Hiring in the AI Safety Ecosystem

Published on October 2, 2026 9:27 PM GMT Personal reflections on effective hiring operations from going through the interview process at 8 AI Safety organizations. Below, I’ve included 5 recommendations for hiring managers in AI Safety and 5 tips for candidates as they navigate their career search. I’ve also highlighted orgs I think are doing hiring particularly well (from a candidate’s perspective) and strategies to avoid. Note for Readers: I do not have a technical background, and have never applied to technical roles. Therefore the reflections below are more applicable to generalist, operations, convenings, grantmaking, policy, and field-building roles in AI Safety. As orgs scale, their processes may change rapidly. These insights are locked in time from the 2026 hiring cycle. 5 Tips For Candidates Every interview is a data point that helps you understand where your expertise fits into the ecosystem and where you can have the most impact. The hiring process is not a personal rejection or reflection of you, your talent, or the knowledge you bring to the field. Some roles I applied to were closed without ever hiring anyone. After taking the BlueDot Impact courses and adding that experience to my resume, my percentage of applications to interview invitations went way up. If you’re making a career pivot and you don’t have previous experience at an AI Safety org or frontier lab, hiring managers are looking for indicators that you've taken steps to actively be part of the AI Safety community, upskill, and continue your education. See my previous post on Comparing AI Policy Courses. I was skeptical when it launched, but I am actually very impressed by the 80,000 Hours AI Career Advisor. Their LLM can tailor your resume, edit your cover letter and application questions, run mock interviews, and provide feedback on work test submissions. Start here before applying for a personal 1-1 advising session with Probably Good, SuccessIf, or 80,000 Hours (which are more competitive and often have long waiting periods). Many smaller AI Safety orgs work with third-party providers like Impact Ops and Mangrove Ops for hiring support. Your first interaction may be with one of their operations staff, not someone working directly at the org you’re applying for. Practically, this means you’ll have to communicate your expertise to someone who may not have any knowledge of the field. I had a much better interview experience with Impact Ops vs. Mangrove Ops. I always recommend checking the box for “Are you happy for us to share your information with other hiring organizations?” The AI Safety field is still small, and I don’t know how the data sharing works on the back-end, but I have actually received invitations to apply for multiple roles through this (including unpublished roles). Regardless of checking this box, I feel like every AI Safety org in the US must have a copy of my resume by now. 5 Recommendations for Hiring Managers The hiring process is the first interface interested candidates will have with your organization- make sure it’s a good first impression. If there’s a take-home work test, instead of banning LLM use or relying on automated proctoring software, ask candidates to submit a link to the LLM transcript they used to assist with their work test. This helps you evaluate a person’s thinking process and how they are currently leveraging AI tools. Paid work tests are becoming industry standard. Even a small honorarium/stipend for completing the work test feels like a big gesture that respects candidates’ time. If set up correctly to mirror the day-to-day responsibilities of the role, they are also super helpful to understand whether a candidate would actually enjoy the work and if their expertise would be a good fit for the position. If possible, include the number of applications a role received in your rejection email. I don’t know why, but as a candidate, knowing that I was competing against 900+ other candidates for one position lessens the blow and indicates how competitive the market is right now. Some roles included 1-2 sentences of feedback in their rejection email and these stood out as super helpful. See these helpful EA Forum posts from Caleb Price, founder of the Lisbon AI Safety Project, with rejection email templates and advice for AI Safety orgs. The Hall of Shame Ghosting candidates after an interview. No excuse here. Set up an automation to ensure follow up and close the loop. Sending candidates directly to an automated video interview or an unpaid work test before a first round interview or phone screening creates high candidate drop off rates, especially for mid-career professionals. Proctoring software is generally terrible- most recently it overloaded my PC’s system and my computer shut down mid-test while the timer kept ticking. As someone who’s reviewed submissions & served on hiring committees, the difference between LLM generated writing and human thought processes is easy to spot- us