Application Guide

How to Apply for Talent Lead

at Iliad

🏢 About Iliad

Iliad is a nonprofit umbrella organization that advances applied mathematics research in AI alignment, bringing together top mathematicians and AI safety researchers through conferences, research incubation, and fellowship programs. Working here means shaping the talent pipeline for one of the most pressing technical challenges of our time, in a lean, mission-driven environment where your hiring decisions directly accelerate safety research.

About This Role

As Talent Lead, you will own the entire hiring lifecycle for Iliad—from drafting job descriptions and sourcing candidates to coordinating offers and onboarding new hires across research, operations, and fellowship teams. Your work directly determines who joins the AI safety ecosystem, making this a high-leverage role where you build the human infrastructure that supports foundational alignment research.

💡 A Day in the Life

You might start your day reviewing new applications in Airtable, then meet with a hiring manager to calibrate on a candidate for a research incubation role. Later, you’d draft a job description for a fellowship program using an AI assistant, post it across AI safety community channels, and schedule interviews with promising mathematicians you sourced through your network. You’ll end by updating Notion with pipeline metrics and preparing onboarding materials for a new hire starting next week.

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🎯 Who Iliad Is Looking For

  • 2–3 years of hands-on recruiting or talent acquisition experience, ideally in a research, nonprofit, or deep-tech setting where you managed multiple roles simultaneously.
  • Deep familiarity with AI safety research topics—you can distinguish between alignment agendas (e.g., scalable oversight, interpretability, cooperative AI) and speak credibly with technical candidates.
  • A strong existing network in the AI safety ecosystem: you know the key labs, funders, community hubs (e.g., LessWrong, Alignment Forum, EA forums), and can warm-intro candidates without always relying on cold outreach.
  • Highly organized and adaptable—comfortable juggling pipelines in Airtable, documenting processes in Notion, and using AI assistants to draft communications or screen resumes in a fast-moving, ambiguous startup-like nonprofit.

📝 Tips for Applying to Iliad

1

Lead with your AI safety network: name specific researchers, labs, or community projects you’ve engaged with, and describe how you’d tap that network to source candidates for Iliad’s open roles.

2

Show you understand Iliad’s niche: applied mathematics for AI alignment is not generic AI safety—mention why mathematical talent is critical and how you’d assess quantitative researchers’ fit.

3

Demonstrate end-to-end ownership: in your resume or cover letter, quantify hires you’ve made (e.g., 'hired 12 researchers in 6 months') and describe how you handled offer timing, closing, and onboarding.

4

Highlight tool proficiency concretely: give examples of using Airtable to track pipelines, Notion to document hiring processes, or AI assistants to draft job descriptions or screen applications.

5

Address the ambiguity directly: explain how you’ve built hiring processes from scratch in a fast-changing environment, and propose a lightweight system you’d set up in your first 90 days at Iliad.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

In your cover letter, emphasize: (1) your direct experience hiring technical or research talent, with metrics; (2) your specific knowledge of AI safety research areas and why applied math matters for alignment; (3) your existing network in the AI safety ecosystem and how you’d leverage it for Iliad; and (4) your ability to operate autonomously in an ambiguous, lean nonprofit, using tools like Notion, Airtable, and AI assistants to scale your work.

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Explore Iliad’s website and recent conference proceedings to understand their focus areas within applied mathematics for AI alignment (e.g., specific workshops, incubation projects, or fellows).
  • → Identify the key people in Iliad’s network—founders, advisors, past fellows—and read their work or posts to understand the community you’d be hiring into.
  • → Familiarize yourself with major AI safety organizations and funders (e.g., MIRI, ARC, Open Philanthropy, FHI) to map where Iliad’s talent might come from and how it fits in the broader ecosystem.
  • → Review common AI safety research agendas (e.g., agent foundations, scalable oversight, interpretability) to speak fluently about candidate backgrounds and role requirements.
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💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 How would you source and attract applied mathematicians who may not already be in the AI safety community?
2 Describe a time you managed multiple hiring pipelines simultaneously—how did you prioritize and keep candidates engaged?
3 What’s your approach to assessing a candidate’s technical depth in AI safety research without being a researcher yourself?
4 How would you handle a situation where a hiring manager and you disagree on a candidate’s quality?
5 Walk us through your process for coordinating offer timing and onboarding for a remote, mission-driven nonprofit.
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Treating this as a generic recruiting role—failing to demonstrate specific knowledge of AI safety research or Iliad’s unique applied-math angle will signal you’re not a culture fit.
  • Overlooking the nonprofit context: candidates who focus only on corporate hiring metrics without addressing mission alignment, resource constraints, and community-building may seem misaligned.
  • Neglecting to show network: claiming you can source candidates without naming concrete AI safety connections or communities suggests you lack the required ecosystem familiarity.

📅 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:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to Iliad!

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