Field Builder Associate
Bring people into AI safety and support talent to move into new roles in the field.
The London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA) is the UK's central hub for AI safety. Our mission is to build the ecosystem the world needs to navigate transformative AI safely, by strengthening the capacity, capability, and cooperation of the AI safety field.
Our London hub hosts some of the brightest individuals and organisations in the field: researchers, founders, government officials, and AI safety staff from organisations like Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and the UK AI Safety Institute. By co-locating these people in the same building, we lower the friction to collaboration, accelerate the careers of those entering the field, and strengthen the organisations working to make AI go well.
Alongside the hub, our field building work addresses three problems the AI safety field faces:
Capacity: Mobilising talent into the field
Capability: Strengthening the organisations working on AI safety
Cooperation: Convening the ecosystem so it adds up to more than the sum of its parts
LISA is growing quickly, and our field building effort is scaling with it. We are hiring a Field Builder Associate to drive execution of our Capacity work: the full funnel activity that brings people into AI safety and supports talent to move into new roles in the field. Reporting directly to the Director of Transformation, you’ll own the work end to end and help build the talent base in the field.
Mobilising talent works as a funnel, and you’ll own activity at every stage:
Top of funnel: reaching people who have not seriously considered AI safety, through events, talks and outreach into adjacent talent pools
Middle of funnel: programmes, fellowships and training that equip people with the knowledge and experience needed to enter a career in AI safety
Bottom of funnel: coaching, talent partnerships and placement work that supports people to secure roles in the field
This role has significant range across the portfolio of work. One week you might be running an event for people new to AI safety, drafting the case for a new fellowship, or sitting with a hiring organisation to work out what they actually need. Another week you might be deep in a talent partnership, or supporting a programme to expand its reach and impact.
The role is outward-facing from day one and places you at the centre of the AI safety field. It depends on knowing who is doing what across the field, and on being credible with the individuals, researchers and founders working in it.
Alongside the funnel work, you'll support other field building initiatives, including the work we do to strengthen the organisations in the LISA ecosystem.
About LISA and the Role
Drive execution across the talent funnel
Design and run top-of-funnel activity that puts AI safety in front of people who have not considered it, and gives each of them an obvious next step.
Deliver the middle of the funnel. Support programmes, fellowships and training that take people from interested to prepared. Partner with organisations already running good versions of this where that is faster than building our own.
Run the bottom of the funnel. Coaching, talent partnerships and placement activity that moves prepared people into paid work on AI safety. Stay close to hiring organisations so you know what they are looking for and when.
Decide what to build, what to mature into a standing programme, and what to stop, with a clear rationale behind each call: why this activity, why now, what it should achieve.
Own delivery end to end. Take activities from plan to live, working with LISA's Hub Builders and the Operations team on hosting and logistics, and iterate as you learn.
Instrument what you run, so participation and progression data comes back consistently and feeds into how we measure the Capacity pillar.
Work fast and lean: use AI, prioritise hard, test cheaply, and double down on what works.
Support wider field building
Organisation support. Contribute to the work we do to strengthen the organisations in the LISA ecosystem, from capability assessment through to hands-on support.
Build networks. Develop genuine relationships with talent entering and growing in the field, and with the organisations working on AI safety: labs, institutes, government, academia and funders.
Be a trusted connector. Know who is doing what across the ecosystem, and join the dots. Use that vantage point to spot gaps and emerging opportunities, and surface them into LISA's field building strategy.
What you’ll do
You already know the AI safety field: the organisations, the main research agendas, the funders, and the routes people take in. You can hold a credible conversation with a researcher about their work, and you know which introductions are worth making.
You have high agency and sound judgement. You can take an ambitious, loosely defined goal and run with it, and you know when to bring others in or ask for help.
You have strategic instinct. You think at the level of the field, and you can say where an intervention would matter and why.
You are a strong organiser and deliverer. You have run events or programmes end to end, kept several threads moving at once, and written the plan that held it together.
You are a natural connector. You build trust quickly and are credible with senior, expert people. Researchers, founders and officials enjoy working with you. You are comfortable providing advice and coaching to talent who are making career decisions.
You focus on outcomes. You are clear on what each activity is meant to achieve and you hold yourself to that standard. You prioritise your efforts to where you can have the greatest impact, and are willing to reassess prioritise as work changes.
You are a strong team player. You do your best work with others, share credit, pull your weight, and bring out the best in the people around you.
AI is part of how you work. You use AI tools daily across a range of different activities and seek new ways to further use AI to enhance your work. You know limitations of AI tools and when your own thinking and judgement is needed.