Senior Technical AI Safety Research Manager

We're looking for a strong research manager to support our AI safety programmes. This is a high-trust, technically-grounded role: you'll work directly with researchers to scope projects, provide mentorship, and find the best path to impact on AI risk. You may also have the chance to help us spin up a brand-new in-house alignment research team.

You'll need technical depth, judgement on research directions, strong organisation, and a real commitment to creating impact and helping researchers flourish.

About Meridian

Meridian is a research hub and community for AI safety researchers based in Cambridge, UK. We host a strong community of full-time researchers, run structured research fellowships for early- and mid-career researchers, and convene the local AI safety community through workshops, reading groups, and events.

We’ve incubated Geodesic Research, a new technical AI safety research lab focused on alignment priors before RL, and ERA, a world-class research fellowship. Our own programs - including MARS (Mentorship for Alignment Research Students), and our Research Accelerator Weeks (RAW) and Visiting Researchers Programme (VRP) - have supported over 300 researchers and contributed to NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, and the UK government AI agenda.

What you’ll do

Research management and support (the core of the role)

• Scope and review research projects for MARS fellows and Visiting Researchers

• Provide technical feedback on proposals, drafts, and research plans

• Run regular check-ins with researchers; identify and unblock obstacles

• Connect researchers with relevant people, papers, and opportunities

• Some minimal ops, ensuring that incoming VRs have a friendly point of contact and the resources they need

Using your technical background and research taste

• Help to shape impactful research proposals during our Research Accelerator Weeks

• Choose our cohorts for RAW, and help review candidates for MARS

• Run red-teaming and proposal development sessions, lab meetings and journal clubs

Help build a new in-house research team (funding permitting)

The success and strong impact of Geodesic Research has led us to explore the possibility of creating a new internal alignment research team.

We have the funding to bring on a small founding team for a fixed period, but want to be upfront that this project might not work out - so it’s an exciting possibility with a huge upper-bound to impact, rather than a certainty that you can be sure will be a permanent part of the role.

If it goes ahead, you would:

• Work closely with the CEO to help get it off the ground

• Contribute your technical judgement to selecting crucial first hires

• Participate in conversations with funders, potential advisors, and senior researchers

• Help us move towards a research agenda with the highest counterfactual impact

How involved you are is genuinely flexible, and depends on your interests and strengths. For the right person, there's room to take on real ownership; equally, it can stay a focused part of a role centred on research support.

What we’re looking for

We're looking for someone with:

• A strong commitment to acting on the most serious risks from advanced AI

• Experience on a top fellowship, such as LASR, ERA, MATS, or Astra, or equivalent research experience in AI safety

• Publications in AI safety or machine learning

• Strong familiarity with the AI safety research landscape: current debates, agendas, who's working on what

• The judgment to distinguish promising research directions from dead ends, and solid ToCs from wishful thinking

• Strong empathy, and a desire to help other researchers flourish.

Strong candidates may also have:

• Experience leading, mentoring or supervising researchers

• Experience managing research programs or collaborations across multiple institutions

• A network in the AI safety community

Additional Details

Salary: £65,000–80,000, depending on experience

Benefits:

• Unlimited PTO

• Pension scheme with employer matching up to 4%

• £1,000 annual professional development fund

• Conference travel budget

• Tech stipend

• Daily lunch and snacks

• Visa sponsorship available

Logistics

• Location: In-person in Cambridge, UK

• Contract: Full-time (40 hours/week), initial 12-month contract; strong intention to renew

• Start date: Flexible; from summer 2026