Associate Program Officer, Transformative AI Fund

CEA is seeking an Associate Program Officer for the Transformative AI Fund https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dYuNi5Rh68o9YKstg/ea-funds-is-launching-the-transformative-ai-fund, the new fund within EA Funds supporting early-stage work on transformative AI. This includes work that prevents global catastrophic risks (GCRs) and supporting fields, such as field-building and forecasting. You'll report to and work directly alongside the Head of the Transformative AI Fund to ensure the success of the fund, primarily through identifying the grant applications that will most advance the goals of the fund. Because we're building the fund from the ground up, you’ll have substantial autonomy in your work and will help shape the systems that will run for years. We're also open to a more junior hire with deep knowledge of the field and high agency. ABOUT CEA The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) stewards the movement of people putting effective altruism principles into practice to solve the world's most pressing problems. We’re working to build a flourishing future by applying evidence, reason, and compassion to challenges like global poverty, animal suffering, and existential risks. Our work centers on growing and supporting a global community of people who rigorously analyze where they can do the most good—and take action on those insights. Current strategic priorities include increasing understanding of effective altruism and its principles, growing the number of people who are motivated by EA principles to take significant action to address pressing problems, and diversifying funding sources for high-impact work. We had significant success in 2025, building momentum within CEA. Our headcount grew from 42 to 66 core staff. Program participation (e.g., events, courses, groups) grew by 20-25% year over year. We merged https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BLvTcMMEQGFYsh6Jw/ea-funds-and-cea-are-merging with EA Funds https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/ and are rapidly scaling up our capacity for grantmaking and associated fundraising. In 2026, we’re maintaining ambitious momentum https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Dy4iGHbAkKAQ4t2Dw/building-sustainable-momentum-progress-report-on-cea-s-2025 while building the foundations for a step-change in the wider EA ecosystem’s growth trajectory from 2027 onwards. ABOUT EA FUNDS’ TRANSFORMATIVE AI FUND (TAIF) Effective Altruism Funds (EA Funds) is the grantmaking arm of CEA and aims to increase the amount of funding that is dedicated to particularly cost-effective and altruistically impactful projects across global health & development, animal welfare, Transformative AI and EA infrastructure. The Transformative AI Fund is EA Funds' new fund. Our primary focus is reducing global catastrophic risks through grants within Technical AI Safety, AI Governance (including post-AGI governance), and contributing fields such as field-building and forecasting. We're also open to relevant areas like Flourishing Futures and Digital Sentience, though these will be a small minority of grants. Our vision is for the Transformative AI Fund to be a go-to fund for any individual or organization starting something new within the transformative AI space to get their project off the ground. We're addressing a funding gap at the earliest stages, in the $10k-$150k range: we can be the first backer of small projects that otherwise wouldn't happen, at a size most other funders struggle to serve. At this scale, funding is often all-or-nothing: does the pilot run? Does the event happen? This is hits-based giving https://coefficientgiving.org/research/hits-based-giving/: many grants will have no or modest outcomes, with the occasional home run paying for the entire portfolio. With a funding influx anticipated over the coming years https://nanransohoff.substack.com/p/the-third-wave-of-american-philanthropy, we believe that supporting promising early-stage projects helps grow the field and its absorptive capacity.…