CAIF’s mission is to support research that will improve the cooperative intelligence of advanced AI for the benefit of all. This mission is driven by our belief that many threats to humanity – such as climate change, nuclear war, and pandemics – are problems of cooperation, and that AI will be increasingly important in solving (or exacerbating) them.
Our ambition is to build the nascent field of cooperative AI, improving the ability of AI systems to engender cooperation between humans, machines, and institutions. Our recent grant call gives some further background.
Our values are important to us. The “benefit of all” sits at the heart of everything we do. We are relentless in our ambition to have the greatest possible positive impact, both supporting and trusting our staff to perform at their best. We strive to learn from our failures, through a culture of curiosity, openness, and compassion, alongside evidence-based reasoning and rigorous evaluation. With a diversity of perspectives and values forming the core of any cooperation problem, we must also practise what we preach, maintaining plurality, equity, and inclusiveness in all that we do.
We expect that many candidates who we would be interested in hiring will have existing roles, such as being a PhD student, taking part in a research programme or fellowship, or working at another organisation. We are therefore open to part-time arrangements, such as working 1-2 days per week, or only during the summer, etc.
The precise nature of the role will depend on the successful candidate’s experience and interests. In general, the kinds of projects we anticipate research analysts leading or assisting with include:
Please note that CAIF is primarily a field-building organisation and so our priority is not necessarily to conduct research in-house, except when we are best-placed to do so. The role will therefore be most suited to those who are excited to use their technical skills and knowledge broadly, rather than those looking primarily for a research position. If you have any questions about the nature of the role, please feel free to contact us before applying.
We are a fully remote organisation, with regular opportunities to meet colleagues in person (team members are currently based in the UK, Sweden, France and the US). We do not have an office, so the successful candidate(s) will work from home or from a local workspace.
Salaries at CAIF account for demonstrated competencies and location-based cost of living. For this role we expect to offer fixed term contracts of up to one year, with starting salaries of between £50,000 and £70,000 (GBP equivalent), depending on the candidate’s skills and experience. A successful candidate with less prior experience should expect their salary to increase in the role, contingent on performance.
Our benefits package for UK-based employees includes home office equipment; travel expenses to co-locate with colleagues; 33 days of paid holiday (including bank holidays); a 5% pension contribution; a generous learning and development budget; and health and wellbeing support. A comparable package will be offered to a successful candidate based in any other jurisdiction.
This will be a rolling process, which will be closed when we no longer have any vacancies. Please submit an expression of interest using this form. You will be asked to include a CV and respond to a few short questions. Your data will be processed in accordance with our privacy policy.
If you submit an expression of interest, you can expect to hear from us within 14 days. We expect to hire multiple research analysts on a flexible basis. If your profile and availability are a good fit, you will be invited to complete a one to two hour remote work test and then to participate in an interview. Please note that even if your profile and availability do not currently match CAIF’s needs, we will retain your expression of interest for a period of up to one year, and contact you as and when there might be a better fit for you.
We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply, and particularly those from underrepresented groups. If you have specific needs or circumstances that require accommodation, please contact us.
You will be motivated by our mission and values, and will likely have a strong technical background in a relevant subject such as computer science. Essential qualifications are:
We expect to hire more than one research analyst, and would like each of them to have different strengths. The additional qualifications we are looking for are:
We do not expect you to possess all (or even most) of the experiences and skills in this additional qualifications list, so please focus on your particular strengths, and do not be put off from applying if you only cover one or two qualifications from this list.
