Recruiting Lead

Build the hiring function that lets MATS double its team: design and manage a scalable process that fills 40+ roles per year with high-quality candidates.

Berkeley, California (preferred) or London, UK

MATS finds and trains talented individuals for what we see as the world's most urgent and talent‑constrained problem: reducing risks from unaligned artificial intelligence. We believe ambitious researchers from a variety of backgrounds have the potential to meaningfully contribute to alignment, control, security, and governance research. Through our research fellowship, we provide mentorship, training, professional network, and financial support to accelerate their careers and increase their impact.

Since 2021, we have trained over 446 researchers. 80% now work in AI alignment. 10% have co‑founded organizations. Our fellows have produced 170+ research papers with 9,500+ citations. And we are just getting started: in the coming year we will expand our program to support even more researchers.

But we need your help to expand. As our first dedicated recruiter, every hire you make will shape the future of AI safety research. You will join a dynamic organization working to fill 40+ roles over the next year to double our team.

MATS is entering a new stage of growth – transitioning from a small, scrappy team to a durable institution. We are building out our People team for the first time to enable sustainable growth. You will play a key role supporting the HR/People Lead to establish how the People function operates. We are moving fast and in addition to the (Senior) Recruiting Lead role, we are also currently hiring the HR/People Lead (who will manage your team) as well as the COO who will oversee all of the operational teams and organizational build out.

As you will all be joining around the same time, we are looking for people who are happy to collaborate, co‑construct, and grow together into a top‑notch team.

As the organization's first dedicated recruiter, we’re seeking someone who can hit the ground running to take ownership of the talent pipeline. While any successful candidate must have managed recruitment streams, we can envision this as a Senior role or Mid‑level role depending on experience.

The ideal senior candidate will have led talent acquisition in growing teams, balancing hands‑on sourcing and recruiting with process improvement. They have orchestrated full‑cycle recruitment for entire teams while also helping to design and optimize hiring processes, tools, and candidate experiences.

The ideal mid‑level candidates will have owned and executed full‑cycle recruitment pipelines, from job‑material development, to sourcing candidates, screening and selection. They have been a high‑impact individual contributor or independent recruitment professional with a strong track record who can bring best‑practice to the organization.

• Develop the process architecture: MATS has a recruiting process, but it was designed for a smaller organization and it won’t scale to the growth ahead. You will assess what we have, identify gaps, and build something more durable. That means working with a formal applicant tracking system, designing repeatable workflows for sourcing, screening, and closing candidates, and documenting the process so it can be handed off, delegated, or expanded as the team grows.
  
  You’ll act as manager, implementor, and recruiter — often in the same week.
• Find the right people: MATS aims to double its size by filling 40+ full‑time positions over the next year, many of them new, unusual, and/or highly technical roles. As our (Senior) Recruiting Lead, you will do full‑cycle recruiting. You will draft these job descriptions, find appropriate places to advertise for candidates, screen out unqualified candidates, and design effective interview questions, rubrics, and work tests for MATS to use to assess candidates.
• Run a rigorous, fast hiring process: You will organize and deploy MATS staff and managers to promptly and efficiently evaluate promising candidates. Prior background with artificial intelligence safety is a plus, but is definitely not…