Work with us (temporary archive)

We are looking for researchers to explore strategies for reducing suffering in the long-term future. We are currently offering temporary and permanent roles:

  • Summer Research Fellows: For three months, you will be part of our team while working on your own research project. During this time, you will be in regular contact with our researchers and other fellows. One of our researchers will serve as your guide and mentor.
  • Researchers: As a researcher, you will become a permanent member of our team. You will be able to pursue high-impact research questions autonomously and without distractions.
  • Research Assistant (quantitative modeling): In this part-time role, you will collaborate with our researchers to develop quantitative models for answering strategically important questions.

Your contributions to our research program will have a positive impact through their influence on our strategic direction, grantmaking, communications, events, and other activities. You will work autonomously on challenging research questions relevant to reducing suffering. You will become part of our team of intellectually curious, hard-working, and caring people, all of whom share a profound drive to make the biggest difference they can.

Roles

Responsibilities

We will adapt the responsibilities of the role to the strengths and preferences of each successful candidate, but they usually include:

  • Developing and answering research questions to enhance our understanding of s-risk reduction and improve the decision-making of stakeholders in our target audience;
  • Communicating research to relevant academic audiences, the effective altruism community, and the AI safety community (e.g., publications, presentations);
  • Collaborating with researchers at CLR and other relevant organizations, including those from different fields than your own.

Depending on your experience and skill set, we might ask you to supervise junior researchers or research fellows on our team.

What we look for in candidates

We don’t require specific qualifications or experience for this role, but the following abilities and qualities are what we’re looking for in candidates. We recognize that some of these qualities could be hard to test well outside a similar role, and we believe that smart, curious generalists can make substantial contributions, even if they lack formal training in any field related to our focus areas. We therefore encourage you to apply if you think you may be a good fit, even if you are unsure whether you meet several of the criteria.

  • Curiosity and a drive to work on challenging and important problems;
  • Ability to answer complex research questions related to the long-term future;
  • Comfort working in poorly-explored areas and a willingness to learn about new domains as needed;
  • Ability to distill concrete, domain-specific research questions from macrostrategic considerations;
  • Ability to communicate well with relevant target audiences (e.g., academics and audiences in less formal venues like the Alignment Forum);
  • Independent thinking;
  • A cautious approach to potential information hazards and other sensitive topics;
  • Alignment with our mission or strong interest in one of our priority areas;

Relevant academic education, such as a master’s degree or higher in a related field, can be a useful indicator for some of the above qualities but is not a requirement.

Further details

  • Number of available positions: There is no fixed limit on the number of positions.
  • Work quota: This is a full-time position with flexible working hours. We will consider applicants who prefer to work part-time.
  • Contract length: These are permanent positions.
  • Location: We prefer staff to work from our London offices but will also consider applications from people who are unable to relocate. With regard to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we expect the situation to improve over the next few months such that work from our offices will be possible. If not, we will continue our arrangements for remote work.
  • Compensation: Permanent staff can determine their own salary within reasonable bounds. A common salary for staff in London is around £60,000 per year. If you would only consider working here for considerably higher compensation, we still encourage you to apply. We want remuneration to (almost) never be a reason to leave CLR or turn down an offer.
  • Benefits: CLR also offers substantial benefits to all staff – for details see the section about this below.

Responsibilities

  • Carrying out an original research project related to one of our priority areas below or otherwise targeted at reducing s-risks. You will determine this project in collaboration with your supervisor at CLR, who will meet with you every week and provide feedback on your work.
  • Attending team meetings, including giving occasional presentations on the state of your research.

What we look for in candidates

We don’t require specific qualifications or experience for this role, but the following abilities and qualities are what we’re looking for in candidates. We encourage you to apply if you think you may be a good fit, even if you are unsure whether you meet some of the criteria.

  • Curiosity and a drive to work on challenging and important problems;
  • Ability to answer complex research questions related to the long-term future;
  • Willingness to work in poorly-explored areas and to learn about new domains as needed;
  • Independent thinking;
  • A cautious approach to potential information hazards and other sensitive topics;
  • Alignment with our mission or strong interest in one of our priority areas.

Further details

  • Number of available positions: We have the capacity for around ten fellows.
  • Program length & work quota: The program is intended to last for twelve weeks in a full-time capacity. Exceptions, including part-time work, may be possible.
  • Program dates: We offer two starting dates for summer research fellows: June 28, 2021 & July 26, 2021. Exceptions may be possible in rare cases.
  • Location: We prefer summer research fellows to work from our London offices but will also consider applications from people who are unable to relocate. With regard to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we expect the situation in the summer to be such that work from our offices will be possible. If not, we will continue our arrangements for remote work.
  • Compensation: Summer Research Fellows will receive £4,000 per month if located in London. Exceptional circumstances may justify a higher salary. We may offer only a reduced compensation for remote work. We will cover travel costs.
  • Benefits: CLR also offers substantial benefits to all staff – for details see the section about this below.

Responsibilities

  • Collaborating closely with CLR researchers to implement quantitative models for answering strategically important questions;
  • Communicating findings appropriately;
  • Making inputs and gears of the model accessible to CLR researchers.

We expect the content of the models to be wide-ranging. Examples currently of interest to CLR researchers include: AI timelines, the relative value of preventing bargaining failure vs. AI misalignment, and the causes of conflict. For examples of the kind of output we might like you to help us create, see this timelines model (by Ajeya Cotra), this agent-based model, and these economic growth simulations (by David Roodman). (Note that much of the work may be for internal consumption and thus need not be this “polished”.)

What we look for in candidates

  • Curiosity and a drive to work on challenging and important problems;
  • Programming experience (Python or R strongly preferred);
  • Experience building and communicating the results of quantitative models;
  • Alignment with our mission or strong interest in one of our priority areas;
  • Preferred: familiarity with Latex.

Further details

  • Number of available positions: We expect to hire only one person in this role.
  • Work quota: This is a part-time position. We are flexible with regard to both the total weekly working time and the time of day at which the hours are completed, and we expect that this position could be held alongside other employment or study.
  • Contract length: The initial employment contract will be for six months. We will then consider renewing the contract for a longer period.
  • Location: We weakly prefer London-based applicants but expect to hire the strongest applicant independent of location.
  • Compensation: To be agreed with the applicant taking into account their work location, from a base of £48,480 per year (full-time equivalent) for London-based applicants.
  • Benefits: CLR also offers substantial benefits to all staff – for details see the section about this below.

Priority areas

You can find an overview of our current priority areas here. However, if we believe that you can somehow advance high-quality research relevant to s-risks, we are interested in creating a position for you. If you see a way to contribute to our research agenda or have other ideas for reducing s-risks, please apply. We commonly tailor our positions to the strengths and interests of the applicants.

Application process

We value your time and are aware that applications can be demanding, so we have thought carefully about making the application process time-efficient and transparent:

Stage 1: To start your application for any role, please complete our application form. As part of this form, we also ask you to submit your CV/resume and relevant work samples if available. The deadline is Monday, March 15, 2021 (11:59 pm Pacific Time). We expect this to take around 2 to 3 hours if you are already familiar with our work.

Stage 2: By Friday, March 19, we will decide whether to invite you to the second stage. For the Researcher and Summer Research Fellow role, we will ask you to write a research proposal (up to two pages excluding references), to be submitted by Sunday, April 4 (11:59 pm Pacific Time). For the Research Assistant role, we will ask you to do a work test. For all roles, you will receive compensation for your work during this stage.

Stage 3: By Friday, April 9, we will decide whether to invite you to an interview via video call during the week of April 12. By Friday, April 16, we will

  • send out final decisions to applicants to the Summer Research Fellow position and applicants to the Research Assistant position, and
  • decide whether to invite applicants to the Researcher position to a work trial (details to be determined in coordination with each applicant). At this stage, we will also conduct reference checks.

Further details

  • Applying for multiple roles: Candidates may apply for multiple roles. If you want to do so, please submit only one application and click the relevant checkboxes in the form for each role for which you’re applying.
  • Application base rates: Last year, we received 48 applications for the researcher position. We ended up making three offers. In two of those cases, they had also applied for the summer research fellowship, and we only made an offer after they had started in that program. Last year, we received 67 applications for the summer research fellowship. We made eleven offers. We expect to receive more applications this year without having significantly more capacity.
  • International applicants: We are a registered UK visa sponsor. In most cases, we expect to be able to sponsor work visas for successful international applicants who would like to come to the UK. If you have questions about this, please ask us in the application form or reach out to us beforehand.
  • Diversity and equal opportunity employment: CLR is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our organization. We welcome applications from all sections of society and don’t want to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, social background/class, mental or physical health or disability, or any other basis for unreasonable discrimination, whether legally protected or not. If you would like to discuss any personal needs that may require adjustments to our application process or workplace, please feel very free to contact us.

Inquiries

If you have any questions about the process, please contact us at info@longtermrisk.org. If you want to send an email not accessible to the hiring committee, please contact Amrit Sidhu-Brar at amrit.sidhu-brar@longtermrisk.org.

We will also host two open video calls for any questions about this hiring round or working at CLR more generally. Sign up here to receive an invitation to the video call. They will take place at the following times:

  • Wednesday, March 3, 18:00 - 19:00 GMT
  • Thursday, March 4, 10:00 - 11:00 GMT

Benefits

In addition to their salary, CLR offers the following benefits to all staff (including Summer Research Fellows):

  • 25 days’ paid vacation per year, plus public holidays. (For temporary staff, this is reduced proportional to the length of your employment.)
  • A budget of £2000 per year to spend on your professional development and productivity. For the Researcher role, this is increased to £4000.
  • Lunch available at the office every day
  • Flexible working hours
  • 20 weeks of paid leave for new parents, and consideration of childcare costs in setting salaries for permanent employees.
  • For permanent employees working from the US, we also cover full health care and dental costs

Why work at CLR

We aim to combine the best aspects of academic research (depth, scholarship, mentorship) with an altruistic mission to prevent negative future scenarios. So we leave out the less productive features of academia, such as precarious employment and publish-or-perish incentives, while adding a focus on impact and application.

As part of our team, you will enjoy:

  • a role tailored to your qualifications and strengths with ample intellectual freedom;
  • working towards a shared goal with dedicated and caring people;
  • an interdisciplinary research environment, with friendly and intellectually curious colleagues who will hold you to high standards and support you in your intellectual development;
  • mentorship in longtermist macrostrategy, especially from the perspective of preventing s-risks;
  • the support of a well-funded and well-networked longtermist EA organization with substantial operational assistance instead of administrative burdens.

You will advance neglected research to reduce the most severe risks to our civilization in the long-term future. Depending on your specific project, your work will help inform our activities across any of the following paths to impact:

  • Grantmaking: In addition to the CLR Fund, we are making grant recommendations to the Center for Emerging Risk Research (CERR), a new foundation committed to using all of their funds (at least $45,000,000) to support high-impact work to reduce s-risks.
  • Technical interventions: We aim to develop and communicate insights about the safe development of artificial intelligence to the relevant stakeholders (e.g., AI developers, key organizations in the longtermist effective altruism community).
  • Governance interventions: We aim to develop and help implement appropriate governance structures for the safe development of artificial intelligence.
  • New projects: In collaboration with people in our network, we are always looking for novel impactful organizations to set up. For instance, we previously established Wild Animal Suffering Research, which later merged with Utility Farm to become the Wild Animal Initiative, a now independent organization.