Open Philanthropy is looking for a Policy Advisor/Senior Policy Advisor to support the high-impact work of our AI Governance and Policy program and contribute to our U.S. AI policy engagement and advocacy work.

About Open Philanthropy

Open Philanthropy is a philanthropic funder and advisor; our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We select causes based on importance, neglectedness, and tractability, and our current giving areas include potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence, abundance and growth, global health and development, scientific research, global public health policy, farm animal welfare, and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. In 2024, we recommended $650 million to high-impact causes, and we’ve recommended over $4.8 billion in grants since our formation.

About the AI Governance and Policy team

The AI Governance and Policy team works to improve society’s preparedness for transformative AI, particularly by mitigating global catastrophic risks. Our eleven-person team aims to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in grants annually over the coming years. You can read more about our priorities in our current Request for Proposals.

About the role

We’re seeking 1-2 Policy Advisors or Senior Policy Advisors (depending on experience) from a range of political and professional backgrounds to contribute to our U.S. AI policy engagement and advocacy work. Policy Advisors will play a key role in shaping how Open Philanthropy engages with U.S. AI policy by building coalitions across the AI policy ecosystem, directing funding to high-impact initiatives, and providing strategic guidance and practical support to other AI Governance and Policy staff.

The amount of grantmaking in this role will vary by candidate experience and interest. For those who do focus on grantmaking, we expect they’ll direct $10-30 million in funding during the first year, with the potential for additional funding for promising large-scale opportunities. We are looking to substantially expand our U.S. AI policy work in the coming years, and staff capacity is our primary constraint. No prior grantmaking experience is required.

Key responsibilities

This role is focused on policy, relationship-building, and funding; it isn’t a research position. Policy Advisors will likely spend most of their time:

• Developing and executing strategies to advance beneficial AI policies. We expect our priorities to change as both AI technology and the political landscape continue to evolve, but your work might initially focus on the following high-level goals:

  • Increasing transparency around the capabilities of frontier AI systems.

  • Establishing security standards for frontier AI systems.

  • Evaluating frontier AI systems for national security risks.

  • Advancing institutional capacity to anticipate and address potential security risks from frontier AI systems.

• Representing Open Philanthropy in policy discussions and events; building and maintaining bipartisan relationships with key stakeholders across government, industry, civil society, and academia. (We do not expect this position to require registering as a lobbyist.)

• Identifying and supporting promising policy initiatives through strategic funding and coalition building.<