How to apply for Field Strategist

About Convergent Research

Convergent Research launches large-scale, high-impact science projects that fill a structural gap in today's R&D system. Atlas Ignota, its AI-risk arm, designs and staffs interventions for society-scale AI risks that no existing institution is built to address. The work suits people who want to scope and hand off interventions rather than run them long-term.

About the role

Field Strategists scope multiple potential interventions at once and hand them all off. You map the context around an AI risk or opportunity, sketch possible interventions, test feasibility with domain experts, and establish sufficiency with potential stakeholders. The role is about producing validated intervention designs, not owning them afterward.

A typical day

A typical day involves mapping the context around one or more AI risks, sketching intervention options, and iterating with domain experts and potential stakeholders. You produce product requirements documents that a career professional could take ownership of, then hand each intervention off. The mix of parallel scoping work and handoffs is the core of the role.

Who Convergent Research is looking for

• Has a decade or more of professional experience executing work similar to the interventions being scoped, not generalist consulting or VC-style pattern matching.
• Can scope several interventions in parallel and hand each one off cleanly, without needing to stay attached to the outcome.
• Is comfortable working from an opportunity or risk backward: mapping context, sketching options, and iterating with experts and funders.
• Can write product requirements documents for coordination and market failures that a career professional could pick up and own.

Tips for this application

• In your materials, name specific AI risks or coordination failures you have worked on and what intervention you scoped or executed.
• Show evidence of handing off work to others, since Atlas explicitly separates scoping from owning the intervention.
• Describe how you validate feasibility with domain experts and sufficiency with funders or stakeholders, using real examples.
• Avoid framing yourself as a founder seeking to own an intervention; this role scopes and hands off, while Founders scope a single intervention they would then own.
• Reference Convergent Research's stated aim of enabling fundamental research that requires unusual scale and coordination and is not rapidly monetizable by industry.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your track record of executing work similar to the interventions Atlas scopes, with concrete examples.', 'How you scope multiple interventions simultaneously and manage handoffs.', 'Your method for testing feasibility with domain experts and sufficiency with stakeholders.', 'Why you want to work on society-scale AI risks that existing institutions are not built to address.']

Research before applying

• Read the Convergent Research site to understand how it launches large-scale science projects and what it means by a structural gap in R&D.
• Study Atlas Ignota's description of itself as a tiger team, design studio, and think tank with a tech transfer analog.
• Look for public examples of interventions Atlas or Convergent Research have scoped or launched, if any exist.
• Understand the distinction between Field Strategist and Founder roles, since Founders scope a single intervention they would then own.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• Walk through an intervention you scoped from an opportunity or risk, including how you mapped the context.
• How do you decide an intervention is feasible with domain experts and sufficient for funders?
• Describe a time you handed off a project. How did you make it easy for the next owner?
• Which AI risks do you think no existing institution is built to address, and why?
• How do you scope several interventions at once without losing depth on any of them?

Common mistakes to avoid

• Presenting yourself as a risk-seeking young generalist; the posting says these efforts are best addressed by career professionals with a decade or more of similar execution.
• Applying as if you want to own and run the intervention, when the role scopes and hands off.
• Giving generic AI-safety commentary instead of showing how you would map context, sketch interventions, and validate with experts and funders.