Expression of Interest: Podcast Chief of Staff

By · Published March 14th, 2025 ·

Help shape the most important conversation of our time

We’re looking for someone exceptional to join 80,000 Hours as Chief of Staff for our podcast team, helping us build a media platform that properly covers recursively self-improving AGI and its implications.

Why this matters

Frontier AI systems are developing rapidly, with capabilities progressing much faster than most expected even a few years ago.

If development continues at its current pace we could see an ‘intelligence explosion’ in which AI takes over AI research and rapidly self-improves, starting in as little as 2-7 years.

This is the defining issue of our time and decisions made in the next decade could shape humanity’s long-term future in profound ways.

Yet the public conversation around AGI remains completely inadequate. Mainstream sources neglect the issue entirely for the most part. When AGI is discussed, it’s often covered superficially and fails in one of various ways:

  • naive optimism and hype
  • reflexive dismissiveness
  • focusing only on immediate issues like job displacement or copyright violations
  • uncritically accepting narratives from actors with strong financial interests in the industry.

The extremely profound implications of developing AI, then AGI, and then superintelligence are basically ignored.

We believe there’s a critical opportunity to fill this gap by scaling up our podcast from occasional in-depth interviews to a more comprehensive media platform with multiple weekly pieces covering AGI-related developments, risks, governance, and alignment efforts in a substantive way.

Our goal would be to have consistent coverage of:

  1. all the key categories of risks associated with AGI
  2. the main approaches people are taking to reduce them
  3. major updates in the AI ecosystem (e.g. milestones in AI progress, policy changes at AI labs, new AI-related legislation)

We expect AI progress to eventually force the issue into the mainstream as the technology becomes capable of doing all or almost all the things human workers can do on a computer.

By becoming a trusted source of information about AGI now — before others rush into the space — we could have substantial influence when people are looking to learn and make sense of what is going on later on.

And offering sophisticated analysis about where AI is going to take us as a society over the next few years puts us in a better position by:

  1. Informing, influencing and preparing key decision-makers in industry, academia, and policy
  2. Expanding the community of people taking these issues seriously and working to address them
  3. Shaping how society collectively thinks about and prepares for increasingly capable AI systems

You can learn more about the above perspective in our interviews with Will MacAskill and Carl Shulman, and in our article on Preventing an AI-related Catastrophe.

What you’ll be building

If we can hire the right founding group, we aspire to triple or even quadruple the size of the podcast team.

As Chief of Staff, you’d work directly with existing hosts Rob Wiblin and Luisa Rodriguez to make that happen.

The programme as a whole would:

  • Publish in-depth interviews with leading AI researchers, policymakers, and strategists, in both audio and video
  • Provide frequent analysis of new developments and research findings
  • Produce content that is accurate and detailed while still being accessible
  • Likely branch into other content formats including voice essays and a Substack, usually tied into interviews

You’d have substantial ownership over the product, helping to shape both its vision and execution. You’d be developing the strategy alongside Rob, building the team, and establishing the systems needed for consistent high-quality output.

Components of the role

We would design the role to fit the applicant, but possible responsibilities include:

  • Deciding how to develop the product in order to meet our strategic goals
  • Coordinating the programme with the rest of 80,000 Hours
  • Hiring and growing the team
  • Line managing the team to keep them happy and productive
  • Tracking the AGI space and thereby deciding what topics to prioritise covering and who to interview
  • Learning about the audience and what they actually need from us, and channeling feedback into improvements to the product
  • Helping shape the voice, style, and approach of our expanded platform
  • Attending things like conferences and engaging with AI ecosystem to stay abreast of community updates and needs
  • Being a source of energy, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurialism

Why might this be a good fit for you?

Nobody will have all of these traits, but if you have more than 5 that’s a great sign, and the more boxes you tick the better:

  • Take AI development and its potential implications seriously, and want to do something about it
  • Are ambitious, entrepreneurial, and energetic
  • Are happy to offer opinions, but are flexible and able to work with a group
  • Value clear and candid communication about complex topics
  • Have experience with at least one of:
    • content creation
    • team or project management
    • content marketing, or tailoring products to their audience
    • hiring and recruitment
  • Consume a lot of audio or video podcasts, or similar content
  • Have strong judgment about what content would be both engaging and substantive
  • Stay up-to-date with some part of the AI/AGI situation be that applications, research, policy or social impacts

What we offer

  • The salary will vary based on experience and the responsibilities you take on, and will be calculated according to a formula that is transparent to all primary staff at 80,000 Hours which factors in experience, level of responsibility and performance.
    • A candidate with a medium level of experience and proficiency would most likely start on between £80k-100k. A candidate with extensive demonstrated skill at this sort of work could earn over £100k.
  • Staff can work flexible hours. We encourage staff to work whatever schedule (consistent with full time status) will allow them to be most personally effective.
  • Location
    • We prefer people to either work in the San Francisco / Bay Area, in order to be connected with other organisations working on AGI issues, or to work in our London offices, getting the benefits of being in-person with most of the team.
    • A third-best option is to locate in Washington DC, which will be a centre of AI policy and governance.
    • We are also open to remote work in some cases.
    • We can sponsor UK visas. For US-based candidates, visa sponsorship may be possible through our Employer of Record.
  • The start date of the role is flexible, but we would expect you to start during 2025 and prefer you to start approximately as soon as you’re available.

Our benefits

  • The option to use 10% of your time for self-development
  • 25 days of paid holiday, plus bank holidays
  • Pension scheme / retirement plan with employer contributions
  • Private medical insurance
  • Long-term disability insurance
  • Up to 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave
  • Childcare allowance for children under 5
  • Coverage of work-related expenses like travel to conferences and office equipment
  • £5,000 annual mental health support allowance
  • £5,000 annual self-development budget
  • Shower facilities, a small gym, and free food provided if you work at our London office

If you’re interested in the role, please fill out this form. While there’s no hard deadline for getting in touch, we encourage you to submit your materials before April 6. We’ll reach out to discuss a potential role if we think you’re a particularly great fit.