We are seeking a highly experienced, strategic and mission-driven leader to drive the policy research priorities of Scale Labs. This is a unique opportunity to lead a team of research scientists, policy experts and engineers on foundational AI safety and security work.

You will:

Own day-to-day responsibilities for the strategy, direction and execution of Scale’s Policy Research Lab
Collaborate with a team of internal researchers, leading research labs across governments, industry, and academia.
Working alongside a team of internal researchers drive initiatives related to frameworks and benchmarks for frontier AI models.
Remain deeply engaged with the policy and research communities to understand and set trends.
Manage and coordinate the lab's projects, partnerships and strategy, including direct work with global AI safety institutes.
Finalize, coordinate, and execute the lab's recruiting plan and research agenda.

Ideally you’d have:

6+ years of relevant academic or work experience
A track record of impactful research and/or policy contributions
Experience leading teams in relevant areas including AI Safety Policy, Thought Leadership and Research publications
Strong written and verbal communication skills for cross-functional collaboration.
Experience building and mentoring teams of research scientists and engineers.
A strong technical and policy background with a deep understanding of the AI safety space.
Extensive knowledge of frontier risk evaluations, AI control, and preparedness research.
Established connections with government partners, particularly AI safety institutes.

Nice to have:

Publications at major machine learning/AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR) and/or journals.

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

Please reference the job posting's subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is:

$198,000—$247,000 USD

$177,600—$247,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.

PLEASE NOTE: We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants’ needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data. Please see our privacy policy for additional information.

Head of Policy & Security Research Lab

Skills

About the role