The Cooperative AI Foundation (CAIF, pronounced “safe”) is a new charitable entity whose mission is to support research that will improve the cooperative intelligence of advanced AI for the benefit of all. This mission is driven by our belief that many of the most important problems facing humanity – climate change, nuclear war, and pandemic preparedness, to name but a few – are problems of cooperation, and that AI will be increasingly important when it comes to solving (or exacerbating) such problems.
Backed by a large philanthropic commitment, our ambition is to build the nascent field of Cooperative AI, improving the ability of AI systems to engender cooperation between humans, machines, and institutions. A more detailed introduction to this field can be found in our recent Nature piece and paper on open problems in Cooperative AI.
Our values are important to us. The “benefit of all” sits at the heart of everything we do. We are relentless in our ambition to have the greatest possible positive impact, both supporting and trusting our staff (and our external partners) to perform at their best. We strive to learn from our failures, through a culture of curiosity, openness, and compassion, alongside evidence-based reasoning and rigorous evaluation. With a diversity of perspectives and values forming the core of any cooperation problem, we must also practise what we preach: maintaining plurality, equity, and inclusiveness in all that we do.
This is a unique opportunity for a skilled administrator to join a lively, growing team in an emerging field. You’ll report to our Program Manager and support her with all aspects of grant administration, as well as providing administrative support for events, and for our Executive Team. The responsibilities of the Program Administrator role will include:
The successful candidate will be expected to learn about all aspects of grant management, and about current priorities in Cooperative AI. We expect the focus of the role to develop over time, and for progression opportunities to emerge.
We’re primarily a remote organisation, with regular opportunities to meet colleagues in person (currently based in London, Oxford, Cornwall, and Stockholm). Because of the nature of this role, we need someone who will be able to attend and support at in-person events several times each year.
We’re looking for this role to be full-time. However, we offer lots of flexibility to fit your hours around your life, whether that’s because you’re most productive at a particular time of day or because you need to do the school run. If you think this role would be perfect for you, but you need it to be part-time, please still apply. We’d be happy to discuss this.
Salaries at CAIF account for demonstrated competencies and location-based cost of living. For this role we expect salaries offered to be between £30,000 and £35,000 (or the equivalent in your home currency). A successful candidate with less prior experience should also expect their salary to increase in the role, contingent on performance.
Our benefits package includes home office equipment; travel expenses to co-locate with colleagues; 33 days of paid holiday (including bank holidays); a 5% pension contribution; a generous learning and development budget; and health and wellbeing support.
The application deadline is 18 December 2023 11:59 GMT. Please apply using this form. You will be asked to submit a CV and respond to a few short questions. The questions are designed to find out more about you, so we strongly recommend answering them yourself. They will be read by one of our team, and generic or AI-generated responses are likely to be screened out. Your data will be processed in accordance with our privacy policy.
Candidates who pass the application review will be invited to a short interview. The next stages will consist of a remote work test, followed by a panel interview. We hope to communicate final decisions by the end of January.
We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply, particularly from underrepresented groups. If you have specific needs or circumstances that require accommodation, please contact us.
An ideal candidate will:
Please note that prior knowledge of cooperative AI is not required, though we do expect applicants to have a genuine interest in CAIF’s mission. Other relevant knowledge or experience, such as grantmaking or due diligence processes is desirable but not strictly necessary. Finally, we’ll be looking for alignment with our organisational values.
