Strategic Partnerships Officer in AI Safety

Future Matters is seeking someone with excellent networking and relationship building skills who can secure the funding needed to enable the rapid expansion of our AI team.

With AI projected to become rapidly more powerful and autonomous, we are plausibly close to the most challenging and rapid transformation that humanity has ever faced. The stakes are high, so we need thoughtful and determined action to meet these challenges. For years, Future Matters has crafted its approach to policy prioritization and political strategy. We specialize in finding policies with outsized impact, anticipating windows of opportunity, and figuring out pathways for making policy change happen. Through this strategic approach, we work to avoid the worst harms and steer humanity through the dangerous geopolitical and technological dynamics unfolding.

Future Matters plans to grow a rapid response team that can spot gaps and opportunities in the AI governance field and help develop and enact the strategies to address them. We plan to hire up to 10 full-time team members for this within the next 1.5 years. Winning the necessary financial support is the foundation that can make this happen.

Building on our established donor relationships, you'll connect with a wide range of potential supporters — from tech entrepreneurs and AI safety experts to philanthropists interested in long-term human flourishing. Your role will be to convey the depth and rigor of our approach to analytical funders and to translate complex AI safety concepts into compelling stories for those new to the field. You'll help educate donors on why action is urgently needed and what meaningful political opportunities exist right now to shape the trajectory of AI development.

Through both in-person and virtual engagement, you’ll invite people to join our efforts to ensure proper governance and safeguards, ultimately making the biggest possible difference in reducing AI risks.

We can see people with different backgrounds succeeding at this - journalists, sales professionals, consultants, experienced major donor officers, policy officers, technical talent with fondness for storytelling or other professionals with strong communication and relationship-building skills. Future Matters creates more effective policy action on today’s greatest challenges by applying a scientific approach to changemaking. If this mission speaks to you, we welcome your application.

• Part or Full-time: Full-time only

• Compensation: $60,000 - $90,000 / €53,000 - €79,000 gross annual salary, depending on skills, experience, and country of residence

• Location: Remote. United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands or Germany. Candidates should also live close to a major airport

• Vacation days: 27 paid vacation days annually, plus national holidays in your country of residence

• Benefits: A competitive benefits package, tailored to your country of residence. In addition, employees at Future Matters are encouraged to spend 10% of working time on professional development and are provided an annual budget for professional development

• Travel: Approximately 10–14 weeks per year

• Application deadline: May 14th, however we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis prior to that deadline, and may continue reviewing applications after that date

• Start Date: Ideally, July 2025. Negotiable for a great fit

You might be a good fit if:

• You are already versed in the concepts and concerns about AI safety and governance, and want to dedicate your next few years to making the biggest difference you can in this critical moment of technological transformation.

• You're skilled at explaining complex technical topics to diverse audiences and can develop compelling analogies that make AI safety concepts accessible to those new to the field.

• You combine strategic thinking with entrepreneurial drive. You take initiative, are ambitious, and can act decisively even when facing uncertainty.

• You thrive on building relationships and connecting with people. You can craft persuasive messages for different audiences based on what they care about and secure commitments quickly.

About Future Matters and this role

Future Matters is a think tank and non-profit consultancy focused on the greatest global challenges of our time, including climate protection, AI governance, and biosecurity. We take a rigorous approach to identifying and pursuing the highest-impact opportunities for change.

Our AI safety work

Since 2022, Future Matters has applied our expertise in social and policy change to efforts supporting AI safety. Historically, most of this work has been in strategy and communication consulting, but we are currently also expanding into doing more research on gaps in the AI governance field and coordination support.

Consulting

Our team offers custom strategy consultations (primarily pro bono) to help organizations take advantage of critical moments in AI development. Our projects have included:

• Working with experts to turn complex knowledge and research into targeted advocacy efforts.

• Developing communication goals before important summits, ensuring a robust shared set of key messages among coalitions.

• Teaching leaders to use communication psychology skills for better persuasion and on high stakes and technical issues.

• Advising on tactics for attracting leadership talent into policy work by pulling on lessons from other successful advocacy movements.

• Making introductions between key stakeholders on issues, resulting in successful advocacy.

Clients have stressed that no other organization is filling this niche right now.

Research Spotting windows of opportunity and prioritizing responses is one of our areas of expertise. In addition to tailored consulting addressing current concerns, we conduct outward and long-term analyses of likely gaps and opportunities for intervention across the field. This study is focused on finding the areas of intervention that we or other organizations may take on in the future.

Coordination support

We also help AI governance actors build shared power to advance artificial intelligence policy and advocacy through trust building, joint communications and strategy coordination.

Get to know our work

Case studies on our consulting successes: here, here, and here

Briefings on emerging topics to support AI safety actors: here and here

About this role

This is a new role at Future Matters at an important moment in our growth. After recent successes and investing in our operational systems, we are ready to scale significantly.

Your thought leadership, and relationship-building will create the network and support that will drive this growth.

One week you might be hosting a donor dinner with AI-concerned tech entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. The next week you could be drafting compelling content for our website or taking a series of Zoom calls with interested funders. After a break at home, you’ll come to our team retreat in Germany to connect with the rest of your Future Matters colleagues for strategizing and team-building, then travel on to London for a major conference to meet new connections.

Meanwhile, you might write blog posts or articles that showcase our unique approach to AI safety, host virtual roundtables with potential donors, or participate in online trainings and events to expand your network. You'll also participate in research discussions or strategy sessions with our AI team to stay deeply connected to our work.

While your primary focus might be networking within the established AI safety community, you'll also explore opportunities to engage donors who are shifting their giving from adjacent areas like human rights and digital rights advocacy, protection of democracy, or international security and conflict prevention — helping them discover the connections between their existing concerns and AI safety.

Your focus will be 100% on our AI safety work, helping to build the financial foundation for our growing team and ambitious plans in this critical field.

Our team culture

Future Matters seeks to create an environment where talented people can do their best work. Employees describe our workplace feel as “warm and sciency.” Here are a few of our practices and values:

• We are really serious about trying to have the biggest possible impact with our limited resources. To ensure this, we are unusually diligent in finding opportunities that allow us to create major ripple effects with relatively minor effort.

• We believe the best argument, evidence, or reasoning should determine our actions and that we should implement the best ideas, regardless who has them or what their position in the hierarchy is. We celebrate changing our minds given new information.

• We encourage a culture where we accept, own, and learn from mistakes. We have a Slack channel where everyone, including directors, share their recent mistakes and lessons learned.

• We get things done fast. Instead of aiming for perfection, we ask “Is this safe enough to try?”

• We strive to be a place where we care for and support each other, appreciate everyone’s contributions, and help each other succeed.

• We gather together three times a year for team retreats, where we can work intensively on our most important projects and internal goals and get to know each other.

Responsibilities of the role

1. Donor Engagement: Build and deepen relationships with foundations, family funds, and high-net-worth individuals. You'll identify prospects, craft tailored engagement strategies, cultivate long-term partnerships that align with our mission, and make four-to-seven figure fundraising asks.

2. Strategic Outreach: Expand our network through targeted outreach campaigns, event participation, and creative networking approaches. You'll identify and attend conferences, host donor events, and create opportunities to showcase our work to new audiences. You will give talks at conferences and pitch at donor events, and you might set up opportunities for Future Matters Directors to do the same.

3. Team Integration: You will spend about 25% of your time staying up to date on the main developments in the field and assisting with research projects in the AI team. You will actively contribute to Future Matters' AI analysis and strategy. This deep understanding will not only contribute to the team's work, it will also strengthen your donor communications and help you educate supporters about the importance of AI safety, ultimately improving the impact of philanthropy in this critical field.

4. Communications: Working closely with the Director of Partnerships and Communications, you'll help craft compelling narratives about our work for proposals, presentations, our website and other outlets.

5. Systems & Process Development: Along with the Strategic Partnerships Officer in Climate Protection, you'll shape how we manage donor relationships, including co-creating protocols for our CRM and establishing effective tracking systems.

6. Professional Development: At Future Matters, we encourage employees to spend 10% of their time on learning and professional development and provide a budget for courses, coaching, training and other opportunities.

What we’re looking for

• Professional Experience: You should have a baseline of professional judgment and confidence, typically gained through 2+ years of work experience. We welcome both ambitious early-career professionals and those with significant work experience.

• Proven skill in cultivating 1:1 relationships toward a goal: You have experience in a role that honed your ability to gain trust and achieve a donation, an investment, a sale or a commitment for action (possibly experience in major gifts, sales, pitching a start-up, or other field).

• Networking savvy: You find joy in making connections between people and bringing diverse people together to connect over shared ideas. You have found ways to use your existing relationships to open doors that were not previously open to you (possibly in journalism, politics, or other people-oriented fields).

• Persuasive storytelling skills: You have a track record of translating complex stories or ideas into narratives that influenced audiences toward action.

• Analytical thinking: You can break down a complex issue into organized, manageable components systematically. You have the ability to recognize patterns in information and anticipate potential consequences of different approaches.

• Strategic thinking and entrepreneurial drive: You can identify the highest-impact opportunities and pursue them with minimal direction. You operate well under uncertainty, and have a proven ability to iterate in real time, innovate when faced with uncertainty, and pivot to find success.

• Compelling, relationship-oriented writing: Your written communication, especially short-form (emails and short updates), is especially crisp, engaging, clear, confident, and warm.

• Able to travel frequently: You are open to spending up to 14 weeks a year traveling for donor meetings, conferences, team retreats and other events.

• English language skills: You communicate at a high level, both written and spoken.

• Commitment to AI safety and governance: You already have a strong grasp on the complex technical, ethical, and political considerations of this issue, and are committed to spending the next several high-stakes years pursuing the most important interventions.

Bonus Qualities

You do not need these in order to apply, but we are especially interested in hearing from candidates who also demonstrate any of the following qualities.

• Prior professional experience in philanthropy, with a comfort building relationships with high-net-worth individuals and/or foundations.

• Proven ability to secure large-scale funding, including making five-, six- and seven-figure fundraising asks (donations or private investment).

• Experience working for a policy or social-change oriented organization.

• Experience in a high-travel role, such that you know you love the lifestyle.

• Bringing in-depth expertise and a preexisting network in AI safety/governance.

Application Process

We believe that choosing a new job is a very important decision, and that both candidates and organizations need to take time to consider whether there is a great match. We strive to conduct a fair and welcoming hiring process and respect candidates' time by communicating as clearly and promptly as we can at each phase.

Our expected process is outlined below. These steps may change depending on the candidate pool and your country of residence:

1. Written application

2. 30-minute interview via video call

3. 90-minute interview via video call

4. Paid 3-4 hour team-based interview with simulated work tasks

5. Reference calls

6. Employment offer, with an ideal start date of July 2025

We are an equal-opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, age, physical attractiveness, marital status, or disability. We are happy to make any reasonable accommodations necessary to welcome all to our workplace.

Please contact us to discuss adjustments to the application process or with any questions: contact@future-matters.org.

As we hire internationally, employment conditions - including, among other things, benefits, job title and scope phrasing, as well as the application process - may vary based on the legal requirements and customary employment practices in the candidate’s country of residence. The specifics will be determined during the hiring process and finalized upon employment. We are not able to sponsor visas at this time.

Notes about the application below

We consider overall fit rather than only raw years of experience when reviewing applications. Mission alignment is very important to us. If you are interested in our approach, we encourage you to apply.

We are reviewing applications as they come in, and we encourage you to apply early.

You will be asked to upload a resume as a PDF or Word document. Instead of a cover letter, please answer the questions below.

We value your time and efforts in applying for jobs. Please limit answers to approximately 150-200 words or less, and don’t take too much time editing your answer or formatting. Feel free to use bullet points if it helps show your answer more clearly.