Research Manager Fellowships

GovAI was founded to help humanity navigate the transition to a world with advanced AI. Our researchers have provided knowledge and assistance to decision-makers in government, industry, and civil society. Our initial research agenda, published in 2018, helped define and shape the nascent field of AI governance. We made significant early contributions to the ongoing public discussions over the security implications of AI.

More recently, we have made significant contributions to EU AI policy, with staff members vice-chairing the EU AI Act GPAI Code of Practice risk‑management working group and sitting on the EU AI Office Scientific Panel and Advisory Forum.

Our researchers have published in leading journals and conferences, including Science, Nature, NeurIPS, FAccT, and ICML. We have published commentary in venues such as TIME, Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, and Lawfare. Our work has also been covered by publications such as The New York Times, Vox, and the Financial Times.

Our staff are based across the United Kingdom, United States, and European Union.

One of our main pathways for accomplishing our mission is developing new talent for the field; the Talent Development team leads that work, and this role sits within it.

Seasonal Fellowships are three-month opportunities designed to launch or accelerate impactful careers in AI governance and policy. GovAI runs two fellowships a year in our London office, which each bring together cohorts of about 40–50 people.

Our fellowships are extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of only 0.5%. Our fellows come from a wide range of backgrounds. While we aim to admit a good proportion of early‑career individuals, our cohorts have also included senior government officials; senior academics; and accomplished professionals such as software engineers, lawyers, journalists, a New York Times bestselling author, and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

Our fellowship alumni have gone on to influential roles in government (US, UK, EU), leading AI companies (e.g. Deep Mind, OpenAI, Anthropic), top think tanks (e.g. CSET, RAND, TBI), and leading universities. Our fellowships are consistently rated very highly by participants, with around 90% reporting that they are very likely to recommend the fellowship to friends or colleagues, and that – from the perspective of their long‑term career – the fellowship was much more valuable relative to what they would have otherwise done.

In our last alumni survey, respondents reported that their time at GovAI increased the impact they will have in the AI governance space by around 40%.

During their time at GovAI, Seasonal Fellows work on projects of their choice. Participants in the Research Track conduct a research project, while participants in the Applied Track work on projects in areas other than traditional research. Each fellow is paired with a supervisor from the GovAI team or network. They spend the first two weeks of the fellowship exploring what project(s) would be most valuable for them to work on, with input from their supervisor, their Research Manager, and the broader GovAI community;

and the following ten weeks executing on them. Alongside their projects, fellows also invest time in upskilling on AI governance and widening their professional network. GovAI organises a series of Q&A sessions with AI governance experts, weekly seminars aimed at developing subject‑matter knowledge, workshops for building relevant skills, work‑in‑progress meetings that facilitate peer‑to‑peer feedback, and social events. Fellows are also encouraged to discuss follow‑on career opportunities with our team and network.”

“As Research Manager on the Talent Development team, you will be co‑responsible for the design, selection process, setup, and execution of the biannual UK editions of our flagship talent development programme, the Seasonal Fellowships. You will coach fellows, helping them deliver ambitious projects and navigate their career paths.

For promising applicants who aren’t yet in a position to take on the full range of responsibilities for this role, we will consider offering a Research Management Associate…