Government Affairs Director

Summary

The Center for AI Policy is looking for a Government Affairs Director with extensive experience in political strategy, lobbying, and/or advocacy. 

Apply here by September 30, 2023. 

Duties and Responsibilities

As Government Affairs Director, you’ll work closely with our executive team to design and execute on a strategy for persuading Congress of our legislative agenda. You’ll help us build key relationships in and around Congress; weigh the tradeoffs between policy effectively addressing AI risks and being likely to pass; identify obstacles to our policy passing; and creatively solve them.  

A typical week would involve:

• Meeting with members of Congress and their staff
• Drafting short memos aimed at explaining the political and policy benefits of our bill(s)
• Working with our external lobbyists to develop our political strategy
• Providing and/or supporting testimony at committee hearings
• Hosting and attending happy hours, briefings, roundtables, and other networking events
• Building relationships with leaders of tech companies, small businesses, labor unions, civil society groups, and academia

Ideal candidate

An ideal candidate will have the experience and drive to advocate for CAIP’s legislative agenda with a growing coalition of supporters. Some of the qualifications we are looking for include:

• 5+ years of relevant experience
• Demonstrated ability to support a legislative agenda
• Interest in proactively crafting a political strategy
• Deep understanding of DC culture and the political process
• Ability to creatively work around constraints to make our policy sufficiently comprehensive and likely to pass
• Sincere concern about safety risks posed by advanced AI
• Ability to understand and work with a diverse and bipartisan set of stakeholders
• Excited about joining a small new team
• Commitment to integrity 

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t have every qualification. 

Logistics

• Limited Remote Work: You will need to frequently take meetings on Capitol Hill in person in order to be effective in this role, but on days when you have no such meetings, we support remote work. 
• Flexible Hours: We are open to full-time and part-time roles; you would largely set your own hours. 
• Immediate Availability Preferred: We are looking for candidates who can start work in the next couple of months (or immediately), so it is unlikely that we would be able to sponsor a visa.
• Compensation & Benefits: The annual salary range for this role is $100,000 - $140,000, depending on experience. For part time roles, the salary will be prorated based on the number of hours worked. We also provide benefits including flexible time off and healthcare.

About Us

The Center for AI Policy is a new DC-based organization developing and advocating for policy to mitigate catastrophic AI risks.

Our current focus is building capacity in the US government to monitor and safeguard AI development. Our proposed legislation would establish a federal authority to monitor hardware and license frontier AI development, ensuring we can identify and respond to risks. It would also create strict liability for severe harms caused by AI systems, promoting accountability and improving incentives. 

Our team includes Thomas Larsen (Executive Director), who has a background in technical AI safety; Jason Green-Lowe (Legislative Director), who has a legal background; and Jakub Kraus (Operations Director), who has a computer science background. We’re also advised by experts from other organizations and supported by several volunteers. 

You would be a key voice in our developing organization.