What are the responsibilities and job description for the Program Manager, Applied position at Constellation Research Center?
About Constellation
Constellation is an independent research center that brings together people throughout the AI safety ecosystem to accelerate insight, research, and talent through better cooperation. Unlike a conference or summit, Constellation operates continuously, in the form of a physical workspace as well as conference-style talks, workshops, and training bootcamps. Continuous operation allows for relationships and conversations to develop over time, meaningfully fostering trust, collaboration, and shared insight. It also makes Constellation a natural field-building hub by rapidly inspiring, orienting, and connecting people who are newer to the field.
Based in Berkeley, CA, our shared workspace hosts over 100 people per week across dozens of AI safety organizations in nonprofits, academia, industry, and government. Hundreds of other researchers spend time at Constellation for shorter visits each year. We believe this is the strongest and highest-output network of AI safety researchers in the world; dozens of participants in past Constellation programs have gone on to safety-focused roles at companies such as METR, Redwood Research, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and the US and UK Safety Institutes.
For more information, see our research focus areas and selected publications from Constellation fellows.
About the Programs team
Constellation's Programs team designs and executes on programs that further Constellation's mission. Our programs and roles fall into three areas :
- Hosting Programs offer different ways for people and organizations to spend time at the workspace and engage with the Constellation network. Each hosting program is tailored to a variety of participant profiles, and include aspects of recruitment, selection, programming, and individual facilitation to make visits maximally worthwhile. An example of a hosting program is the Visiting Fellows program, embedding over 100 researchers from around the world into the Constellation network for 3 months in 2024.
- Community Programs increase the amount or quality of network engagement by improving the mediums of interaction. Examples include network culture, design of the physical workspace, workspace meals, and the Constellation Slack.
- Applied Programs actively leverage the Constellation network to achieve specific mission-strategic goals. Applied programs often take the forms of events (talks, workshops, training bootcamps, and so on) but may include other avenues of catalyzing cooperation toward specific goals. An example is the Machine Learning for Alignment Bootcamp (MLAB), a one-month bootcamp program in partnership with Redwood Research which helped 75 participants develop the machine learning skills most relevant to alignment research. Over 20% of MLAB graduates went on to full-time AI safety roles in top organizations.
About this role
You will design, execute, and iterate on programs that leverage the Constellation network and the broader AI safety ecosystem for field-building, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. Often this will take the form of in-person events, such as seminars, training programs, and expert workshops, but could also include virtual collaboration, such as in facilitating remote working groups. These Applied Programs enable the network-which includes experts across technical research, policy, academia, and industry-to engage meaningfully with the broader AI safety community and world.
We're looking for an entrepreneurially-minded leader who brings a deep understanding of our mission's importance and the judgment to advance it effectively. The work also requires flexibility : sometimes you'll be digging into current program metrics to understand goal progress and sometimes you'll be in front of field experts introducing a workshop.
To succeed in this role, you'll need a strategic mindset, great interpersonal skills, and familiarity with the AI safety field. An innate desire to actively engage with the AI safety ecosystem is also a must. Each program you lead will have its own set of goals and success metrics, so you should be experienced in program design, project management, and running effective feedback loops.
This role will be part of our Programs team and require close collaboration with teammates on both the Programs and Operations teams.
Example responsibilities
Day-to-day work can vary substantially depending on the program. Example responsibilities specific to Applied Programs include :
Example responsibilities applicable to all Constellation Program Managers include :
Skills Needed
The ideal candidate for this role will have some combination of the skills and experiences described above. If you are not sure if you are qualified, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway.
100,000 - $190,000 a year
This is a full-time, on-site position at our Berkeley office, just steps from the nearest BART (metro) and bus stop. On-site parking is also available. We may be able to sponsor visas, depending on circumstances. The start date is flexible, but ideally we would like someone to start in Q2 / Q3.
If you're excited about helping humanity safely navigate the development of transformative AI, we encourage you to apply-even if you're unsure whether you meet every qualification.
We value diversity in all respects and base our hiring decisions on the needs of the organization and individual qualifications. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age or disability.
Salary : $100,000 - $190,000
