Special Projects Associate

We’re seeking a Special Projects Associate to support our benchmarking and research teams.

Applications are rolling. 

Please do not include a cover letter, photograph, or headshot of yourself, or any personal information that is not relevant to the role for which you're applying.

About the role

We are looking for a Special Projects Associate to support our research programs. We expect specific responsibilities will evolve as our research teams dive into new initiatives. In this role, you would take on a wide variety of tasks involving complex logistics to help ensure new projects can start strong. In particular, we expect you would spend around half of your time or more supporting the creation of new benchmarks. 

This role is fully remote, and we are able to hire in many countries. However, we have a strong preference for candidates in timezones overlapping with North America. This role requires consistent schedule overlap for at least 7 work hours with UTC-4/5 (East Coast US). You will report to the Head of Operations, and work closely with the benchmarking and data team leads.

We invite anyone who is interested to apply, regardless of background, experience, or credentials.

• Over time, we expect benchmarking support to gradually take up a greater proportion of your time, but at the beginning we expect the division will look like this:

• Work closely with our benchmarking lead, Greg Burnham, to find contributors for new benchmarks: experts across a wide variety of domains—math, science, and various industries—who can help create challenging and meaningful measurements of AI capabilities. This involves rapidly developing familiarity with diverse fields.
• Coordinate with experts to ensure benchmark contributions meet our quality standards and to improve their experience as contractors.
• Organize events such as symposiums to bring together field experts and help create new AI benchmarks. 
• Learn about and provide support with the dozens of tasks and details that help make new benchmarks great. 

• Support the data team properly secure and license data for our data center tracking, and help ensure we remain compliant with local regulations.

• Other operations and external communications tasks as needed. For example, you might own various inboxes for external queries by our audience, responding or triaging with the team as necessary.

• You avidly follow AI developments, e.g. you know what GPQA Diamond is without googling and might speak passionately about why benchmark saturation is a challenge in AI. 
• You are energized by complex challenges. You can own projects without a clear playbook, break new challenges down into manageable steps, and come up with creative solutions. 
• You actively seek feedback and incorporate it quickly, and give clear, constructive feedback to others, even your supervisors. 
• Instinctive organization and conscientiousness. You don't have to work hard to stay on top of details; it comes naturally.
• Two or more years of prior work experience in roles with many moving parts.
• Great written and verbal communication skills, and comfort with direct and empathetic communication.
• Comfort with and excitement about working in a startup-like, fast-moving environment. Time is our scarcest resource!
• You're motivated by Epoch’s work and our mission of improving humanity’s understanding of AI development. 

• Annual salary between $75,000–$100,000 USD, depending on experience and location. 
• Salaries are not restricted to USD, and contracts and payments are usually in local currencies. Conversions are based on one-year average exchange rates. 
• Fully remote environment, including flexible work hours. 
• Competitive global benefits program, including a comprehensive health insurance program—including supplemental benefits specific to a local country, as available and mandated by local law—and life insurance and a pension plan, if applicable in your country. 
• Generous paid time off (PTO), including no specific limit on PTO with 30 days per year protected, unlimited personal and sick leave, and 4 months paid parental leave for permanent staff with at least 12 months of tenure (prorated parental leave if less than 12 months). 
• A flexible and generous expense policy for you to spend on equipment and a large range of productivity tools or learning/development opportunities you might find valuable, subject to regulations and manager approval. 
• Paid work trips, including 3 staff retreats per year and relevant conferences. 
• Access to our very well-equipped offices in Berkeley, California, including paid meals, snacks, gym, and more. All staff, independently of where they are based, have access to the office for at least 20 days each year.

Additional Information

While we welcome applicants from all time zones, we prefer candidates who overlap with UTC–4/5 (Eastern Time). We also prefer candidates who can travel: we hold three retreats per year, during which we record podcast episodes and other communication efforts. 

Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional level English proficiency. 

Epoch is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. We’re committed to finding the best people for our team, so please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. Please email careers@epoch.ai if you have any questions about this role, accessibility requests, or if you want to request an extension to the application deadline. However, we will not review applications submitted to this email address; please submit your application through the link on this page.  

About Epoch AI

Epoch AI is a research institute that investigates trends in machine learning and the economic consequences of AI. Our mission is to develop a comprehensive, publicly accessible knowledge base on AI that informs policymakers, industry leaders, and society at large. We strive to achieve both rigor and accessibility to our work, as exemplified by some of our most successful projects, including our database of AI models and our AI trends dashboard. Our body of research includes our work on compute trends (IJCN 2022), data scarcity (ICML 2024), and algorithmic progress (NeurIPS 2024). You can read more about our work and mission on our website and in this Time profile.