Incubated Founder
On-sitePalo Alto, California, United States
Palo Alto, California, United StatesOn-sitePart TimeSmall
Part TimeSmall
Job Summary
Lead a selective AI risk incubation program where founders transform rough problem directions into fundable, executable plans with conditionally committed stakeholders and expert advisors. Secure frontier AI systems against nation-states, terrorists, and rogue deployments by owning specific interventions like model weight protection, tamper resistance, and verifiable datacenter attestations. Build founding teams, pressure-test solutions against domain experts, and produce grant proposals for partners like Coefficient Giving to launch with initial capital.
Required Qualifications
- Experience working on cybersecurity in a national security context (especially building SL5 facilities, intelligence, or offensive security)
- Experience in ML security research (tamper resistance, backdoors, password locking)
- Experience in a relevant industry context — e.g., at a frontier AI lab, or in security at a hyperscaler, hardware company, or government contractor
- Exceptional capability in a relevant area — e.g., academic security research, security entrepreneurship, developing security standards, or AI hardware or firmware
- You break down ambiguous problems into clear next steps, and don't get overwhelmed when you lack guidance
- You can clearly articulate your plans, verbally and in writing, to coordinate and motivate others
- A practice of reviewing the state-of-the-art after having an idea, coupled with an urge to prototype, test, and iterate
- Experience coordinating and aligning stakeholders to work toward a common goal
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills
- Comfort with uncertainty and interest in shaping our culture, as we're still a very small organization
- A strong compulsion to do something about AI risk — you understand what it would mean to be responsible for mitigating a particular risk from AI, and you want it anyway (because no one else is)
- The ability and inclination to do this work (to some extent) without Atlas, but you believe the program's network, expertise, and institutional support would substantially decrease the difficulty, increase your odds of success, and or scale your enjoyment while doing it
Desired Qualifications
- Have a habit of doing non-technical coordination work despite a technical background
- Have thought deeply about existential risk and made contributions to reducing it
- Have led or started an organization, or managed people
- Have already worked on related AI security problems, and have ideas you're ready to pursue
- Have deep networks in cybersecurity or the AI safety community
- Are great at getting people to tell you things they probably shouldn't have, getting into conversations with incredibly busy people, or coming up with creative ideas to align incentives
- Have work authorization in the US
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