OpenAI· Preparedness· San Francisco
Researcher, Frontier Biological and Chemical Risks
Comp$295K – $445K
Classified Tasks (16)
Automate 0%Augment 56%Human-Only 44%
Augment (9)
AI assists, human decides
Monitor and predict the evolving capabilities of frontier AI systems
analytical
Experiment with and extend frontier AI models to evaluate safety concerns
technical
Ensure the scientific validity of frontier preparedness capability evaluations
analytical
Maintain existing evaluations to prevent staleness or silent regressions
operational
Define datasets, graders, rubrics, and threshold guidance for evaluations
analytical
Produce auditable artifacts such as evaluation cards, capability reports, and system-card inputs for leadership review during launches
administrative
Identify emerging AI safety risks and develop methodologies to explore their impacts
analytical
Build and continuously refine evaluations of frontier AI models that assess identified risks
technical
Design and build scalable systems and processes to support evaluations
technical
Human-Only (7)
Requires human judgment
Keep misuse safeguards, alignment tools, and security measures on track to address extreme threats
operational
Set mitigation targets by maintaining OpenAI’s preparedness framework
leadership
Partner with other staff to achieve mitigation and preparedness targets
leadership
Own individual research threads end-to-end
leadership
Design new evaluations grounded in real threat models (including CBRN, cyber, and other frontier-risk areas)
analytical
Contribute to the refinement of risk management and the development of best-practice guidelines for AI safety evaluations
leadership
Scope and deliver projects end-to-end
leadership
Job description
Researcher, Frontier Biological and Chemical Risks | OpenAI Careers ## Researcher, Frontier Biological and Chemical Risks Preparedness - San Francisco Apply now(opens in a new window) ## **About the Team** Preparedness is a critical Safety Research team at OpenAI, which is focused on mitigating AI threats to global security that could scale to an extreme level of severity. Our work involves: 1. **Measurement.** Monitoring and predicting the evolving capabilities of frontier AI systems. 2. **Mitigation.** Keeping misuse safeguards, alignment tools, and security measures on track to adequately address extreme threats that might arise in the future. 3. **Coordination.** Setting mitigation targets by maintaining OpenAI’s preparedness framework, and partnering with other staff to achieve these targets. This is urgent, fast-paced work that has far-reaching implications for the company and for society. ## **About the Role** We are looking to hire exceptional research engineers that can push the boundaries of our frontier models. Specifically, we are looking for those that will help us shape our empirical grasp of the whole spectrum of AI safety concerns and will own individual threads within this endeavor end-to-end. You will own the scientific validity of our frontier preparedness capability evaluations—designing new evals grounded in real threat models (including high-consequence domains like CBRN as well as cyber and other frontier-risk areas), and maintaining existing evals so they don’t stale or silently regress. You’ll define datasets, graders, rubrics, and threshold guidance, and produce auditable artifacts (evaluation cards, capability reports, system-card inputs) that leadership can trust during high-stakes launches. ## **In this role, you'll:** * Work on identifying emerging AI safety risks and new methodologies for exploring the impact of these risks * Build (and then continuously refine) evaluations of frontier AI models that assess the extent of identified risks * Design and build scalable systems and processes that can support these kinds of evaluations * Contribute to the refinement of risk management and the overall development of "best practice" guidelines for AI safety evaluations ## **You might thrive in this role if you:** * Are passionate and knowledgeable about short-term and long-term AI safety risks * Demonstrate the ability to think outside the box and have a robust “red-teaming mindset” * Have experience in ML research engineering, ML observability and monitoring, creating large language model-enabled applications, and/or another technical domain applicable to AI risk * Are able to operate effectively in a dynamic and extremely fast-paced research environment as well as scope and deliver projects end-to-end ## **It would be great if you also have:** * First-hand experience in red-teaming systems—be it computer systems or otherwise * A good understanding of the (nuances of) societal aspects of AI deployment * Excellent communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally *This role may require access to technology or technical data controlled under the U.S. Export Administration Regulations or International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Therefore, this role is restricted to individuals described in paragraph (a)(1) of the definition of “U.S. person” in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, 15 C.F.R. § 772.1, and in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, 22 C.F.R. § 120.62. U.S. persons are U.S. citizens, U.S. legal permanent residents, individuals granted asylum status in the United States, and individuals admitted to the United States as refugees.* **About OpenAI** OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through ou