Manager, Programs

Manager, Programs

A quick note before you apply: This is a role for someone with 3+ years of experience running programs that bring people together, such as fellowships, workshops, convenings, or speaker series. It isn't a technical project management or product management role. This isn’t a fit for newly-graduates.

We'd love to hear why you want to work at CAIS. That question is optional, but it's the first thing we read.

Location: San Francisco, CA (on-site 5 days/week, local candidates only)

About The Center for AI Safety (CAIS)

The Center for AI Safety (CAIS) is a leading research and advocacy organization focused on mitigating societal-scale risks from AI. Some of our past achievements include: releasing the most widely used measure of AI capabilities used by all major AI companies, running a large compute cluster to facilitate AI safety research which has been cited over 16,000 times, and publishing a global statement on AI Risk signed by Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and top AI CEOs.

The Role

CAIS builds the field of AI safety by bringing the right people together: researchers, students, policymakers, and professionals who want to help solve the problem. We do this through fellowships, workshops, convenings, speaker series, and educational courses. We're hiring a Manager, Programs to run these programs at a high bar and help make them repeatable. You'll report to the Senior Manager, Programs and work closely with the rest of the Programs team.

The Senior Manager sets the direction and priorities for the portfolio. As a Manager in Programs, you own the programs themselves: building and executing the plan, recruiting participants and speakers, managing partners and budgets, running delivery, and capturing what we learn so the next one runs better. You'll bring recommendations rather than waiting for direction, and you'll know when to make the call yourself and when to escalate.

The scope varies by program. You might run a cohort of a fellowship, stand up a workshop from a rough brief, coordinate a convening of researchers and policymakers, or take a program that already works and document it so it can run again without you holding every piece.

You don't need a technical background in AI, but you do need to care about why AI safety matters and be able to talk about it credibly with the people you'll work with.

Who We're Looking For

You're an experienced project program manager who has owned real programs from plan to delivery, not just supported them. You can take a defined mandate and make it real: build the timeline, find the right people, lock in partners and vendors, manage the budget, anticipate what could go wrong, and make sure it ships well.

You're strong operationally and have good judgment about what matters. You can hold a lot of moving pieces across several programs at once, keep participants, partners, and internal teams on track, and notice early when something is drifting.

This role is not a technical project management, product management, or software delivery role. The core of the work is running experiences that bring people together and moving a field forward.

What You'll Do

• Work with the Senior Manager, Programs to turn program goals into concrete plans, including audience, format, participants, timeline, and budget.
• Conduct preliminary research for new programs to clarify goals and requirements.
• Recruit and select participants, speakers, and facilitators, and build agendas and formats that lead to productive conversations and lasting connections.
• Independently gather context in new domains by consulting experts, reviewing research, and using available resources.
• Own program delivery end to end and ensure each program meets the agreed scope, timeline, and quality expectations.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate risks, address challenges proactively, and escalate critical issues to the Senior Manager as needed.
• Maintain accurate and comprehensive program documentation and reporting, including setting up and maintaining program details in our project management software.
• Manage relationships with external partners, vendors, and other stakeholders to ensure program requirements are met.
• Track program budgets and expenses and keep spending aligned with financial goals.
• Coordinate cross-functional teammates and external partners to deliver programs.
• Delegate tasks to contractors, partners, or program support staff where appropriate, with clear guidance and follow-through.
• Run post-program evaluation and document what worked so programs can be repeated and improved.

What We're Looking For

• 3-5 years of experience running programs that convene people, such as fellowships, workshops, conferences, speaker series, or community or educational programs, including owning delivery end to end.
• Experience managing multiple programs or workstreams at once, with sound prioritization across them.
• Strong project planning skills: timelines, budgets, milestones, and the follow-through to keep everyone on track.
• Experience managing a diverse set of stakeholders, including external partners and vendors.
• The ability to get up to speed quickly in unfamiliar domains by learning from experts, papers, and other sources.
• Agility when internal or external factors shift, and the judgment to know when to adjust course and when to escalate.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Conscientiousness and a high bar for quality. You're open to feedback and honest with yourself and others, even when it's uncomfortable, because getting to the best answer matters more.
• A genuine understanding of why AI safety matters, and the ability to explain it in your own words.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.

Nice to Have

• Existing relationships in the AI safety, AI research, or AI policy community.
• Experience in a research organization, AI or technology company, or policy or field-building organization.
• Experience at an early-stage or fast-growing mission-driven organization.

Salary Range

$110,000 - $150,000 annually, depending on experience.

Benefits

• Health insurance for you and your dependents
• 401K plan + 4% matching
• Unlimited PTO
• Lunch and dinner at the office
• Annual Professional Development Stipend
• Access to some of the top talent working on technical and conceptual research in AI safety

Referral Program

Know someone who could be a great fit for this role? Submit their details through our Referral Form. If we end up hiring your referral, you'll receive a $1,500 bonus once they've been with CAIS for 90 days.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Center for AI Safety is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. In alignment with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.

If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact [email protected].

We value diversity and encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.