Senior Technical Specialist - AI Risk Assessment
Job description
A Senior Technical Specialist role on CARMA's Comprehensive Risk Assessment team, combining original research in AI safety and technical governance with quality assurance leadership over the team's research. The position focuses on developing risk assessment methodologies and frameworks for increasingly capable AI systems.
At a glance
- Work mode
- Remote
- Pay
- USD 140,000 – 220,000 / year
What you'll do
- Develop techniques for discovering threat models and generating risk pathway analyses that capture societal and sociotechnical dimensions
- Model multi-node risk transformation, amplification, and threshold effects propagating through social systems
- Contribute to the design of robust technical governance frameworks and assessment methodologies for catastrophic risks, including loss-of-control scenarios
- Provide strategic and tactical quality control for the team's research, ensuring conceptual soundness and technical accuracy
- Drive or take ownership of original research projects on comprehensive risk management for advanced AI systems, aligned with the team's objectives
- Collaborate across CARMA teams to integrate risk assessment paradigms with other workstreams
- Contribute to technical standards and best practices for the evaluation, risk measurement, and risk thresholding of AI systems
- Craft persuasive communications for key stakeholders on prospective AI risk management
What we're looking for
- 5+ years of experience in AI safety, alignment, and/or governance
- Strong understanding of multiple risk modeling approaches (causal modeling, Bayesian networks, systems dynamics, etc.)
- Experience with systemic and sociotechnical modeling of risk propagation
- Excellent analytical thinking with ability to identify subtle flaws in complex arguments
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
- Publication record or equivalent demonstrated expertise in relevant areas
- Systems thinking approach with independent intellectual rigor
- Track record of constructive collaboration in fast-paced, intellectually demanding environments
- Comfort with uncertainty and rapidly evolving knowledge landscapes
Nice to have
- Background in complex systems theory, control theory, cybernetics, multi-scale modeling, or dynamical systems
- Work history at AI safety research organizations, technical AI labs, policy institutions, or adjacent risk domains
- Experience with quality assurance processes for technical research
- Ability to model threshold effects, nonlinear dynamics, and emergent properties in sociotechnical systems
- Understanding of international dynamics and power differentials in AI development
- Ability to balance consideration of both acute and aggregate AI risks
- Experience with causal, Bayesian, or semi-quantitative hypergraphs for risk analysis
- Demonstrated methodical yet creative approach to framework development
Your team
Comprehensive Risk Assessment team
Part of CARMA, focused on risk assessment methodologies for increasingly capable AI systems within an established strategic research program.
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About Future of Life Organizations
CARMA (Center for AI Risk Management & Alignment) works to help society navigate the complex and potentially catastrophic risks arising from increasingly powerful AI systems. CARMA is a fiscally-sponsored project of Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation.
Key facts
- CARMA is a fiscally-sponsored project of Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation