Palisade Research Regulatory and Legal Policy Expert Washington, DC · Full time Company website

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Palisade's mission is to help people and institutions build the understanding needed to avoid permanent disempowerment by strategic AI agents.

About us: Palisade's mission is to help people and institutions build the understanding needed to avoid permanent disempowerment by strategic AI agents.

Historically, we have not engaged on AI policy from a primarily legal policy angle; we believe that as AI policy moves from policymaker awareness to a need for action, being able to engage with key policy and regulatory questions from a legal perspective will be essential. We've seen this work well for other policy organizations in the DC space – e.g., FAI, IFP, or Encode – with people across a range of backgrounds and level of experience (anything from senior lawyers to law students to people who have non-lawyer expertise in regulatory agencies), so please do not filter yourself out from applying if you are a non-traditional candidate!

Responsibilities:

• Support our head of policy
• Conduct detailed policy research and develop "floor-ready" legislative text, proposals for the executive branch, Federal Register filings, etc. (Note that we've listed this as a desired capability for our other roles, but anticipate that the person hired for this role will take a more substantial lead on those efforts)
• Understand how various policy mechanisms might be more or less feasible in response to Supreme Court rulings, new legislation, etc.
• Advocate for our policy recommendations with the government, media, and the non-profit community

Desired qualifications:

We expect that a successful candidate will have many, but not all, of these qualifications. Please apply for this role even if you are not sure if you meet them. In particular, if you are a motivated individual who cares about AI policy but is transitioning from another field, please DO apply.

• Familiarity with AI national security risks, particularly:
• Loss of control to powerful AI systems
• Recursive self-improvement
• Catastrophic misuse
• The rapid and exponential pace of AI capabilities growth
• A legal, regulatory, Executive Branch, or Congressional background; a law degree is beneficial but not required. (For example, if you have written bills as a Congressional staffer or analyzed legal text for a think tank or an influential Substack, your actual experience would be sufficient)
• A willingness to dive in and get things done – a successful employee in this role must be comfortable with a project-based approach where key deliverables might change every few months
• Proven track record of effectively advocating for policy changes for at least 5 years across a range of stakeholders and views. This could include experience in law, startups, the nonprofit sector, or work on Capitol Hill or the Executive Branch
• Understanding of DC policy processes, communities, and mechanisms, such as "how does a bill's sponsor navigate the current Congressional legislative process" or "how does the Department of Commerce make key recommendations to the President?"

Details of position:

• Based in Washington, DC with occasional travel to our Berkeley home office or other locations as required
• Full-time salaried employment; either hybrid or full-time in-person work
• Salary: $120K to $160K per year, dependent on experience
• Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and long-term disability coverage, unlimited PTO
• Reports to our Head of Policy, Dave Kasten