AI Partner

Convergent Research•New York, NY

4d•$200,000 - $350,000•Remote

About The Position

Convergent Research is a nonprofit science studio that pioneers Focused Research Organizations (FROs) to solve technological bottlenecks and unlock new scientific fields. The AI Partner role is crucial for building the missing institutions and technical infrastructure to make the world resilient to advanced AI, focusing on defensive capabilities that are too important to be left to chance. This role involves creating and owning a portfolio of projects and organizations that advance AI resilience, spanning areas beyond model safety such as defensive biosecurity, provably secure cyber-physical systems, epistemic infrastructure, independent evaluation, compute governance, and economic modeling. The goal is to identify and build keystone defensive capabilities that would make the world significantly harder to break.

Requirements

Understand the AI landscape of 2026 in granular detail.
Have a view on where the world is exposed by AI advancements and how these exposures can be patched with clever ideas and technical methods.
Have ideas, or a credible plan to find ideas, for large-scale efforts that would measurably improve how the world weathers the AI transition.
Be technically fluent in frontier AI.
Have a deep network in the field.
Understand how startups work, likely from experience at a startup, venture firm, or by building something.
Have raised money, owned a budget, written technical roadmaps, and hired people.
Have experience assembling a group of people to accomplish a hard technical task.
Have experience with boards, governance, or nonprofit leadership.
Communicate clearly and move fast.

Nice To Haves

Ability to argue passionately for a thesis about where philanthropic capital should go, and then argue the other side just as well.
Ability to tell a real bottleneck from a fashionable one in frontier AI.
Ability to help at least one promising founder or founding team move from early concept toward a fundable, technically credible organizational plan within 6 months.
Ability to build a strong map of the AI resilience ecosystem within 6 months.
Ability to source and diligence a serious pipeline of potential FROs or FRO-like projects within 6 months.
Ability to build trusted relationships with key funders and external advisors within 6 months.

Responsibilities

Create and fully own a growing portfolio of FROs and other scientific projects that advance AI resilience.
Define the portfolio, which spans defensive biosecurity, provably secure cyber-physical systems and formal verification, epistemic infrastructure, independent evaluation and monitoring capacity, compute governance, and economic modeling.
Form strong theses, find extraordinary founders, pressure-test ideas, raise money, build boards, and launch organizations.
Help organizations move with the speed and focus of the best deep-tech startups.
Roadmap the AI resilience landscape to identify bottlenecks and keystone capabilities.
Source and diligence ideas for new projects and organizations, and design funding calls.
Build founding teams and recruit early hires.
Directly contribute to and coach founders on technical and organizational roadmaps, fundraising, and startup operations.
Serve as a Director on multiple FRO boards, keeping teams on track and helping founders with critical decisions.
Represent Convergent externally, building relationships with philanthropic and public funders.
Contribute to Convergent-wide initiatives like Founder Retreats and Residencies.

Benefits

Competitive salary ($200,000 - $350,000)
Up to a 6% 401k match
Top-tier medical, dental, and vision insurance (majority of options fully covered for employee and dependents)
Company-paid life insurance, AD&D, long- and short-term disability insurance, and voluntary supplemental insurance options
19 holidays (including a full week off at the end of the year)
3 weeks PTO with tenure increases
Separate allotments for sick and parental leave
Generous fertility benefits
Childcare reimbursement
Education and professional development benefits
Wellness allowance for fitness and wellness activities
3x/year offsite team retreats and additional opportunities to meet teammates in person