About the RoleWe are looking for a Research and Advisory Partnerships Lead to build and manage the relationships, partnerships, and advisory structures that bring independent external expertise into our product and policy decisions. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.
In this role, you will identify and engage researchers, civil society organizations, subject-matter experts, and other external stakeholders whose perspectives can strengthen how we develop and deploy AI. You will establish and manage advisory councils, develop research partnerships with the academic community, and work closely with internal teams to translate external insights into actionable guidance.
This role sits at the intersection of product, policy, research, and governance. It is well suited to someone who is comfortable building relationships across disciplines and designing processes that ensure outside expertise meaningfully informs internal decision-making.
In this role, you will:- Develop, launch, and manage external advisory councils and other governance mechanisms that provide structured input on product and product policy.
- Build and maintain relationships with external experts, researchers, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders who can inform high-priority product and product policy decisions.
- Identify when external consultation can improve internal decision-making, and develop engagement strategies tailored to specific products, policy questions, and emerging risks.
- Design and manage research partnerships with academic institutions and independent researchers, with a focus on relevant social science research and the real-world impacts of AI.
- Stay current on emerging academic research and translating relevant findings into practical recommendations for product, policy, research, and leadership teams.
- Work closely with colleagues across product, policy, safety, legal, research, communications, and other teams to understand their priorities and identify opportunities for meaningful external input.
- Develop clear processes for collecting, synthesizing, and sharing external guidance, and for tracking how that guidance informs internal decisions.
- Manage the operational aspects of external engagements and partnerships, including scopes of work, contracts, budgets, confidentiality, research governance, and conflicts of interest, in partnership with relevant internal teams.
- Prepare briefing materials and recommendations for senior leaders on external perspectives, research findings, and issues requiring further stakeholder engagement.
- Represent the company in appropriate research, academic, and stakeholder forums, building trusted relationships grounded in substantive engagement.
You might thrive in this role if you have: - Experience building and managing external partnerships, advisory bodies, stakeholder engagement programs, or research collaborations in technology, academia, government, civil society, or a related field.
- A strong understanding of the social, ethical, and policy questions associated with AI and emerging technologies.
- Familiarity with social science research and comfortable engaging with researchers across disciplines, including sociology, psychology, economics, political science, and human-computer interaction.
- An ability to translate complex external perspectives and research findings into clear, actionable guidance for technical, product, and policy teams.
- Experience building trust with external stakeholders while maintaining clarity about the purpose, scope, and limitations of each engagement.
- Experience working independently in a fast-moving environment and collaborating effectively across teams with different priorities.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing briefings and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
- Motivation to ensure that external expertise meaningfully shapes the responsible development and deployment of AI.
- Experience working on product policy, trust and safety, responsible AI, or technology governance.
