Application Guide
How to Apply for Contract Software Engineer
at Kairos
🏢 About Kairos
Kairos is an AI safety fieldbuilding organization dedicated to mitigating risks from advanced AI by addressing talent gaps. Working here means contributing to a mission-driven team that values proactive risk reduction in AI development. The remote, contract-based structure offers flexibility while working on high-impact projects.
About This Role
As a Contract Software Engineer, you'll build Talent Commons, a consent-based talent database critical for AI safety organizations to coordinate on talent. You'll own the full-stack development of dashboards, query interfaces, and consent flows, ensuring strong security for sensitive career data. This role directly enables the AI safety ecosystem to collaborate more effectively.
💡 A Day in the Life
You'll start by checking in with the team on Slack, then dive into coding: perhaps building a new API endpoint for the org query interface or refining the data model for consent flows. You'll likely have a call with a partner organization to understand their data ingestion needs, followed by focused development using Cursor or Claude Code. The day ends with documenting your work and updating the project board.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Kairos Is Looking For
- Proven full-stack experience, with a portfolio showcasing both frontend and backend work, ideally in data-intensive applications.
- Strong data modeling skills and experience implementing access controls for sensitive data, e.g., using role-based permissions or encryption.
- Comfortable with AI coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor, and eager to leverage them for productivity.
- Self-starter who can work independently, communicate proactively, and manage integrations with partner organizations' systems.
📝 Tips for Applying to Kairos
Highlight any experience with consent management, privacy-by-design, or building systems that handle personal data securely.
Mention specific AI coding tools you've used (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) and how they improved your workflow.
Tailor your resume to show end-to-end ownership of features, from data model to UI to deployment.
In your cover letter, explicitly connect your past work to the mission of AI safety and talent coordination.
Prepare a brief example of how you'd design a secure data ingestion system for partner organizations.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
["Your passion for AI safety and understanding of Kairos's role in fieldbuilding.", 'Specific examples of building full-stack applications with robust data access controls.', 'Experience working autonomously on remote contract projects with external partners.', 'Familiarity with modern AI-assisted development tools and how you integrate them into your process.']
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Read about Kairos's mission and past projects on their website, especially the Talent Commons initiative.
- → Understand the AI safety landscape and why talent coordination is a bottleneck.
- → Review any public documentation or blog posts about Talent Commons to understand its goals and current state.
- → Familiarize yourself with common data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR) that might apply to consent-based databases.
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Submitting a generic application without mentioning AI safety or Kairos's specific mission.
- Overlooking the importance of security and data privacy in your responses; this is central to the role.
- Failing to demonstrate experience with AI coding tools; the job explicitly requires familiarity, so don't skip it.
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!