses covered.

Logistics

• Start date: Ideally by October or early November 2026, ahead of the program design push in December and a planned launch in early 2027

• Remote, with expected travel 3–6 times a year for conferences and events, predominantly in the US

• We’d also be happy for you to work out of any of the AI safety hubs in San Francisco, Berkeley, London, or Boston.

• We prefer candidates who can attend meetings in the ET time zone (though our team currently spans GMT-8 to GMT+1).

• Visa sponsorship (particularly O-1) may be possible depending on circumstances, but we can’t guarantee it

Our Culture

We’re a small, high-trust team motivated by the urgent challenge of making advanced AI go well. We try hard to figure out where we’re wrong, which means we say uncomfortable things to each other and change our minds fairly often. We value collaborative truth-seeking, a scout mindset, agility, and an alliance mindset with the broader ecosystem.

We also believe meaningful work should be enjoyable. We support each other’s well-being, celebrate wins, and maintain a healthy sense of humor even when the work is hard.

Application Process

Applications are due by September 25, 2026. We’ll review applications after the deadline and get back to everyone shortly after.

1. Application form (10–20 mins)

2. Screening call (15 mins)

3. Take-home assignment (1.5–3 hours, paid)

4. Interview (45 mins)

5. Reference checks

6. Work trial (3 days, paid)

7. Offer

If you’re excited about this role but unsure whether you meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. If you’re interested in multiple roles, apply to the one that best fits your skills and interests, and note in your application the other roles that you’d like to be considered for.

Questions? Reach out at careers@kairos-project.org.

Know someone who might be a good fit? If your referral gets hired and completes 6 months with us, we’ll pay you a $5,000 referral bonus. Learn more here.