Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health based in the United States.** The Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health will shape strategic initiatives at the intersection of artificial intelligence, mental health, youth well-being, and suicide prevention. In this leadership role, you will evaluate emerging AI technologies and help ensure their development and deployment prioritize human safety and emotional well-being. You will collaborate with technology companies, AI researchers, public-interest organizations, and mental health experts to advance safety evaluations, benchmarking approaches, and responsible AI practices. You will also translate complex technical developments into actionable recommendations, frameworks, and guidance for diverse stakeholders. Working across technical, research, policy, and program teams, you will identify emerging risks and opportunities while helping shape the broader conversation around AI and mental health. This fully remote opportunity is ideal for an experienced AI professional who combines technical fluency, strategic judgment, and a strong commitment to protecting vulnerable populations. ### Accountabilities: As Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health, you will lead strategic work on emerging technologies and their implications for mental health and suicide prevention, combining technical analysis, external partnerships, and organizational leadership to promote responsible AI development. - Monitor developments in AI and assess their implications for mental health, emotional well-being, and suicide prevention, including conversational AI, relational systems, multimodal models, agents, memory and personalization, wearable technologies, and embodied AI. - Advance AI safety, evaluation, benchmarking, standards, and broader field-building initiatives in collaboration with technology companies, researchers, mental health experts, and public-interest partners. - Assess model and system behavior, evaluation methodologies, red-teaming practices, safeguards, mitigations, and failure modes to identify strengths, limitations, and gaps in existing approaches. - Develop approaches that address both immediate safety risks and broader concerns involving relationships, emotional dependency, social connection, belonging, personal agency, coping, help-seeking, and developmental needs. - Lead technology advisory engagements by assessing AI products, features, and safety strategies and providing practical recommendations on product behavior, developmental appropriateness, crisis pathways, evaluation, and responsible deployment. - Develop strategic positions, principles, frameworks, recommendations, and guidance on AI and emerging technologies, informed by technical research, expert consultation, and lessons from external partnerships. - Identify emerging issues, evidence gaps, and opportunities for strategic engagement through research collaborations, advisory work, evaluations, public guidance, and new initiatives. - Build and maintain relationships with technology companies, AI safety and evaluation organizations, academic and independent research institutions, philanthropic partners, and mental health and suicide prevention organizations. - Collaborate with internal teams across knowledge and advising, policy, programs, communications, and other functions to integrate AI-related insights into broader organizational initiatives. - Represent the organization in expert working groups, research collaborations, industry convenings, and external forums. - Contribute to new partnerships, strategic initiatives, proposals, and funding opportunities that advance responsible AI and mental health objectives. **Requirements:** The ideal candidate brings substantial expertise in AI technology and safety or evaluation, combined with experience applying technical, research, or safety approaches in mental health or another high-stakes human-centered domain. They must be able to connect technical developments with their implications for people, products, institutions, and society. - Approximately 7 or more years of relevant professional experience in AI, AI safety, responsible AI, AI evaluation, human-AI interaction, or a closely related field. Candidates with alternative career paths demonstrating equivalent expertise may also be considered. - Strong working knowledge of contemporary AI technologies, including generative AI, large language models, multimodal systems, conversational AI, agents, memory and personalization, and emerging human-AI interfaces. - Demonstrated knowledge of AI safety and evaluation, including model and system behavior, benchmarking, red-teaming, failure modes, safeguards, mitigations, and the strengths and limitations of current methodologies. - Experience applying technology, safety, evaluation, research, or related expertise in a high-stakes human domain, such as mental health, suicide prevention, healthcare, public health, child and adolescent well-being, child protection, online safety, or violence prevention. - Working knowledge of mental health, behavioral health, suicide prevention, public health, or an adjacent field, with the ability to engage meaningfully with subject-matter experts and understand the needs of people experiencing distress or vulnerability. - Technical fluency to work independently and credibly with AI researchers, engineers, product leaders, and safety and evaluation teams. Hands-on machine learning engineering experience is not required. - Ability to translate technical developments into practical insights for human behavior, safety, well-being, product design, policy, and organizational strategy. - Excellent analytical, research synthesis, writing, and communication skills, including experience developing strategic frameworks, recommendations, guidance, or thought leadership. - Strong professional judgment and the ability to navigate interdisciplinary work in a rapidly evolving technological and regulatory landscape. - Experience coordinating complex initiatives involving multiple internal and external stakeholders, with demonstrated relationship-building and collaboration skills. **Preferred qualifications:** - Direct experience in mental health, suicide prevention, behavioral health, digital mental health, or a closely related discipline. - Experience working with children, adolescents, families, developmental needs, or populations experiencing heightened vulnerability. - Experience collaborating directly with technology-company product, research, safety, or evaluation teams. - Experience developing or applying benchmarks, evaluation methodologies, safety frameworks, standards, or red-teaming approaches. - Ability to translate technical research into accessible guidance for public-interest organizations, product teams, policymakers, practitioners, and other nontechnical audiences. - An advanced degree in computer science, human-computer interaction (HCI), information science, behavioral or social science, public health, or another relevant field is advantageous but not required. **Benefits:** - **Annual salary:** $120,000–$160,000, with compensation adjusted according to geographic location, experience, and qualifications. Actual salaries will not exceed the applicable posted or localized range. - **Work arrangement:** Fully remote position, with periodic in-person retreats or business meetings and additional travel as required. - **Healthcare coverage:** Medical, dental, and vision benefits for eligible employees. - **Mental health support:** Employee Assistance Program (EAP), 24/7 virtual healthcare through Teladoc, and a Mental Health Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) of $1,500 per year for eligible staff, with additional funds available for employees covering dependents. - **Additional healthcare reimbursement:** Health and dental HRAs for eligible employees enrolled in the corresponding plans. - **Retirement savings:** 401(k) Safe Harbor plan, with contributions available from the first day of employment and employer matching after six months. The employer matches 100% of the first 3% of compensation and 50% of the next 2%. - **Paid vacation:** Approximately 15 days annually, increasing to 20 days after four years of service. - **Paid holidays:** 10 paid holidays annually, one floating holiday, and a five-day organization-wide winter break. - **Additional paid leave:** Birthday day off, three personal leave days annually, six sick days annually, five days of bereavement leave, and paid jury duty leave. - **Family and medical leave:** Leave options in accordance with applicable federal and state requirements, including relevant family and medical leave programs. - **Financial wellness:** Pre-tax commuter benefits and flexible spending accounts for eligible healthcare and dependent-care expenses. - **Mission-driven impact:** Help protect the emotional health of young people and advance responsible AI practices that support mental well-being and suicide prevention. - **Collaborative culture:** Join a team committed to compassion, inclusion, innovation, and meaningful social impact.