Program Investigator and Manager

We are no longer hiring for this position.

BERI is seeking to hire a full-time Program Investigator and Manager (PI/M). In short, we need someone with a high degree of competence in evaluating claims and arguments about existential risk and how to reduce it, who also wants to help whenever possible by developing and managing well-reasoned project ideas.

Status: Full-time employee, salaried
Start date: As soon as a promising candidate is identified
Compensation: $60,000-$120,000, depending on experience
Typical hours: 40 per week, primarily during standard business hours.
Work Location: Berkeley/Oakland
Reports to: Executive Director
Application: at the bottom of this page

A BERI PI/M would spend their time according to the following approximate breakdown:

  • 40% investigating: collecting, evaluating, and summarizing information about what the world needs most to reduce existential risk. This would involve:
    • collecting and developing project ideas for reducing existential risk that seem potentially extremely valuable. A focus on risks from artificial intelligence is welcome, but not required.
    • researching and summarizing avenues for pursuing their project ideas, including relevant scientific facts as well as historical precedents and legal principles.
  • 30% planning:
    • drafting well-reasoned, informal proposals for new projects to be undertaken, on scales that might require directing one or more BERI project managers, hiring additional staff, or establishing a collaboration between institutions.
    • circulating project proposals for review and criticism from our collaborators. This is especially important when projects could have high variance in their potential impact, because not all x-risk interventions are positive in value.
  • 30% executing: determining which of their plans are most promising and agreeable, and carrying those plans through to fruition. This could involve:
    • recruiting staff or collaborators to pursue their top-ranked projects.
    • managing or helping coordinate relevant teams and collaborations.
    • recommending grants to collaborators if needed.

The ideal candidate would already be familiar with the “ecosystem” of organizations working on the risk areas they’d investigate, and would be excited to develop and maintain relationships with the institutions we’d like to collaborate with. We’d also want our first PI/M to try reporting their ideas and any publicly shareable findings in the form of a newsletter for our website.

Qualifications needed: A demonstrated track record of serious interest in existential risk reduction, along with education and professional experience demonstrating a high degree of individually good judgement and ability to reason about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) development, such as:

  • a PhD in a STEM-related field, with some management experience;
  • an MD or JD, with experience in a STEM-related profession, and some management experience
  • professional investment experience, with demonstrated competence in evaluating STEM research, and some management experience.

Do any of these sound like you?

Benefits Include

  • Time-off (paid vacation, holidays, sick leave, bereavement leave, & parental leave)
  • Generous professional development policy
  • Health insurance
  • Semi-flexible work schedule including hours, location, and unpaid vacation policies

BERI is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Our mission to improve human civilization’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing is in service of all of humanity, and is incompatible with unfair discrimination practices that would pit factions of humanity against one another. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, sexual preference, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

(2022-02-17: Edited to remove link as part of general site cleanup.)