Program Lead, Working Groups

About the Role: Responsible AIxBio Collaborative is looking for a Program Lead, Working Groups to strategically shape, manage, and run high-impact working groups focused on reducing risks from intentional misuse of AI-enabled biological tools. You'll own the working group workstream end to end: turning strategy into practical workplans, managing senior stakeholders, shipping high-quality outputs, and making sure the work generates real value for members and the broader field. R-ABC is a small, new nonprofit, so this role is for someone who wants to be an early employee and can operate with the urgency, flexibility, ownership, and resourcefulness of an early-stage startup, while bringing the judgment, discretion, and credibility this work demands.

Who You Are: You're mission-driven: You care deeply about reducing risks from intentional misuse of AI-enabled biological tools. You've led complex initiatives: You have significant experience leading multi-stakeholder work with senior external participants. You operate independently: You've shown you can exercise judgment and make progress in ambiguous environments without waiting for detailed direction. You know the AI/tech landscape: You have experience in or around AI, frontier technology, cybersecurity, platform governance, technical standards, safety, risk management, or emerging technology policy. You manage workstreams well: You bring strong program, project, or workstream management experience, including timelines, deliverables, meeting design, stakeholder follow-up, and cross-functional coordination. You communicate clearly: You have excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex input for busy decision-makers. You exercise discretion: You bring high professional maturity, discretion, and credibility when handling sensitive discussions and confidential participant information. You facilitate across stakeholders: You can guide productive conversations among stakeholders with different incentives, technical backgrounds, and levels of governance maturity. You thrive early-stage: You're comfortable working as an early employee in a lean, fast-moving nonprofit where priorities may shift, processes need to be built while the work is underway, and no task is too small if it advances the mission.

Nice to Haves: Fast-moving technical environments: You're familiar with the culture, speed, and stakeholder dynamics of the AI or technology ecosystem. Biosecurity learning capacity: You can quickly develop working fluency in biosecurity concepts, dual-use risk, model governance, red-teaming, access controls, and related topics. Relevant network: You have existing relationships in AI, technology, biosecurity, synthetic biology, philanthropy, policy, or related communities.

What Success Looks Like: Launch with confidence: Working groups begin with clear purpose, strong participant trust, and well-structured expectations. Deliver member value: Participants experience the working groups as a useful venue for peer learning and practical governance development. Produce real outputs: R-ABC delivers concrete working group products on schedule, including gap analyses, draft controls, pilot plans, case studies, and synthesis products. Generate useful intelligence: The workstream surfaces member priorities, implementation barriers, blind spots, and emerging governance needs. Free senior leadership: The Executive Director and other senior leads can focus more time on strategy because day-to-day execution is reliably owned. Move beyond convening: By the end of year one, the process has produced credible, participant-supported governance artifacts that can be hardened, scaled, and shared as public goods.

Salary and Working Arrangement: Compensation for this role is expected to range from $125,000-$185,000, depending on experience and qualifications Responsible AIxBio Collaborative is fully remote with no offices. We provide an allowance for a home office setup or co-working space, whichever you prefer. We're open to candidates outside the US, though we have a slight preference for US-based for this role given the nature of the work. All else equal, we're happy to work across time zones for the right person.

Interview Process: We know applying takes real effort, so here is what to expect. Application review: Our recruiting partner reviews every application. Screening conversation (20 minutes): A call with our recruiting partner covering your background, what you're looking for, and what this role involves day to day. Conversation with the Executive Director (30 minutes): A discussion with Ryan Ritterson, Responsible AIxBio Collaborative's founder, about the work, the field, and how you think. Facilitation Exercise: A live scenario reflecting the kind of session you'd run in this role. Final conversations: A conversation with a senior reviewer from Sentinel Bio, our founding funder, to bring an additional perspective into the decision.