Standards Analyst

Common Sense Media•San Francisco, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Common Sense Media is seeking a Standards Analyst for its new Youth AI Safety Institute. This role will lead the development, documentation, and evolution of AI safety standards for youth-facing AI products and platforms. The Institute aims to establish safety standards, build open-source evaluations, independently test AI products, and publish results to ensure AI used by children is safe and developmentally appropriate. The Standards Analyst will work closely with the Head of AI & Digital Assessments, translating research and expert input into clear, structured standards. This position requires deep expertise in child and adolescent development, youth mental health, or a related clinical/developmental field, with the ability to critically consume expert input and manage multi-stakeholder processes. The role involves synthesizing diverse perspectives, ensuring standards are internally consistent and reflect the Institute's mission, and translating standards into testable evaluation protocols. Rigorous documentation of the development process and public-facing standards is crucial for transparency and accountability. The Standards Analyst will manage timelines and deliverables for multiple standards development tracks.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
4–6 years of experience in policy development, standards-setting, regulatory affairs, research, or a closely related field.
Demonstrated experience contributing to formal standards, guidelines, frameworks, or policy documents in a multi-stakeholder environment.
Exceptional written communication skills, with the ability to distill complex, competing inputs into clear, well-reasoned documentation.
Proven ability to engage productively with diverse stakeholder groups (including experts, advocates, and industry representatives) while maintaining organizational independence and integrity.
Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage complex, multi-track workstreams with many moving parts.
Substantive grounding in child and adolescent development, youth mental health, or a closely related clinical or developmental field.
Ability to be a sophisticated and discerning consumer of expert input, capable of identifying the right questions to ask and knowing when to escalate.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Graduate training in developmental psychology, clinical psychology, public health, or a related field.
Experience in AI safety, technology policy, or emerging technology governance.
Experience working with or alongside clinical or research professionals in child/adolescent mental health, developmental psychology, or pediatric health settings.
Familiarity with standards-setting bodies, technical working groups, or multi-stakeholder governance processes (e.g., NIST, IEEE, ISO, or similar).
Experience translating qualitative standards into operational evaluation criteria or rubrics.
Knowledge of AI evaluation methodologies, red-teaming practices, or platform safety assessment.
Experience working in mission-driven organizations navigating complex external relationships.

Responsibilities

Draft, refine, and maintain the Institute's AI safety standards for youth-facing AI products and platforms in collaboration with the Head of AI & Digital Assessments.
Translate research, expert input, and evaluation experience into clear, structured, and publicly accessible standards documentation.
Continually evolve standards in response to new evidence, emerging AI capabilities, expert feedback, and lessons from the Institute's assessment and evaluation work.
Ensure standards are internally consistent, appropriately scoped, and reflective of the Institute's mission and methodological commitments.
Participate actively in structured input processes (including expert convenings, working group sessions, and comment processes) as a listener, questioner, and note taker on behalf of the standards function.
Synthesize input from a broad range of sources, including perspectives that may be in tension, into coherent standards positions, clearly documenting points of consensus, disagreement, and rationale for decisions made.
Maintain ongoing familiarity with the perspectives of key experts and organizations in AI safety, child development, education, mental health, and related fields to ensure standards reflect current knowledge and debate.
Communicate the Institute's standards positions clearly to diverse external audiences, including researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.
Work closely with technical evaluators to ensure that Institute standards are translated into testable, reproducible rubrics and evaluation protocols.
Identify gaps between standards as written and what can be operationalized in practice, and work with the Head of AI & Digital Assessments to address them.
Maintain alignment between the standards documentation and the evaluation work the Institute publishes, such that published assessments are clearly grounded in stated standards.
Maintain rigorous documentation of the standards development process, including how input was gathered, how decisions were made, and how standards have evolved over time in support of the Institute's commitment to transparency and public accountability.
Draft and maintain public-facing standards documentation that is accurate, accessible, and suitable for a broad audience, including developers, policymakers, parents and caregivers, and educators.
Produce process documentation, version histories, and methodology summaries that allow external stakeholders to understand and engage with how the Institute's standards are set.
Manage timelines, workflows, and deliverables across multiple simultaneous standards development tracks.
Brief the Head of AI & Digital Assessments regularly on progress, emerging issues, and decisions requiring escalation.