Machine Intelligence Research Institute · 4 months ago
Technical Governance Researcher
Berkeley, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Mid, Senior Level
$120K/yr - $200K/yrThe Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) is a nonprofit focused on reducing existential risks from the transition to smarter-than-human AI. The Technical Governance Researcher will engage in researching and designing technical aspects of regulations and policies to ensure safe AI, involving writing, collaboration with policymakers, and conducting evaluations.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Machine LearningNon Profit
Responsibilities
Threat modeling, working out how AI systems could cause large-scale harm, and hopefully what actions could be taken to prevent this
Responding to a US government agency’s Request for Comment
Learning about risk management practices in other industries, and applying these to AI
Designing and implementing evaluations of AI models, for example to demonstrate failure modes with current policy
Preparing and presenting informative briefings to policymakers, such as explaining the basics and current state of AI evaluations
Reading a government or AI developer’s AI policy document, and writing a report on its limitations
Designing new AI policies and standards which address the limitations of current approaches
In the above work, maintain particular focus on what is needed for solutions to scale to smarter-than-human intelligence and conduct research on which new challenges may emerge at that stage
Qualification
Required
Strong background in AI Safety
Experience or familiarity working in compute governance, policy (including AI policy), or as a strong AI Safety generalist
Ability to produce good AI safety research and have a good overview-level understanding of empirical, theory and conceptual approaches
Ability to think clearly and carefully about AI safety
Ability to get things done without constant oversight
Diligent and hard-working, completing work reliably and dependably
Ability to quickly acquire new skills and knowledge as needed
Enjoyment of generating original work and iterating on new ideas
Effective communication with external stakeholders including policymakers
Ability to produce concise, clear, and compelling writing
Willingness to work toward MIRI's goals and aligned with MIRI's values
Passion for MIRI's mission and excitement to support work in reducing existential risks from AI
Preferred
Technical knowledge of AI hardware / chips manufacturing and related governance proposals
Experience writing legislation or white papers, engaging with policymakers, or other research in AI policy and governance
Research or engineering focused on frontier AI models or the AI tech stack
Ability to design and implement evaluations of AI models
Experience preparing and presenting informative briefings to policymakers
Experience reading and writing reports on AI policy documents
Benefits
Health insurance (the best available plans from Kaiser and Blue Shield) as well as dental and vision coverage. (We cannot always offer comparable benefits to international staff.)
No vacation policy – staff are encouraged to take vacation when they want/need to in coordination with their manager.
Company
Machine Intelligence Research Institute
Machine Intelligence Research Institute exists to try and ensure smarter-than-human artificial intelligence has a positive impact.
Founded in 2000
11-50 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Machine Intelligence Research Institute has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (3)
2024 (1)
2023 (2)
2021 (1)
2020 (3)
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageTotal Funding
$4.5M2017-11-08Grant· $3.75M
2016-09-06Grant· $0.5M
2015-07-01Grant· $0.25M
Leadership Team
Malo Bourgon
Chief Executive Officer
Eliezer Yudkowsky
Senior Research Fellow
Recent News
Business Standard India
2026-01-05
2025-09-26
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