Program Lead, AIxBio

The Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative (CBAI) is a nonprofit research organization working to advance research and education directed towards ensuring that society navigates a safe and beneficial transition to advanced AI systems. Our work takes the form of producing original research efforts and accelerating AI safety research through fellowship programs.

Our inaugural summer fellowship cohort has already published a spotlight paper at the Mechanistic Interpretability Workshop at NeurIPS, accepted papers at ICLR, and some of our fellows have joined Goodfire and Redwood Research. After a successful 2025 launch, we're rapidly scaling in 2026. We will host multiple fellowship cycles (Fall, Spring, and Summer), double the fellowship cohort, and quadruple our team.

Refer us candidates, and receive $5,000 if we hire them.

You'll serve as the founding organizer of CBAI's AIxBio Research Fellowship, a new program at the intersection of AI and biosecurity. You'll own the strategic and operational direction of the AIxBio program, manage the AIxBio Research Managers, lead mentor recruitment and relationships, and build the AIxBio fellowship into a durable, high-impact research environment in Cambridge. You'll work closely with CBAI's Director of Programs and organizational leadership to ensure the AIxBio program grows in a way that's coherent with CBAI's broader mission and infrastructure, as well as in alignment with the CBAI AI safety fellowship program.

• Own the strategic vision and continuous improvement of the AIxBio Research Fellowship across cycles

• Design the program end-to-end, from the fellow selection process to incorporating inputs from the stakeholders into the program design

• Design program structures — mentor matching, fellow selection criteria, research goal frameworks, cohort programming — in collaboration with CBAI's Research Program Associate and research managers

• Develop evaluation frameworks to assess fellow outcomes and program effectiveness

• Identify and pursue opportunities to deepen CBAI's presence in the Cambridge biosecurity research ecosystem

• Collaborate with CBAI program leadership to ensure cross-program coherence and resource alignment

• Manage AIxBio Research Managers, providing guidance, feedback, and support

• Lead mentor recruitment: identify, outreach to, and onboard biosecurity and AI researchers as mentors

• Maintain strong ongoing relationships with mentors, SecureBio, Coefficient Giving, and other program partners

• Serve as the primary point of contact for mentors throughout the fellowship cycle, in coordination with research managers

Location: This position is primarily based in Cambridge, MA. While we expect you to spend most of your time working in-person from our Harvard Square office (particularly during active fellowship cycles), we can offer some hybrid flexibility between fellowship cohorts for candidates with specific circumstances. In those cases, we can give you access to AI safety co-working spaces in Berkeley and NYC.

Start date: May 2026

We use a multi-stage process to find the right fit:

1. Application Review: We review applications on a rolling basis and invite strong candidates to phone screens. We take the hiring process seriously, and this means your application will be reviewed in detail by a CBAI employee.

2. Initial Phone Screen (15 minutes): A conversation with the team manager to discuss your background, understand your interest in research management and AI safety, and answer your initial questions about the role.

3. Paid Test Task: Strong candidates from the phone screen will receive a paid test task that mirrors actual research manager responsibilities — such as designing a mentor recruitment strategy, proposing a program component, or developing an evaluation framework for fellow outcomes. You'll have a fixed amount of time to complete this.

4. Interview: Top candidates from the test task will be invited for an interview, including some of the following topics:

   1. Discussion of your test task submission

   2. Strategic case study: how you would approach building and growing the AIxBio program over its first year

   3. Mentor recruitment scenario: how you would identify, approach, and retain a senior biosecurity researcher as a mentor

   4. Conversation with CBAI leadership and potentially an existing mentor or partner

   5. Deep dive into your leadership approach and experience managing teams

5. Reference Checks: For our top finalists, we'll conduct reference checks and a final conversation to ensure mutual fit. We'll discuss logistics, answer remaining questions, and clarify expectations.

6. Offer: Selected candidates will receive an offer and detailed onboarding information.

CBAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law.

In acknowledgement of the research that suggests that women, gender minorities, and other marginalized groups may be less likely to apply for roles where they don’t meet every criterion, we especially encourage people in these categories to apply.

We may use AI to assist in the initial screening of applications, including to detect whether candidates have used AI models in drafting their application. Decisions are always made by a human on our team.