Head of Comms /PR

Apollo Research • San Francisco, CA

3d • $150,000 - $240,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

We are hiring our first Head of Communications & PR to drive Apollo's earned media presence and ensure Apollo's research and perspectives reach the right audiences. This is a US-first role: approximately 80% of focus is on the US media landscape, with UK and European engagement as genuinely secondary and tertiary markets.
Apollo prioritises truth-seeking far above standard communications norms. We aim to be honest even when it could harm the organisation. Many traditional communications skills translate here, but the person we hire must see our existing credibility as Apollo's most valuable asset, never to be traded for short-term narrative advantage.
This is a senior strategic role, and you will be Apollo's first communications hire, building the function from the ground up. That means owning both strategy and execution: identifying the research areas where Apollo has genuine expertise and ensuring that expertise is visible (e.g. Scheming, Loss of Control), and shifting from reactive, paper-by-paper media engagement to proactively highlighting important and underserved issues in AGI safety. In practice it also means establishing consistent processes across publications, blog, social channels, and podcast appearances, and replacing ad hoc engagement with reliable systems.
The primary objective is to ensure Apollo is recognised as a credible, go-to source on frontier AI safety topics where it has genuine expertise, building the organisation's profile, ensuring the CEO's research perspective and expertise reach the audiences where they're most needed, and building crisis communications preparedness as Apollo's US profile grows.

Requirements

• 7–8+ years of senior communications experience in strategic communications, science or technology journalism, or comparable roles.
• Comfortable operating in an environment where honesty and accuracy take precedence over message control. You should be energized, not frustrated, by an organization that will sometimes say things that aren't in its short-term interest if that favors accuracy.
• Demonstrated experience building a communications function or long-term media strategy from scratch at a scaling organisation, not just executing within an existing one.
• Demonstrated track record of proactively pitching and placing stories with top-tier US outlets, not just managing inbound interest.
• Proven track record of elevating organisational brand and earned media presence, ideally in technology, research, or adjacent domains.
• Past success developing and executing thought leadership strategies that have significantly boosted executive profiles over a 6–12 month period.
• Established relationships with US journalists covering AI, technology, and/or policy.
• Candidates whose experience is primarily reactive or inbound-focused are unlikely to be the right fit.
• Strong editorial judgement and narrative instinct, including knowing when not to engage publicly.
• Experience building or owning crisis communications frameworks, with an understanding of reputational risk management.
• Ability to translate complex technical material into clear external narratives without oversimplifying.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building organisational brand and thought leadership programs from scratch.
• Familiarity with AI safety, advanced AI systems, or adjacent technical domains or a demonstrated ability to master a new technical domain quickly.
• A track record of proactive story placement and earned media results you can speak to specifically.
• You have experience communicating on behalf of research organizations or technical teams where credibility and accuracy were non-negotiable, not just preferred.
• Experience operating primarily in the US, with UK/EU as secondary and comfort with that weighting.
• Experience with crisis communications planning in a high-profile organisation.
• Experience supporting senior leadership positioning at an organisational level.

Responsibilities

• Develop a high-level, long-term media strategy for Apollo as an organisation: identifying where Apollo's research expertise is most relevant to public discourse, planning how research output and public engagement fit together across the year, and sequencing major communications moments (e.g. research results) proactively rather than reactively.
• Move Apollo from opportunistic, reactive media engagement to a deliberate communications approach that ensures Apollo's expertise is available when important AI safety conversations happen.
• Maintain and evolve a comms calendar that maps Apollo's research agenda to relevant external moments. This will also include an annual calendar of target speaking engagements (globally) for Apollo leadership and select staff.
• Advise leadership on how to communicate complex technical material clearly and credibly, ensuring Apollo's research reaches relevant audiences while maintaining Apollo's commitment to honesty over organisational convenience.
• Shape and execute Apollo's external communications as an organisation: establishing Apollo as a recognised, credible source on frontier AI safety issues where it has genuine expertise, ahead of individual profile work.
• Build and execute a strategy to ensure Marius's (CEO) research expertise and perspective on AI safety reach the right audiences, within the context of Apollo's broader organisational communications.
• Shape and execute external communications for Apollo leadership, ensuring Marius is recognised as a credible expert on AI safety issues where he has genuine knowledge. This includes identifying the research areas Apollo is best placed to speak on over the coming year, developing clear stories around those areas, and actively placing them with media outlets. This moves Apollo beyond waiting to be asked toward proactively surfacing its expertise, without prescribing policy outcomes.
• Lead the translation of technical research into clear, media-relevant materials (key findings, FAQs, briefing notes, media kits) for US and, where relevant, international audiences.
• Work cross-functionally with teams to ensure external messaging aligns with research integrity and organisational priorities.
• Build and maintain deep, trusted relationships with US journalists across AI, technology, and adjacent beats.
• Proactively place research-led and issue-driven stories, exclusives, and op-eds, with the objective of making Apollo a default source for commentary on emerging AI safety issues.
• Actively pitch and secure speaking engagements for Apollo leadership and select staff; high profile speaking engagements globally with an annual outlook.
• Manage inbound media interest and prepare leadership for media engagements.
• UK/EU media engagement is tertiary and can largely be addressed remotely or through the COO; this should not be a primary focus of the role.
• As Apollo's public profile grows, build and maintain a communications preparedness framework so the organisation can respond quickly and credibly to unexpected developments or time-sensitive situations, including crises.
• Establish response protocols, escalation paths, and pre-prepared materials as standard operational practice.
• Build templates, self-serve playbooks, checklists, and sign-off workflows to establish consistent comms quality across the organisation.
• Partner closely with London-based operational support to ensure consistent execution across geographies.

Benefits

• A competitive, US-based salary: $150,000–$240,000. Candidates with exceptional qualifications may be eligible for the higher end of the range.
• Equity and competitive benefits.
• The opportunity to build the communications function and external voice of a leading AI safety research organisation from the ground up.
• A collaborative, intellectually rigorous environment.
• A role that combines strategic autonomy with real global impact.
• Flexible work hours and schedule.
• Unlimited vacation.
• Paid work trips, including staff retreats, business travel, and relevant conferences.
• A yearly $1,000 professional development budget.

What This Job Offers

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