Catalyze Impact is a nonprofit with the mission to incubate the next generation of crucial AI safety & security organizations. Through our programs, we connect talented founders with top-notch co-founders, industry experts, and our funding networks.
We’re hiring for two pivotal roles as we scale up our work:
- Incubation Program Lead: Lead the management, execution and scaling of Catalyze Impact's flagship AI safety incubation programs. Read more here.
- Talent Lead: Lead the identification and selection of exceptional founders for Catalyze Impact’s AI safety incubation work. Read more here.
Both positions are full-time, starting ideally around early November 2025. Applications close 5 October 2025 (Anywhere on Earth).
Apply here, or send us your recommendations.
About Catalyze Impact
AI capabilities are advancing rapidly, and the risks of misaligned or uncontrolled advanced AI are increasingly highlighted by researchers and industry leaders. The AI safety ecosystem, however, remains critically underdeveloped for this challenge. While funding exists, we aim to resolve this key bottleneck: not enough talented founders are building the AI safety organizations we urgently need.
We address this by making it easier for talented AI safety-focused entrepreneurs to decide on a highly impactful organization direction, and quickly get access to the network of co-founders, expert mentors, and funders that they need to make their organization a success.
Our pilot program received over 200 applicants and incubated 11 organizations, with participants reporting the program either enabled the founding of their organization or accelerated their progress by an average of 11 months. These organizations now work on challenges from AI control tooling to hardware security. Starting in 2026, we will run multiple programs per year, each targeting critical gaps in the AI safety ecosystem.
Our small entrepreneurial team combines deep care for others and AI safety with proactivity and strong generalist skills. We are mission-driven, ambitious about impact, and committed to an environment where everyone can thrive. We value open feedback, professional growth, and foster genuine care for one another. With high ownership and a can-do mindset, team members see their ideas come to life, shape the organization’s direction, and step in where needed to advance the mission.
Open Roles
The new Program Lead & Talent Lead would be joining us at an early stage (second or third hire), helping shape our trajectory and with the potential of growing into a co-founder role. We have a strong preference for them being located in the Bay Area (visa sponsorship expected from 2026; remote possible until then). London or remote is possible, with ~1.5–3 months of travel annually. Salaries are expected to range from ~$75k to $150k depending on experience, location, and needs.
1. Incubation Program Lead
Lead the management, execution and scaling of Catalyze Impact's flagship AI safety incubation programs. You will join us as one of our first employees, building the infrastructure that will enable the next generation of AI safety organizations at a time where scaling the AI safety ecosystem is pivotal. You'll have the opportunity to take on expanding responsibilities and help shape our trajectory as we scale.
- Program design & impact measurement: Drive the program’s impact and improvement by measuring outcomes (participant satisfaction, funding results, organizational impact) and iterating on the program’s design for each cycle.
- Program delivery management: Oversee and organize program operations including international participant logistics, managing contractors, and coordination with external mentors, speakers, advisors, and funders.
- Scale the program: Design and manage scalable systems and processes to support program growth, while identifying and resolving bottlenecks down the road.
- Support the search for great founders: Collaborate with our Talent Lead in the participant recruitment & selection process, including interviews and final admission decisions.
- Engage with our founders & ecosystems: Engage deeply with our participants, the AI safety community, and other relevant communities.
- (Optional) Coach AI safety founders: Support participants in our programs by sharing insights from your areas of expertise.
About you:
- Mission-driven: You care deeply about reducing catastrophic AI risks and building towards a great future. You are energized by pursuing ambitious, impactful goals that can meaningfully advance AI safety.
- Project & people management skills: You have solid project and people management skills, and are good at coaching people to help them develop.
- Entrepreneurial mindset: You're excited to build processes from scratch, take on diverse challenges, be pro-active, and have an ownership mentality.
- Travel/in-person availability: You are ideally able to work from the Bay Area (see location section above for more details). If not, you are comfortable with international travel for program delivery and in-person time with the team for ~1.5 - 3 months annually.
- [Strong plus] You have worked for a VC, funder or incubator, have founded an organization before, have experience fundraising, were an early employee at a start-up, and/or have scaled an organization or project in the past.
We strongly encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all criteria above!
Full role description & application link
2. Talent Lead
Lead the identification and selection of exceptional founders for Catalyze’s AI safety incubation work. You will join us as one of our first employees, building the infrastructure that will enable the next generation of AI safety organizations at a time where scaling the AI safety ecosystem is pivotal. You'll have the opportunity to take on expanding responsibilities and help shape our trajectory as we scale
- Recruitment strategy & execution: Own our outreach campaigns, headhunting efforts, conference representation, and identification of promising talent pools to build a strong pipeline of potential founders.
- Selection process leadership: Continuously improve our application processes, conduct interviews, and make final admission decisions together with the rest of the team, ensuring we select excellent participants.
- Online presence & marketing: Manage Catalyze's recruitment marketing materials and online presence to effectively attract mission-aligned founders.
- Ecosystem engagement: Represent Catalyze at conferences and gatherings, build relationships with advisors and contractors who can help improve our talent pool, and coordinate projects with ecosystem partners to improve our pipeline and pool of potential AI safety founders.
- Metrics & optimization: Track recruitment and selection performance, continuously iterating to improve both the quality and quantity of our applicant pool.
- (Optional) Coach AI safety founders: Support participants in our programs by sharing insights from your areas of expertise.
About you:
- Mission-driven: You care deeply about reducing catastrophic AI risks and building towards a great future. You are energized by pursuing ambitious, impactful goals that can meaningfully advance AI safety.
- Talent search/selection skills: You have skills in talent recruitment, selection, building talent pipelines, hiring, or headhunting.
- Project & people management skills: You have solid project and people management skills, and are good at helping people develop professionally.
- Entrepreneurial mindset: You're excited to build processes from scratch, take on diverse challenges, be pro-active, and have an ownership mentality.
- Travel/in-person availability: You are ideally able to work for us from the Bay Area (see location section above for more details). If not, you are comfortable with international travel for program delivery and in-person time with the team for ~1.5 - 3 months annually.
- [Strong plus] You have founded an organization before, were an early employee at a start-up, have founder search experience, have strong public speaking skills, and/or are well-connected in the AI safety or tech entrepreneurship ecosystems.
We strongly encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all criteria above!
Full role description & application link
What We Offer
- An opportunity for outsized impact: You'll play an important role in resolving one of the key bottlenecks in AI safety - identifying talented founders and helping them access the resources and networks they need to build the next generation of critical AI safety organizations.
- Great people to work with: The Catalyze team is highly impact-oriented but also cares a lot about positive working relationships. We’re eager to learn, have a strong feedback culture, and foster a can-do mindset. The founders you will interact with also tend to be great: extremely competent, idealistic and friendly people.
- A pivotal role in the organization: The first people at an organization play a very important role in an organization’s trajectory. You would join the organization as its second or third hire, which gives you lots of leverage and opportunities.
- Personal and career development: As an early team member, you gain experience in lots of different types of work, and with quickly increasing responsibility as the organization scales. We also cover the costs of attending relevant conferences, workshops, and work trips to enable you to develop relevant skills and network.
- Start-up flexibility: We’re flexible regarding when and how you prefer to work. You’ll have to look hard to find red tape here; rather, we find practical and flexible ways to do what needs doing.
- Ample vacation time: On top of public holidays, we offer 25 paid vacation days per year.
- Health & well-being support: We offer unlimited sick leave and a comprehensive healthcare plan if you’re based in the US, or an equivalent if located elsewhere.
- US Visa sponsorship: We plan to establish an office in the US by the end of this year and expect that most likely we will be able to sponsor visas there starting in 2026.
Apply
We will evaluate applications starting mid-September 2025, and expect to make offers around late October 2025.
Deadline: 5 October 2025 (Anywhere on Earth).
More information on the roles: https://www.catalyze-impact.org/careers