Policy Director, Generalist

Policy Director (Generalist) — Secure AI Project

Basic info about the role:

• Title: Policy Director (Generalist)
• Compensation between $115,000 and $235,000 depending on experience.
• 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 hiring both early-career and highly experienced candidates, with compensation commensurate with experience and qualifications. 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.

Please note, depending on your responsibilities, this role may require significant travel (perhaps once a month, with more during the busiest periods). Please let us know if this would be an issue for you, as we may be able to be flexible on these requirements.

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 501c4 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. We believe this creates an outstanding opportunity for people who want to create meaningful laws and regulations to protect the public from potentially severe risks of frontier models.

About the position

We are a small organization, our roles are fluid, and we’re willing to design roles around exceptional candidates. In short, we’re looking for people who can do at least one of the following things well, and have potential for growth:

• Policy drafting: Identifying and developing policies likely to move the needle on issues we care about; drafting, editing, and reviewing legislative text; strategic thinking about what to advocate for and when and where to advocate it.
• Policy writing: Creating written materials about legislation (analysis, recommendations, fact sheets, memos, FAQs, op-eds) for legislators, government agencies, AI companies, supporters, and the public.
• Legislative drafting: Improving and analyzing legislative text to ensure it matches our policy objectives and makes pragmatic political compromises.
• ML community engagement: Interacting with AI companies and the machine learning community to i) get feedback needed to improve our policy ideas, ii) secure support, and iii) neutralize opposition.
• Government relations: Meeting with legislators and government agencies to explain the case for bills we support, or to provide recommendations for enforcing existing laws.
• Supporter engagement: Activating existing supporters to help with our policy objectives by writing op-eds, submitting letters of support, or talking to journalists/politicians.
• Strategic communications: Interacting with newspapers and Twitter to get attention on our legislative priorities and correct misconceptions.

People in this position may specialize in one of these areas, or do varying amounts of each

About you

Key qualifications

• At least one of the following:

• Ability to write quickly and well, as demonstrated in our hiring exercise.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills and understanding of one of the groups above (ML community, legislators, journalists, our supporters), as demonstrated by track record and/or interviews.

• Ability to stay organized and get a lot of things done in a given week, as demonstrated by your track record and reference checks.
• No specific experience is required. Experience with AI, legislatures, writing, or start-ups is a plus. Substantial experience with one of the underlined items above is a major plus.

You may be a good fit if you:

• Work really hard and have conviction about focusing on the kinds of policy issues that we do.
• Think carefully and well about soft issues involving people, politics, communications, and social dilemmas, and can make appropriate pragmatic compromises in these contexts.
• Have a strong network in the machine learning community, the AI safety community, or the AI policy community.
• Like to get nerdy about law and policy, and think and communicate precisely.
• Are relentlessly resourceful.
• Are available and responsive to time sensitive requests.
• Get impatient when a project could be moving forward but is not, and spring into action.

Not all of the above need to apply — this list is about ruling you in, not out.

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.
• A 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