Associate Program Officer, Transformative AI Fund

Job description

CEA is seeking an Associate Program Officer for the Transformative AI Fund https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dYuNi5Rh68o9YKstg/ea-funds-is-launching-the-transformative-ai-fund, the new fund within EA Funds supporting early-stage work on transformative AI. This includes work that prevents global catastrophic risks (GCRs) and supporting fields, such as field-building and forecasting. You'll report to and work directly alongside the Head of the Transformative AI Fund to ensure the success of the fund, primarily through identifying the grant applications that will most advance the goals of the fund. Because we're building the fund from the ground up, you’ll have substantial autonomy in your work and will help shape the systems that will run for years. We're also open to a more junior hire with deep knowledge of the field and high agency. ABOUT CEA The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) stewards the movement of people putting effective altruism principles into practice to solve the world's most pressing problems. We’re working to build a flourishing future by applying evidence, reason, and compassion to challenges like global poverty, animal suffering, and existential risks. Our work centers on growing and supporting a global community of people who rigorously analyze where they can do the most good—and take action on those insights. Current strategic priorities include increasing understanding of effective altruism and its principles, growing the number of people who are motivated by EA principles to take significant action to address pressing problems, and diversifying funding sources for high-impact work. We had significant success in 2025, building momentum within CEA. Our headcount grew from 42 to 66 core staff. Program participation (e.g., events, courses, groups) grew by 20-25% year over year. We merged https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BLvTcMMEQGFYsh6Jw/ea-funds-and-cea-are-merging with EA Funds https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/ and are rapidly scaling up our capacity for grantmaking and associated fundraising. In 2026, we’re maintaining ambitious momentum https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Dy4iGHbAkKAQ4t2Dw/building-sustainable-momentum-progress-report-on-cea-s-2025 while building the foundations for a step-change in the wider EA ecosystem’s growth trajectory from 2027 onwards. ABOUT EA FUNDS’ TRANSFORMATIVE AI FUND (TAIF) Effective Altruism Funds (EA Funds) is the grantmaking arm of CEA and aims to increase the amount of funding that is dedicated to particularly cost-effective and altruistically impactful projects across global health & development, animal welfare, Transformative AI and EA infrastructure. The Transformative AI Fund is EA Funds' new fund. Our primary focus is reducing global catastrophic risks through grants within Technical AI Safety, AI Governance (including post-AGI governance), and contributing fields such as field-building and forecasting. We're also open to relevant areas like Flourishing Futures and Digital Sentience, though these will be a small minority of grants. Our vision is for the Transformative AI Fund to be a go-to fund for any individual or organization starting something new within the transformative AI space to get their project off the ground. We're addressing a funding gap at the earliest stages, in the $10k-$150k range: we can be the first backer of small projects that otherwise wouldn't happen, at a size most other funders struggle to serve. At this scale, funding is often all-or-nothing: does the pilot run? Does the event happen? This is hits-based giving https://coefficientgiving.org/research/hits-based-giving/: many grants will have no or modest outcomes, with the occasional home run paying for the entire portfolio. With a funding influx anticipated over the coming years https://nanransohoff.substack.com/p/the-third-wave-of-american-philanthropy, we believe that supporting promising early-stage projects helps grow the field and its absorptive capacity. The Fund's principles: - Early-stage funding: funding grants that are too small for other funders, usually in the $10k-$150k range. - Transparent by default: quarterly public grant reports on what we choose to fund and why, building trust and dialogue with donors and grantees. - Always open, with quick and reliable responses: opportunities rarely arrive on a given schedule, and we want to be able to pounce when they arise. This is a particularly exciting time to join the Transformative AI Fund. We're committing significant resources to the fund, with a new full-time team: Lowe Lundin https://www.linkedin.com/in/lowe-lundin/ as Head of the TAIF and Loïc Watine https://www.linkedin.com/in/loic-watine-406b911a/ as Director of EA Funds, with Caleb Parikh advising. We're also in the final stages of hiring a dedicated operations person for all of EA Funds, and hope to make more hires on the grantmaking team in the not-too-distant future if we're happy with the trajectory of the fund. We've been very impressed by the recent trajectory of EA Funds' Animal Welfare Fund, which set an ambitious strategy and raised significant funds to execute it under full-time leadership, and we believe the Transformative AI Fund has similar potential. You can read more about the fund in this EA forum post here https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dYuNi5Rh68o9YKstg/ea-funds-is-launching-the-transformative-ai-fund. ABOUT THE ROLE AI development is accelerating, and the next few years may be unusually important for shaping how advanced AI systems are built and governed. Early-stage grantmaking puts you at the frontier of the field: you'll see new research agendas, founders, and organizations before almost anyone else, e.g. a researcher with an unconventional agenda, a first-time founder with a governance idea, a small team that needs six months of runway. These land on your desk, and the grants you make are often the first decisive input that helps a promising project get off the ground and grow into something that leads to scalable impact. You would also be joining the early stage of the fund’s own team: the future trajectory of the fund is being set now, and you'll have a hand in building the processes, systems, and tools that will run for years. Your primary job will still be the craft of grantmaking itself, and you'll spend the majority of your time on it: investigating applications, forming judgments, making the case for grants, and communicating decisions. We expect a meaningful share of our best grants to be things we wouldn't have known to solicit, so a key part of this role is to back ideas nobody thought to ask for. You'll work very closely with the Head of the TAIF, with short feedback loops and increasing discretion as you demonstrate your judgment. Over time, you'll have a lot of autonomy to run your own projects and grow in the role. We're looking for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset who is comfortable working in an environment where not everything is settled yet and who proposes solutions without waiting to be asked. As the fund grows, we expect this role to grow with it. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES GRANTMAKING - Investigate and evaluate grant opportunities rigorously, assessing theories of change, team strength, expected impact, and other relevant factors - Communicate your grantmaking reasoning transparently through grant reports, feedback to applicants, and public writing - Source high-quality applications based on your strategic insights, networks, and the fund's priorities ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT - Collaborate and build partnerships with other funders and organizations working in relevant areas - Manage relationships with grantees, offer support and guidance to increase the impact of their work - Act as a responsive and professional point of contact for applicants - Represent the fund at EA and AI safety community events - Contribute to the broader EA, AI safety, and longtermist communities' thinking on funding and other strategic priorities CONTRIBUTING TO SYSTEMS & TOOLING - Track metrics and flag where we're falling short of our commitments - Contribute to improvements in the grantmaking processes of Transformative AI Fund. Build and iterate on tooling (including LLM-assisted workflows) that cuts repetitive work out of evaluation, so that human judgment goes to where it matters most WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR We're interested in a wide range of backgrounds, and we expect strong candidates to show depth in some of the areas below while actively developing in others. We're also open to hiring someone earlier in their career that demonstrates strong early signals to grow and develop quickly with the close mentorship from the Head of the TAIF. This version of the role would sit one grade lower on the compensation band. You might be a great fit for this role if you have: - Deep knowledge of AI safety and/or AI governance: you keep up to date on key research directions, major organizations, ongoing debates, and the people doing important work. You can navigate nuanced conversations about AI progress with people who hold a wide range of views on timelines, implications, risks, and potential solutions. - Agency: you're proactive and take initiative where you see the gaps. That might mean reaching out to an expert to pressure-test a technical claim or understand how a proposal sits within the wider field, or approaching promising grantees to encourage them to apply. It also involves proposing improvements in our ways of working, such as our grantmaking processes. - Excellent analytical skills and judgment under time pressure: you're comfortable weighing evidence and making decisions with incomplete information and under time pressure, while recognising which higher-stake decisions warrant more time. You can tell a weak proposal from an unfamiliar one, and back unproven ideas where the potential impact justifies the risk. - Strong interpersonal and communication skills: you’re able to represent the Transformative AI Fund and CEA professionally, and build trust with a range of stakeholders. You can articulate complex reasoning behind your decisions, and navigate sensitive conversations with applicants and grantees. - Mission and values alignment: you're committed to achieving exceptional positive social impact and have an appreciation of effective altruism principles; deep familiarity with the EA community isn't required. You demonstrate reasoning transparency https://coefficientgiving.org/research/reasoning-transparency/ and change your mind based on strong evidence and reasoning. - Pre-existing networks in the AI safety ecosystems: you’re well-connected in the AI safety and/or AI governance field, with connections to identify promising opportunities. - For a more junior hire: your current network may not be extensive but you're clearly able to build them quickly. - Strong project management and organization skills: you can run a pipeline of applications at varying stages, meet deadlines reliably, and keep grantmaking processes running smoothly in a remote, high-autonomy environment. - For a more junior hire: you're reliably organised and can hold a lot of moving parts and juggle competing priorities. - (Bonus) Relevant professional experience: direct grantmaking experience or experience in roles requiring similar judgment, e.g. investment, policy advising, or research/technical leadership roles where you've had to evaluate complex projects and allocate resources under uncertainty. If you're excited about contributing to the fund, but you're uncertain if you're fully qualified, we'd encourage you to apply anyway. We'd rather help a great candidate find their fit than have them self-select out. OTHER INFORMATION - This is a full-time, remote position. We prefer applicants who are able to work in time zones between US Pacific Time and CET. We have an office in Oxford, UK, that you would have access to. - Start date: We'd ideally have you start in November 2026, but would consider a later start for the right candidate. - Reports to: Head of the Transformative AI Fund, Lowe Lundin - Compensation: - Associate Program Officer: - US: total compensation package of $146,595, comprising a base salary of $133,269, and a 10% unconditional 401k contribution. - UK: total compensation package of £88,192, comprising a base salary of £80,175, and a 10% pension contribution. - For candidates interested in a more junior level (Senior Program Associate): - US: total compensation package of $123,079, comprising a base salary of $111,890, and a 10% unconditional 401k contribution. - UK: total compensation package of £74,044, comprising a base salary of £67,313, and a 10% pension contribution. - For both levels: - Benefits in the US/UK include private insurance, flexible work hours, a $6,000 / £5,000 annual professional development allowance, a $6,000 / £5,000 mental health support allowance, extended parental leave, ergonomic equipment, 25 days of paid vacation, and more. - Other locations: For candidates outside the US and UK, we base compensation on our UK salary structure and adjust for the cost of employment and fixed local benefit costs to create an equivalent package. - This role will involve travel. You should expect roughly 4 to 6 trips annually to attend team retreats and other events, including several international trips. We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from self-identified women and people of colour who are excited about contributing to our mission. The Centre for Effective Altruism is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@centreforeffectivealtruism.org. CEA participates in E-Verify for US employees. We are committed to protecting your data. See our privacy policy https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/privacy for more information. EVALUATION PLAN We expect the interview process to include the following steps, subject to minor changes: - Application - Test task 1 - Short interview - Test Task 2 - Final interviews - Reference checks - (Potential) 1–2 day work trial