This role reports to FLF’s Chief Operating Officer.
FLF’s mission is to steer transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks. FLF researches which organizations, projects, or fields would be most useful in steering technology towards benefiting humanity, and then works to help establish those structures. We do whatever it takes to get impactful structures established — such as headhunting leaders, commissioning products, running fellowships, and incubating new organizations. Our vision is that each Project Development Lead (PDL) owns one or more initiative areas (such as AI-facilitated coordination, epistemic evaluations, or epistemic provenance infrastructure) and is responsible for setting the strategic plan and executing within that area — including activities such as founder selection, org design, and product scoping. FLF has dedicated strategic staff and has done substantial work on prioritization across initiatives, so this role focuses on driving impact within your assigned areas rather than on cross-initiative strategy.
We’re hiring 2–3+ PDLs simultaneously to significantly expand our execution capacity. This is a moment of growth for FLF, and these roles will shape the next generation of our work.
This would be a good fit for you if you:
Are good at orienting to new spaces, and performing research to understand the status quo, unaddressed needs, and opportunities to engage with existing initiatives
Can take a defined, ambitious goal and drive it to completion — scoping the work, lining up resources, and delivering outcomes — resourcefully navigating challenges along the way
Would equally enjoy executing on others’ plans to achieve these goals as well as figuring out yourself what should happen next with an initiative
Enjoy working on both “moonshots” and concrete MVPs
Are comfortable sourcing and managing contractors and leveraging tools (including AI) to increase productivity
Communicate clearly and work collaboratively within a small team with some defined roles, and some “everyone contributes to everything” spirit
Have an entrepreneurial streak — you’re comfortable building something from scratch with limited guidance, finding creative paths when the obvious one is blocked
Are adept at project management — you can break complex, ambiguous goals into milestones, track dependencies, and keep work on schedule
Questions you would ask in this role:
What products/tools/technologies might be feasible to build and deploy? Given the relative difficulty of product/tool/tech adoption and the trade-offs regarding the impact we imagined when prioritizing this space, which should we prioritize?
How can we get those built?
Do we have a clear enough idea of what to build to scope it out and commission the work? Or do we need to explore further first?
Which parts of this will the market likely handle regardless of what FLF does?
Actions you would often be taking:
Deeply internalize the theory of change for your initiative area and use that understanding to inform design choices, trade-offs, and prioritization within your area of focus
Sync with other FLF team members to understand our vision, theory of change, goals, and any initial strategy set for your assigned project area — and regularly share and refine your thinking with the team
Research and evaluate ideas for orgs, technologies, products, or tools that could deliver on those goals
Analyze the market, the feasibility of ideas, and the scope of work required to implement
Depending on what products/tools/technologies seem most promising (if any), and how well-scoped the work is, make a plan to build in-house / recruit a team / post an RFP / run a fellowship, etc.
Manage contractors, external collaborators, and vendor relationships
Write clear briefs and status updates to keep the team informed with reasoning transparency
Identify and evaluate potential founders, leaders, or teams to execute on incubated initiatives
Outcomes you would be responsible for:
A conclusion that the area is not currently feasible to make progress on, along with an explanation as to why
A fleshed-out spec for a product to address an area you’re working on
A sketch of the kind of organization we want to create to tackle one of these areas, along with a plan for recruiting and funding the team
A founder or team identified, recruited, and supported to lead a new initiative — and execution of the plan for funding, supporting, and advising them
Exact outcomes are dependent on what we discover as we explore these areas, but could include:
Skills Required
- Ability to research and orient quickly to new spaces, identifying needs and opportunities
- Track record of driving defined ambitious goals to completion (scoping, resourcing, delivering outcomes)
- Strong project management: break ambiguous goals into milestones, track dependencies, and keep work on schedule
- Experience sourcing and managing contractors, external collaborators, and vendors
- Ability to recruit, evaluate, and support founders or teams for new initiatives
- Clear written and verbal communication; ability to write briefs and status updates with transparent reasoning
- Entrepreneurial mindset and comfort building initiatives from scratch with limited guidance
- Comfort leveraging productivity tools (including AI) to increase output
- Willingness to work at least four overlapping hours with US Central Time
What We Do
The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to steering transformative technologies—such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and nuclear technology—away from extreme, large-scale risks and toward outcomes that benefit humanity. Through grantmaking, educational outreach, and policy advocacy, FLI works with governments and international institutions to ensure that powerful technological advancements are developed and deployed safely, responsibly, and in alignment with the long-term prospects for the future of life.
