Head of AI Safety

Moonshot

1d • CA$115,000 - CA$140,000 • Remote

About The Position

Moonshot is seeking a Head of AI Safety to lead the development, delivery, and expansion of its AI Safety portfolio. This role integrates Moonshot's expertise in violence prevention, behavioral risk, and online harms with the emerging field of AI system safety evaluation and enhancement. The portfolio addresses critical harm categories such as pathways to violence, extremism, child sexual exploitation, abuse and grooming (CSEA), mental health crises, and risks impacting children and teenagers. The Head of AI Safety will act as Moonshot's primary applied AI safety contact for leading AI companies, governments, and regulatory bodies. The position requires close collaboration with model, policy, trust and safety, product, research, and engineering teams. While not an engineering or data science role, it is a hands-on position involving direct participation in red teaming and adversarial evaluations, deep engagement with evaluation methodologies, test scenarios, model responses, safety policies, and intervention frameworks. Key responsibilities include managing client and partner relationships, staff and project oversight, ensuring methodological quality, and business development. The role also involves building and maintaining relationships within the broader AI safety ecosystem, including governmental bodies, foundations, regulators, academics, researchers, and civil society organizations. This is a remote position, but candidates must be based in Ontario, Canada, to comply with employment and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

• Experience in trust & safety, online harms, or a closely related field such as violence prevention, safeguarding, or public health, and the ability to adapt that knowledge to AI systems.
• Curiosity about AI and the ability to build technical fluency quickly, enough to engage credibly with technical counterparts at AI companies. Much of this work is new, so comfort learning as you go matters more than existing AI safety expertise.
• Experience designing research, evaluation frameworks, or interventions for harm categories such as violent extremism, CSEA, self-harm and crisis, or targeted violence.
• Demonstrated experience managing projects, teams, budgets, partners, and clients, with strong people management skills.
• Excellent written communication, with experience producing credible (not promotional) material for government, foundation, or enterprise audiences.
• Comfort and demonstrated resilience working with highly sensitive or graphic content (CSEA, extremist material, crisis content), with awareness of wellbeing practices for this kind of work.
• Strong judgment and the ability to navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and sensitive stakeholder environments, including representing organizations externally.
• Willingness to travel and work outside regular hours where needed to accommodate clients or respond to incidents.
• Highly trustworthy, with discretion and diplomacy, and willing to undertake relevant security clearance procedures.
• Experience supporting business development, grant funding, or procurement.
• Commitment to Moonshot's mission.
• Must be eligible to work in Canada.
• Will be required to undertake and pass a standard background check, along with any relevant security clearance procedures per client needs.

Nice To Haves

• Direct experience in model safety, red teaming, or adversarial evaluation of LLMs or other AI systems.
• Understanding of LLM architecture, safety tooling, or trust & safety policy.
• Prior experience in child safety evaluation, teen-safety product work, or grooming and CSEA detection.
• Familiarity with government or regulatory engagement, such as briefing officials or supporting policy submissions.
• Experience with intervention or diversion programme design that can transfer to AI-mediated interventions.
• Academic or applied background in radicalization studies, forensic psychology, or violence risk assessment.
• Familiarity with taxonomy or classifier development, including how testing data feeds a classifier.

Responsibilities

• Lead and quality-assure Moonshot's applied AI safety work across harm categories including pathways to violence, extremism, CSEA, abuse and grooming, mental health and crisis, and risks affecting children and teens, using methods such as red teaming and adversarial evaluation of AI systems.
• Advise frontier AI companies on how to improve the safety of their models, products, policies, and intervention systems.
• Translate insights from psychologists, child-safety specialists, violence-prevention practitioners, safeguarding experts, and other subject-matter experts into clear, actionable guidance for model safety, policy, product, research, and engineering teams.
• Set the methodological approach for the portfolio, translating violence-prevention, safeguarding, and behavioural-risk expertise into structured and testable evaluation frameworks.
• Lead and participate directly in red teaming and adversarial evaluation, working in detail with test scenarios, model responses, scoring criteria, safety policies, and evaluation results.
• Identify patterns, edge cases, and potential safety failures, and develop practical recommendations for improving model behaviour and user protections.
• Maintain rigour and clear documentation across the team's technical deliverables, suitable for technical, government, and foundation audiences.
• Ensure work is delivered within a clear ethical framework and in compliance with contractual, legal, data protection, and ethics obligations.
• Identify, manage, and escalate operational, reputational, delivery, and partnership risks.
• Serve as Moonshot's primary applied AI safety counterpart for frontier AI company partners, governments, regulators, and the wider ecosystem invested in AI safety.
• Build trusted relationships with model, policy, trust and safety, product, research, and engineering teams.
• Build and sustain relationships across the wider AI safety ecosystem, including governments, foundations, regulators, academics, researchers, civil society organizations, and specialist practitioners.
• Represent Moonshot externally in meetings, briefings, workshops, and sector engagement, including with regulators and policymaker audiences.
• Provide direct leadership, coaching, and management to Moonshot's AI safety team.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and mission-driven team culture, with particular attention to wellbeing given the sensitive nature of the work.
• Support workforce planning, performance management, and professional development across the team.
• Ensure effective coordination with internal teams supporting the portfolio, including operations, finance, research, and technical teams.
• Develop Moonshot's AI safety portfolio, identifying strategic opportunities, partnerships, and funding.
• Lead proposal development, scoping, and renewals with technical credibility, using precise, defensible language suited to technical and government audiences.
• Develop repeatable methodologies, service offerings, and partnerships that allow the portfolio to grow while maintaining methodological rigour and delivery quality.
• Support external communications, publications, briefings, and thought leadership that establish Moonshot as a credible voice in applied AI safety.
• Oversee project planning, staffing, budgeting, forecasting, and delivery timelines across the portfolio.

Benefits

• 25 days paid vacation leave, plus Statutory Holiday
• Flexible public holiday policy with the option to work statutory holidays in exchange for a day off at another time.
• Group healthcare package, including coverage for partners and children (80% Co-Insurance).
• HSA is restricted to mental health practitioners only
• Dental & Vision Insurance (80% Co-Insurance).
• Life & LTD Disability Insurance.
• 24/7 access to counselling via our Employee Assistance Program.
• Generous maternity and paternity leave: 26 weeks paid maternity leave, 8 weeks paid paternity leave.
• All permanent employees are granted share options upon employment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed