Training for Good is hiring (and why you should join us): AI Programme Lead and Operations Associate

By Cillian_, Training for Good @ 2023-08-03T16:50 (+9)

Update: The application deadline for the AI Programme Lead has been extended to 21 August.

Summary

• Training for Good is hiring for two roles (deadline 13 August).
  • An AI Programme Lead; someone who will design and deliver training programmes covering AI governance, technical & strategic fundamentals for journalists and policymakers.
  • An Operations Associate; someone who will organise in-person training weeks, manage financial operations, and coordinate with the Charity Commission to secure charitable status. ~50% of the role can be tailored to your strengths / the domains where you'd like to build skills!
• Training for Good runs fellowships that place talented young professionals directly in high impact careers, with a focus on policy and journalism careers that reduce risks from advanced artificial intelligence. 
• This is an opportunity to join a potentially high impact organisation as an early employee and help drive it to success.
• Some reasons to think Training for Good could be especially promising:
  • We’re directing talent into neglected career paths that could reduce risks from advanced artificial intelligence. Right now we’re focused on journalism & European AI governance, though we’d be excited to expand into other areas.
  • Our model seems to be working. We identify promising early-career individuals & offer them paid placements in difficult-to-enter career paths to kickstart their career there. So far, we’ve seen some success: 
    • We’ve placed 3 Tarbell Fellows at TIME and supported another to freelance with the New Yorker. 
    • Several of our EU Tech Policy Fellows now work at key think tanks (e.g. The Future Society, the International Center for Future Generations, and the Centre for European Policy Studies); one has co-founded an AI think tank working directly with the UN and co-authored a piece for The Economist with Gary Marcus; others are advising MEPs and key institutions on the EU AI Act
  • As an early employee of Training for Good, you'll have a lot of leverage over the direction (and future impact) of the organisation.

You can apply and learn more here.

About Training for Good

Training for Good is an impact-focused career organisation. We run fellowships that place talented young professionals directly in high impact careers, with a focus on policy and journalism careers that reduce risks from advanced artificial intelligence. 

We run two programmes:

• EU Tech Policy Fellowship. A 7-month fellowship for entering European policy careers focused on regulating risks from AI. Track 1 involves a 6-month fully-funded placement at a relevant think tank (e.g. The Future Society, Centre for European Policy Studies). Track 2 fellows receive support to pursue a career in the Commission, party politics or related areas.
• Tarbell Fellowship. A 12-month programme for early career journalists interested in covering AI. Fellows receive a placement on a tech desk at a major news outlet, participate in a study group covering AI governance & safety fundamentals, and attend a 2 week journalism summit in Oxford. TFG will provide stipends to fellows for the first 6 months and participating outlets will cover the remaining 3-6 months.

Why you should join Training for Good

Directing talent into neglected career paths

Training for Good is increasing the supply of talented young professionals entering specific career paths that reduce risks from advanced artificial intelligence. 

We’re creating concrete opportunities for early-career professionals to gain entry level roles in journalism and European AI governance - career paths that are particularly difficult to enter. 

This is important because:

• Direct progress on problems: Talented individuals in these career paths can directly contribute to progress on solving the world’s most important problems
• Closer towards the “ideal portfolio”: We mostly take a portfolio approach to doing good. One could imagine an optimal distribution of talent, which might involve people pursuing a variety of different career paths. With our fellowships, we are attempting to move closer towards this ideal allocation by enabling people to pursue paths that we believe are currently underrepresented (and expect to remain so) within the portfolio. We believe that thinking in these terms is particularly useful partly due to:
  • Diminishing returns from certain career paths
  • Epistemic uncertainty about which career paths are best (and the associated information value from reducing this uncertainty somewhat)
  • Differing personal fit for individuals across different career paths
• Concrete opportunities: The number of people interested in working on AI has been growing in recent years, but many are unclear how to contribute. Fellowships provide concrete opportunities for early-career individuals to build career capital & explore their fit for a specific career path.

Our model seems to be working

Our fellowships take early-career individuals & offer them paid placements in neglected / difficult-to-enter career paths to kickstart their career there. So far, this model appears to be working.

It’s too soon to draw strong conclusions, given that successful career transitions can take 18+ months to materialise. However, the outcomes so far appear to be promising. 

For example, some concrete wins since our founding in September 2021 include:

• Raised ~$1 million from high-net worth individuals and foundations.
• Our past EU Tech Policy Fellows now occupy a variety of roles relevant to European AI governance: 
  • Several work at key think tanks (e.g. The Future Society, the International Center for Future Generations, and the Centre for European Policy Studies)
  • One has co-founded an AI think tank working directly with the UN and co-authored a piece for The Economist with Gary Marcus
  • Others are advising MEPs and key institutions on the EU AI Act
• Placed 3 Tarbell Fellows at TIME and supported another to freelance with the New Yorker.
• Placed 13 EU Tech Policy Fellows at competitive policy think tanks in Europe (eg. The Future Society, the Centre for European Policy Studies)

We believe TFG is on track to be a leading impact-focused career organisation within 3 years. As a founding employee of Training for Good, you’ll play a pivotal role in making this happen.

Leverage over our future direction

As an early employee of Training for Good, you'll have a lot of leverage over the direction (and future impact) of the organisation.

TFG could grow in many ways: we could launch fellowships for adjacent career paths (e.g. European biosecurity policy, UK tech policy, or information security). We could increase our activities within journalism & European AI governance, perhaps training existing journalists and policymakers in AI safety fundamentals. 

This is an opportunity to heavily influence TFG's future trajectory. The right person, with deep familiarity of the space & an entrepreneurial mindset, could add a lot of value here.

AI Programme Lead

Key details

• Closing: 13th August 2023, 11:59 PM Anywhere on Earth
• Start date: October 2023 or as soon as possible
• Hours: 40 hours/week
• Location: Remote, with 3+ hours of overlap with UK working hours (i.e. 9am - 6pm UTC+0 to UTC+1).
• Salary: $40-60k, depending on location and experience. We’re open to higher salaries for an exceptional candidate.
• How to apply: Please fill in this short application form
• Contact: contact@trainingforgood.com

About the role

The AI Programme Lead will be responsible for designing and delivering AI training programs to early-career journalists and EU policymakers. You will initially work across our EU Tech Policy Fellowship and our Tarbell Fellowship. Within 3-6 months, we expect that you will transition to leading one of these programmes. We’re excited to hire a seasoned operator that can steer one of these fellowships to success - or drive the launch of a third fellowship in an entirely new career path!

Responsibilities and activities

We expect the AI Programme Lead will assume the following key responsibilities:

• Designing and delivering AI training programmes for early-career journalists and policymakers (~30%) This will likely be your primary work task for the first ~4 months (>70% of your time). Thereafter, we expect it to occupy much less of your time (~20%).
• Taking extreme ownership of one of Training for Good’s current programmes (30%). We expect that you will transition to leading one of our existing programmes within 3-6 months of joining Training for Good. Once this happens, it will become one of your primary responsibilities (>60% of your time). You will be given a large degree of autonomy to enable you to thrive.
• Miscellaneous (40%). As a small team with a startup mentality, we expect our entire team to take responsibility for a wide range of tasks. A significant amount of your time will be occupied by tasks not explicitly listed here, some of which may be well beyond (or even below) your current skill level. You will not always be operating within your zone of excellence, and you need to be okay with that. We will work with you to prioritise additional responsibilities based on your “skill” and “will”.

What we’re looking for

You might be an especially good fit if you have:

• AI expertise: It’s desirable to have 3+ years of experience within a role focused on  AI governance & strategy, though we’re open to applicants with less experience than this. A technical background is not necessary, though could also be beneficial.
• Ability to work autonomously: An ability to excel with relatively little supervision almost immediately. We’re excited to find a proactive self-starter to join our team.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills: Exceptionally strong verbal and written communication skills for internal and external stakeholders. Ability to deliver effective training sessions to small groups on AI fundamentals.

TO APPLY FOR THE AI PROGRAMME LEAD ROLE PLEASE COMPLETE THIS APPLICATION FORM 

Operations Associate

Key details

• Closing: 13th August 2023, 11:59 PM Anywhere on Earth
• Start date: October 2023 or as soon as possible
• Hours: 20-40 hours/week
• Location: Remote, with 3+ hours of overlap with UK working hours (i.e. 9am - 6pm UTC+0 to UTC+1).
• Salary: $30-45k pro rata, depending on location and experience. We’re open to higher salaries for an exceptional candidate.
• How to apply: Please fill in this short application form
• Learn more: Job description
• Contact: contact@trainingforgood.com

About the role

The Operations Associate will lead Training for Good's operational and administrative processes. You'll organise in-person training weeks, manage financial operations, and coordinate with the Charity Commission to secure charitable status. We also expect that ~50% of the role can be tailored to your strengths or the domains in which you'd like to develop skills. For example, if you're particularly excited to own our communications strategy or co-develop a new programme focused on biosecurity policy, we’re likely to be open to this. 

Responsibilities and activities

We expect the Operations Associate will assume the following key responsibilities:

• Coordinating with the Charity Commission to secure charitable status, and ensuring ongoing compliance with the Charity Commission’s requirements (15%)
• Organising events run by TFG, especially our in-person training sessions (15%)
• Financial management of Training for Good (10%)
• Improving systems with TFG and optimising the organisation (10%)
• Manage HR & legal processes within the organisation (10%)
• Miscellaneous (40%) As a small team with a startup mentality, we expect our entire team to take responsibility for a wide range of tasks. A significant amount of your time will be occupied by tasks not explicitly listed here, some of which may be well beyond (or even below) your current skill level. You will not always be operating within your zone of excellence, and you need to be okay with that.  We will work with you to prioritise additional responsibilities based on your “skill” and “will”. 

TO APPLY FOR THE OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE ROLE PLEASE COMPLETE THIS APPLICATION FORM