Field Strategist
Atlas Computing
📍 Remote (Global) 🕔 Full Time
💰$140-200k USD/yr + benefits 🔄 Rolling Applications
Advancements in AI bring both opportunities and serious risks. Atlas Computing is a nonprofit working on creating new organizations to secure society against the most severe risks it may face as AI becomes more capable. We're not trying to be a think tank or an incubator; we think creating new organizations can solve many important, neglected problems. We start from the opportunity or risk, map the context in which the need for a new organization arises, identify stakeholders, draft milestones, source early funders, and recruit a career professional to take ownership over each problem (we believe most of these orgs don’t require the brilliant, risk-seeking, young generalists who are courted by VCs). Atlas Computing is looking for a cohort of Field Strategists to join us in scoping and building these new organizations.
As a Field Strategist, success in the first 6 months looks like:
The hire has created two or more clear write-ups describing:
Why society needs a particular new org (i.e. what does it do)
Who would likely fund it (and what their decision criteria would be)
Who are the best people in the world to advise and steer it (and warm intros to those people)
Who are its users/customers (and has spoken with them)
What skills and network does the founder need (and where are we likely to find that person)
The hire has worked with a recruiter to pitch potential founders for that organization and has introduced one to potential funders
A more junior hire would:
focus on 1-2 organizations at a time
benefit from checking in with Evan (Atlas CEO) multiple times per week
A more senior hire would:
develop 3-5 organizations simultaneously and on ~2-4 month timescales
benefit from the freedom of little oversight
be "fire and forget", sharing weekly updates as needed to highlight potential opportunities
(perhaps) provide mentorship to junior hires
You may be a fit for this role if you have…
Expertise navigating and/or modifying complex systems (natural or human-made). This could look like complex systems research in academia, policy research at a think tank, market research in a product role, or analyst research in the intelligence community
Generalist: able to quickly understand nuances in a variety of topics, including ML architecture, export control laws, and ideological differences within the AI community
At Atlas, we also expect everyone to have…
a practice of reviewing the state-of-the-art after having an idea, coupled with an urge to prototype, test, and iterate
a founder mindset, with a high degree of ownership over outcomes (not process) and the ability to personally make and externally drive progress with little oversight.
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
Bonus points if you…
strongly hold a conviction that AI is going to reshape the face of civilization fairly soon and you want to join a hard-working team focused on making that go as well as possible.
thrive in a high-trust, low-structure environment.
love talking to people across multiple domains about concrete actions that can address important problems.
know how to solve problems with money, but also know how to operate on a tight budget.
seriously considered starting your own company, but the opportunity or push hasn’t come up yet.
find yourself always recommending books.
are deeply committed to improving the human condition with technology…and understanding how different people might differently define “improving”, “human”, “condition”, and “technology” in that sentence.
Here’s a supplemental living document if you have more questions. Our recent blog posts also contain helpful context.
How to Apply
Please email a short joke and a resume to join@atlascomputing.org. No need to include a cover letter. You can add a paragraph or two in case you want to highlight anything that you think will convince us to have a first chat with you, but don't worry about being formal. We’re serious about the joke! It’s good spam prevention.
