OpenAI is searching for a new executive to fill one of the most demanding positions in the technology industry. The company is hiring a Head of Preparedness, a role situated within its Safety Systems team. This position is distinct from standard trust and safety jobs that moderate content or fix chatbot errors. Instead, this leader will be responsible for predicting and preventing catastrophic risks before they ever reach the public.
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The Head of Preparedness is tasked with looking into the future of artificial intelligence capabilities. While other safety teams might focus on immediate issues like bias or incorrect facts, this role focuses on “frontier risks.” These are hypothetical but plausible scenarios where advanced AI could cause severe harm. The person in this seat leads the technical strategy to evaluate whether a new model could assist in cyberattacks, provide instructions for biological threats, or manipulate human behavior on a mass scale. They are responsible for designing the scientific tests, known as evaluations, that attempt to break the model and expose these dangers during the development phase.
The importance of this position lies in its authority to govern the release of new technology. The role operationalizes safety by turning it from a vague concept into a rigorous process with clear metrics. The Head of Preparedness oversees the “Preparedness Framework,” which acts as OpenAI’s internal constitution for risk management. This framework categorizes risks from Low to Critical.
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This executive serves as a vital check and balance within the company structure. If the evaluations determine that a model poses a “High” or “Critical” risk in areas like national security or persuasion, the Head of Preparedness effectively holds the power to stop the launch. Their team ensures that safety is not just a box to check but a hard requirement that dictates whether a product can be deployed.
The search for a Head of Preparedness comes at a pivotal moment as the industry shifts from simple chatbots to complex reasoning models and agents. As AI systems become capable of writing code, browsing the web autonomously, and solving multi-step problems, the potential for misuse grows significantly. The reactive approach of releasing software and patching it later is no longer sufficient for models that approach the level of Artificial General Intelligence.
OpenAI is hiring this role to build a permanent infrastructure for safety that can scale alongside the rapid pace of innovation. By institutionalizing this level of caution, the company acknowledges that the next generation of AI requires a dedicated leader to navigate the unknown territories of advanced machine intelligence.
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