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This post was cross posted to the EA Forum TL;DR: One of the largest talent gaps in AI safety is competent generalists: program managers, fieldbuilders, operators, org leaders, chiefs of staff, founders. Ambitious, competent junior people could develop the skills to fill these roles, but there are no good pathways for them to gain skills, experience, and credentials. Instead, they're incentivized to pursue legible technical and policy fellowships and then become full-time researchers, even if that’s not a good fit for their skills. The ecosystem needs to make generalist careers more legible and accessible. Kairos and Constellation are announcing the Generator Residency as a first step. Apply here by April 27. Epistemic status: Fairly confident, based on 2 years running AI safety talent programs, direct hiring experience, and conversations with ~30 senior org leaders across the ecosystem in the past 6 months. The problem Over the past few years, AI safety has moved from niche concern toward a more mainstream issue, driven by pieces like Situational Awareness, AI 2027, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, and the rapidly increasing capabilities of the models themselves. During this period, over 20 research fellowships have launched, collectively training thousands of fellows, with 2,000-2,500 fellows anticipated this year alone[1]. The talent situation for strong technical and policy researchers is far from solved, but meaningful progress has been made. The story for non-research talent is very different. By our count, there are roughly 7 fellowships for non-research talent (producing around 300 fellows this year[2]), spread thin across an array of role types. As a result, many critical functions within AI safety remain acutely talent-constrained. More broadly, the ecosystem has a lot of people who are great at thinking about ideas. We need more people who are great at thinking about people and projects. Read more about this from Asya Bergal here or from 80,000