Application Guide
How to Apply for Research Lead
at Far.Ai
🏢 About Far.Ai
FAR.AI is a non-profit AI research institute dedicated to ensuring advanced AI is safe and beneficial, with a strong track record of 40+ papers at top venues like NeurIPS and ICML, plus real-world impact such as pre-deployment testing for OpenAI and the EU AI Office. Working here means joining a mission-driven, globally recognized team that values both rigorous research and practical safety solutions, all while enjoying the flexibility of a remote-first environment.
About This Role
As Research Lead, you will define and drive a research agenda that tackles catastrophic risks from advanced AI, build and mentor a team of technical staff, and stay hands-on with code and experiments. This role is pivotal because you'll shape FAR.AI's research direction, influence global AI safety practices, and directly contribute to reducing existential threats from AI.
💡 A Day in the Life
A typical day might involve meeting with your team to review experiment results, coding or debugging a new safety evaluation, and strategizing with FAR.AI leadership on research priorities. You might also represent FAR.AI in a call with external partners or spend time mentoring a team member on their project, all while keeping an eye on the latest AI safety developments.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Far.Ai Is Looking For
- Proven track record of leading AI safety research projects, with publications at top venues like NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR, ideally on topics such as alignment, interpretability, or robustness.
- Experience managing and mentoring technical teams, with the ability to set research direction while remaining hands-on in coding and experimentation.
- Deep understanding of catastrophic AI risks and a strategic vision for how research can mitigate them, aligned with FAR.AI's mission and existing work (e.g., red-teaming, pre-deployment testing).
- Strong communication skills to represent FAR.AI publicly, collaborate with external researchers (e.g., Yoshua Bengio), and translate research into actionable safety measures.
📝 Tips for Applying to Far.Ai
Highlight your leadership in AI safety research by detailing specific projects you've led, their outcomes, and how they address catastrophic risks—FAR.AI values concrete impact over generic statements.
Show familiarity with FAR.AI's published work (e.g., AI Security Leaderboard, red-teaming evaluations) and explain how your research agenda would complement or extend it.
Emphasize your ability to balance hands-on technical work with team leadership; provide examples of coding or running experiments while managing a team.
Connect your vision to FAR.AI's collaborative initiatives like FAR.Labs or research roadmaps with renowned researchers; mention how you'd contribute to these efforts.
Use your cover letter to propose a specific research direction that aligns with FAR.AI's mission, demonstrating you've thought deeply about their needs and how you'd scale it with a team.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
["Your strategic vision for a research agenda that reduces catastrophic AI risks, with clear milestones and how you'd build a team to execute it.", 'Concrete examples of your hands-on technical contributions (e.g., code, experiments) alongside leadership experience, showing you can mentor while staying involved.', "Alignment with FAR.AI's unique position as a non-profit influencing frontier developers and governments, and how your work would amplify their impact.", "Your ability to collaborate with external researchers and communicate complex ideas to diverse stakeholders, given FAR.AI's public-facing and convening roles."]
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Read FAR.AI's recent papers and blog posts, especially those on red-teaming, AI Security Leaderboard, and any roadmaps with Yoshua Bengio, to understand their current research focus.
- → Explore FAR.Labs and their community initiatives to see how they foster collaboration—consider how you could leverage this space for your team's research.
- → Look into FAR.AI's partnerships and evaluations for OpenAI and the EU AI Office to grasp their real-world impact and the expectations for a Research Lead.
- → Familiarize yourself with the broader AI safety landscape, including key risks and solutions discussed by organizations like MIRI, ARC, and CHAI, to position your work within the field.
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Focusing only on academic publications without demonstrating how your research translates to reducing real-world catastrophic risks—FAR.AI values applied impact.
- Neglecting to show leadership and mentoring experience; this role requires building and guiding a team, not just individual research.
- Being vague about your research vision or failing to connect it to FAR.AI's existing work; they want candidates who have a clear, tailored agenda.
📅 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!