Product Policy

Thinking Machines Lab•San Francisco, CA

2d•$300,000 - $360,000•Onsite

About The Position

Thinking Machines is seeking an experienced policy leader to establish and lead its product policy function. This role will be responsible for shaping the rules governing the development, release, and usage of Thinking Machines' products and models, including usage policies, content and safety policies, model release and access policies, and developer-facing policies for platforms like Tinker. The individual will set policy positions, build operational review processes and frameworks, and collaborate with Research, Product, Trust & Safety, Communications, Public Policy, and Legal teams to integrate policy into decision-making from the outset. This is a build role requiring end-to-end ownership, including team hiring and development, and establishing the necessary policies, review processes, and cross-functional partnerships for responsible and rapid launch of new capabilities. Note: This position may involve exposure to explicit content of a sexual, violent, or psychologically disturbing nature.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in product policy, trust & safety, content policy, or a related field, including significant experience assessing product and platform risk.
Experience building and leading a product policy, trust & safety, or content policy function, including hiring and managing a team.
Strong track record partnering directly with product and engineering teams on policy questions embedded in the development lifecycle, from early design through launch.
Excellent judgment translating complex, fast-moving product and policy questions into clear, actionable recommendations for executive leadership.
Strong relationship-building and communication skills, with the ability to represent the company credibly with regulators, industry counterparts, and internal stakeholders alike.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a frontier AI company or on an AI safety or trust & safety team, with familiarity with model release, fine-tuning, or agentic product policy questions.
Experience building policy or risk review frameworks for novel technology, such as ranking and recommendation systems, generative AI, or other emergent product surfaces.
Familiarity with the technical fundamentals of frontier AI development sufficient to engage credibly with research and engineering teams.
Background in law, trust & safety, or content policy, with experience navigating regulatory frameworks relevant to product policy, such as online safety regulation, child safety, or platform governance.

Responsibilities

Set and drive Thinking Machines' product policy strategy, including usage policies, content and platform policies, and policies governing new model capabilities and releases.
Build and lead the product policy team, including hiring, structuring the function, and establishing how it partners with Research, Product, Trust & Safety, Communications, Public Policy and Legal.
Own the frameworks and review processes that assess new product features and model capabilities for policy risk before launch, and drive the mitigations that come out of that review.
Partner with public policy and research on the company's policy response to novel product and capability questions, including open-weight model release, fine-tuning and customization on platforms like Tinker, agentic capabilities, and enterprise use cases, translating fast-moving product decisions into clear positions and recommendations for leadership.
Partner with Trust & Safety, Research, and Communications to build user-facing policies, including acceptable use and enforcement frameworks, that are both principled and practical to enforce.
Develop the internal infrastructure for product policy decision-making, including intake processes, review thresholds, escalation paths, and decision logs, so policy is built into product and research decisions early rather than at the point of launch.