Rethink Priorities

Compensation

Full Description

AI Strategy Team Lead Application Deadline: 8 February 2026 Department: AI Governance and Strategy Employment Type: Flexible Location: Remote Reporting To: Kieran Greig Compensation: $120,000 - $200,000 / year Description Rethink Priorities (RP) is hiring a Team Lead to establish and lead a new AI Strategy Team focused on navigating transformative AI. The team will identify high-leverage, neglected opportunities to reduce existential risk and help secure beneficial outcomes from transformative AI. Its work will focus on producing decision-relevant strategic analysis and supporting the incubation of new projects and initiatives. In this role, the Team Lead will set the team’s strategic direction and oversee its day-to-day work, including research, project leadership, and cross-team coordination. They will build and manage a team of analysts and actors, ensuring the delivery of high-quality outputs that inform funders, policymakers, researchers, and other field leaders, and that catalyse new, impactful projects and initiatives. The role combines strategic research leadership, people management, and fundraising responsibility. This is a senior role suited to someone excited to operate at the intersection of strategy, research, and ecosystem building in a fast-moving, high-uncertainty domain where decisions made today may shape long-run outcomes. This role is open to part-time (minimum 32 hours per week) and full-time candidates; however, we have a preference for candidates who are able to work full-time (40 hours per week). The AI Strategy Team board focus at this point is to identify gaps and promising niches in the ecosystem for navigating transformative AI. This includes producing field-level strategic analysis, guiding stakeholders through high uncertainty, and supporting the early stages of high-leverage initiatives that could meaningfully shape long-run outcomes. The team will work closely with RP’s broader AI-related efforts, including foundational research and Special Projects incubation, and play a central role in shaping RP’s contribution to the AI ecosystem in 2026 and beyond. Founded in 2018, Rethink Priorities (RP) is a nonprofit organization that addresses global priorities—important and neglected issues—by researching solutions and strategies, mobilizing resources, and empowering our team and others. RP’s mission is to generate the most significant possible impact for others in the present and the long-term future. Our cause areas include animal welfare, global health and development, climate change, artificial intelligence, and other work to safeguard a flourishing long-term future. RP also aims to understand and support the professional communities working on these issues. Each researcher tends to focus on one particular cause area. Rethink Priorities works as all of the following: • A consultancy doing commissioned work in response to demands from organizations doing high-impact work • A research institute driven by research agendas we set according to our own priorities. • A think tank aiming to inform public policy to improve the world. • An accelerator, incubator, and base for priority projects. Key Responsibilities Strategic leadership and direction • Help define and refine the AI Strategy Team’s research and project agenda, with a focus on navigating uncertainty around transformative AI. • Identify priority questions, strategic gaps, and underexplored opportunities related to AI trajectories, and interventions. • Translate complex and uncertain dynamics into clear strategic priorities and actionable recommendations for decision-makers. Team management and development • In time, line-manage Analysts and Senior Analysts, including goal-setting, feedback, and professional development. • Establish strong internal processes for prioritisation, research quality control, and timely delivery. • Foster a collaborative, high-trust team culture that supports independent thinking, intellectual honesty, and sound judgment under uncertainty. Research oversight and contribution • Oversee and contribute to strategic outputs such as landscape analyses, frameworks, short-form memos, and briefings. • Ensure outputs are decision-relevant, clearly written, and tailored to audiences such as funders, policymakers, and project founders. • Balance analytical rigor with speed, enabling rapid responses where the strategic environment demands it. Project incubation and ecosystem engagement • Work closely with RP’s Special Projects teams to evaluate, incubate, and support new AI-related initiatives relevant to navigating transformative AI. • Assess proposed projects for strategic fit, theory of change, tractability, and potential impact. • Provide ongoing strategic input to new potential projects to help them adapt as the field evolves. • Engage selectively with external stakeholders including philanthropists, researchers, and policy experts. Lead Fundraising Execution and Client Relationship Maintenance • Lead the creation and maintenance of relationships with potential and current funders and stakeholders, with the support of the Leadership, Development and Communications Team. Field awareness and responsiveness • Stay up to date on developments in AI capabilities, deployment pathways, governance approaches, and emerging risks. • Ensure the team’s work remains responsive to shifts in the AI landscape and to new information about trajectories and leverage points. Skills, Knowledge and Experience Required • Experience conducting or overseeing strategic research related to transformative AI, AI governance, AI safety, or adjacent technology policy domains. • Strong ability to synthesise complex information and communicate clear strategic insights in writing. • Demonstrated judgment in prioritisation and decision-making under deep uncertainty. • Experience managing or mentoring others, or clear readiness to step into a people-management role. • Ability to work effectively in a remote, asynchronous, and international environment. • Strong alignment with RP’s mission and with efforts to reduce existential risk and secure beneficial outcomes from advanced AI. Preferred • Experience producing decision-relevant research for funders, policymakers, think tanks, or senior leadership. • Familiarity with nonprofit or research-driven project incubation, evaluation, or organisational strategy. • Background in fields such as public policy, economics, philosophy, computer science, forecasting, or social science. • Experience collaborating closely with both research and operational teams. • Familiarity with the ecosystem concerned with navigating transformative AI. What We Offer • Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, high-impact organization — our research is used by key decision makers who influence the distribution of hundreds of millions of charitable dollars. • Flexible work hours and location. • Comprehensive global benefits package (while they vary by country, we make every effort to ensure that our benefits package is equitable and high-quality for all staff). • Generous paid time off (PTO) and unpaid leave including: • Unlimited vacation with a minimum number of required statutory paid days off • “Mandated” 3-weeks total mid- and end-year organization-wide breaks • Unlimited (within reason) personal and sick paid and unpaid leave • Parental leave - up to 4-9 months of a combination of paid and unpaid parental leave that can be taken prior and/or during the first 2 years after a child’s birth or adoption • Other paid and unpaid leave (e.g., bereavement) • A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance. • Opportunities to grow/advance your career and engage in professional development. • Low administrative bureaucracy. • We don’t provide snacks but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want! • Travel: Some travel is required for this position. The person in this role can expect to attend ~3 workshops/conferences each year, sometimes requiring international flights. Additionally, there is an annual retreat (5 workdays) that requires air or train travel to attend in person. We ask that you only apply if you are able to meet these travel requirements. • Working Hours: While we welcome applicants from all time zones, our current team members are based in various American and European time zones, and given the collaborative nature of our work, you will be expected to attend some meetings during working hours between UTC-8 and UTC+1, which may early mornings or late evenings. Extension Requests: We will try to accommodate extension requests that are made before the deadline and are up to three (3) days. We generally cannot accommodate extension requests made on or after the application deadline, or are longer than 3 days, and cannot accept late submissions to ensure fairness to other applicants. • Language: Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional level English proficiency. • Accessibility: We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible application process. We warmly invite you to reach out to careers@rethinkpriorities.org with any questions or accessibility requests such as chat box use during interviews. • Inclusivity and Fairness: RP is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. Please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. We provide reasonable accommodations and benefits, including for example, flexible work schedules and locations, mental health coverage in medical benefits (as available), as well as technology budgets and professional development time that can be used, for example, to purchase assistive technology or engage in job coaching. • Other: Visit our Career Opportunities webpage if you’d like to know more about our hiring process, culture, and what working at RP is like.