AI, Labor and the Economy Program Lead


The Partnership on AI (PAI) is seeking a full-time Program Lead to join the high-growth, high-impact AI, Labor and the Economy (AILE) Priority Area. This Program Lead will report to the AILE Lead and will work with key PAI stakeholders, including senior Partners, prominent academics, workers and labor unions, policymakers. This is a full time role with an imminent start date. 


PAI is headquartered in San Francisco, with a global membership base and scope but we will consider remote work.

Background

AI, Labor and the Economy Priority Area at present consists of two flagship programs: 

Responsible Sourcing of Data Enrichment Services across the AI Supply Line and the AI and Shared Prosperity Initiative (AI SPI).


The Responsible Sourcing program’s goals are to equip the AI industry with well-grounded guidance on what responsible procurement should look like for data labeling and human review services (sometimes referred to as “ghost work”), and to advance the industry-wide adoption of Responsible Procurement Recommendations.


The AI and Shared Prosperity Initiative explores ways to proactively guide AI advancement in the direction of expanding the economic prospects of people with fewer opportunities for retraining and re-skilling in particular. 


Both Programs draw on a range of critical perspectives: that of workers, of a multi-disciplinary body of thinkers from academia, the AI industry and civil society, and the broader public. The Program Lead’s work will be to shape and advance the Programmatic work building on the critical perspectives listed above.

About this role

Program Leads play a highly visible role at PAI in bringing people and ideas together by developing and executing the multi-stakeholder programmatic strategy. 


This Program Lead will report to the AILE Lead and be responsible for programmatic, multistakeholder, product design and outreach processes for AILE programs, with tremendous room for growth as the programs scale. The Program Lead will work closely with the AILE Lead on designing and disseminating the outputs of multistakeholder programs, soliciting Partner and expert input, coordinating pilots, and additional activities as the programs evolve to include implementation phases. The Program Lead will be responsible for project management within multiple workstreams of AILE, including establishing mechanisms for understanding Partners’ needs and challenges, tailoring program outputs design to be usable and useful as a part of the AI development process, consolidating input from multi-stakeholder processes, developing and executing strategies for program participation recruitment and advancement of the recommendations adoption, and other programmatic leadership tasks.


This Program Lead will be joining ongoing initiatives that encompasses research, design, testing, iteration, and implementation phases. Responsibilities will likely evolve over time. In general, responsibilities will be divided between project management, multistakeholder coordination and relationship management, outreach and research support activities. AILE Programs interact with people from many different domains by design. This Program Lead should have the ability to work effectively with demographically, geographically and disciplinarily diverse groups of stakeholders, including identifying areas of shared interests and divergent goals, generating buy-in and momentum for the programs, and distilling research spanning multiple disciplines for varied audiences.


PAI is headquartered in San Francisco, with a global membership base and scope but we will consider remote work.

Key responsibilities

Project management:

  • Manage workstream planning and execution with a high degree of autonomy

  • Research process options to enable scalable debate of core outstanding questions

  • Create new processes and programmatic elements in response to stakeholder/program needs

  • Define, organize, and facilitate key meetings and events for PAI (e.g., defining day’s agenda and goals; ensuring the right participants for intended outcomes)


Program Outputs Design:

  • Solicit, record, and summarize feedback from stakeholders

  • Systematically gather insights about the AI development process and use those to ensure AILE program outputs are designed to be usable and useful in that process

  • Tailor program outputs to the needs and realities of the AI development practices


Targeted Outreach and Future of Work Narrative Shaping:

  • Develop and execute outreach strategies for increasing PAI/AILE Program’s influence in the Future of Work debate and driving the adoption of AILE programmatic recommendations by the AI industry players

  • Identify untapped stakeholders and ways to increase AILE programs’ reach for both diverse input and output

  • Manage the Program newsletter and Partner updates

  • Draft blog posts and whitepapers summarizing multistakeholder input


Multistakeholder coordination and relationship management:

  • Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders; coordinate stakeholders representing dozens of organizations to achieve programmatic goals

  • Generate buy-in and excitement for and engagement with the AILE programs at multiple levels of Partner organizations

  • Participate in funding / prospective partner conversations as appropriate

Key qualifications

  • Excellent written and oral communication skills. Experience managing public-facing outreach efforts is a plus

  • A track record for excellent project management and delivery, including experience managing multiple complex workstreams simultaneously

  • A track record of managing a large and diverse set of stakeholders

  • Solid familiarity with technology/AI product development process

  • Familiarity with user experience research

  • Familiarity with the Future of Work literature/key issues in the space

  • Ability to quickly gain familiarity with relevant technical and social science (esp. economic) literature

  • Strong interest in and ability to keep up with and synthesize research relevant to the Future of Work topics, esp in economics, anthropology, science and technology studies, and related fields

  • Comfort in navigating a highly cross-functional internal PAI organization as well as large external network of PAI Partners and stakeholders

  • Adaptability when working with people from different industries, domains, and types of expertise

  • 5+ years of experience working full-time in professional environments, ideally in cross-functional roles

  • A Bachelor’s Degree (graduate-level coursework or research is preferred). Familiarity with social science and/or computer science is ideal


PAI is a fast-paced organization that often requires quick turnarounds, so initiative and efficiency is critical for success in this position. Because of the varied and dynamic nature of PAI’s multistakeholder research projects, the ideal candidate should have experience working on projects with diverse stakeholders. 


We know that research has shown that some potential applicants will submit an application only when they feel that they have met close to all of the qualifications for a role—we encourage you to take a leap of faith with us and submit your application as long as you are passionate about working to make real impact in the AI industry. We are very interested in hearing from a diverse pool of candidates.

 

PAI is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.  We celebrate diversity and we are committed to creating an inclusive environment in all aspects of employment, including recruiting, hiring, promoting, training, education assistance, social and recreational programs, compensation, benefits, transfers, discipline, and all privileges and conditions of employment.  Employment decisions at PAI are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications.

 

PAI will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance or similar laws.

The Partnership on AI may become subject to certain governmental record keeping and reporting requirements for the administration of civil rights laws and regulations. We also track diversity in our workforce for the purpose of improving over time. In order to comply with these goals, the Partnership on AI invites employees to voluntarily self-identify their gender and race/ethnicity. Submission of this information is voluntary and refusal to provide it will not jeopardize or adversely affect employment or any consideration you may receive for employment or advancement.  The information obtained will be kept confidential.  

Application Materials

  1. Resume and/or CV

  2. Cover Letter reflecting on your motivation for the role and experiences illustrating fit for the Key Qualifications requirements

  3. 2-5 pages writing sample (please append to cover letter): this can be any writing for which you were primarily an author and does not have to be about any topic related to the Future of Work or PAI 

  4. 3 References [name, title, email, phone]


Applications for this job posting will be accepted until January 4, 2021.

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