Extension Program Manager

About the Organization

MATS Research aims to find and train talented individuals for what we see as the world's most urgent and talent-constrained problem: reducing risks from advanced artificial intelligence. Our mission is to maximize the impact and development of emerging researchers through mentorship, guidance, and resources. We believe that ambitious researchers from a variety of backgrounds have the potential to contribute to the fields of AI alignment, control, security, and governance research. Through our research fellowship, we aim to provide the mentorship, financial support, and community necessary to aid this transition. Please see our website for more details.

We are generally looking for candidates who:

• Are excited to work in a fast-paced environment and are comfortable switching responsibilities and projects as the needs of MATS change;
• Are self-motivated and can take on new responsibilities within MATS over time.

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About the Extension Program

MATS exists to accelerate high-impact fellows, output high-impact research, and grow the AI safety field. The 6-12 month MATS extension is where a substantial part of that materializes and gets done. It follows our 12-week main program and provides fellows three key ingredients: the time and infrastructure to carry research momentum through to completion and beyond; a structured bridge into full-time safety work; and a conducive environment for professional growth and community.

Recent extension cohorts have had 70–80 fellows, selected from the strongest main-program fellows. They continue their AI safety research with dedicated mentorship and support from MATS through research management, compute, stipend, operations and community. Fellows work across our London and Berkeley offices, and remotely from cities around the world.

By the end of the extension, our fellows typically have at least one publication at a major ML conference, and have secured their next career step, landing safety positions at frontier AI companies, AISI, or smaller research orgs; pursuing an academic position or independent research funding; launching new safety organizations; or continuing into further research.

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The Role

As an Extension Program Manager, you will contribute to and own the day-to-day running of the MATS extension program. You'll be the interface for and link between fellows, Research Managers (RMs), and operations for program-related matters. You raise the bar cohort over cohort to run and further develop our world-class programs affecting hundreds of upcoming AI safety researchers per year.

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The day-to-day focus evolves across the cohort, shifting with each phase of the program. At any given time you may be onboarding a new cohort, partnering with RMs on fellow support and handovers, supporting evaluation and selection at the main-to-extension transition, designing workshops and on-site programming, scoping operations and impact projects with the team, or working with the program team on strategy and new initiatives. You'll coordinate with other MATS team members, fellows, mentors, partner programs, and funders to deliver on projects. We expect you to quickly own parts of the program, grow into autonomy, and lead program efforts with demonstrated excellence, building toward a senior role or owning new initiatives over time.

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Team structure: you'll be managed by the Extension Lead and sit within our global program team, part of which is based in Berkeley, CA, and focuses on the main program. You work closely with the program team and collaborate with the research and operations teams.

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Who We're Looking For

We welcome applications from individuals with diverse backgrounds, and we strongly encourage you to apply if you are:

• A generalist with technical aptitude: you move comfortably between, for example, resolving a stipend discrepancy, drafting a workshop outline, and creating an Airtable automation in the same week, and you pick up unfamiliar tasks (a new tool, a data pull, a fellow's visa question) without waiting to be shown how.
• Proactive and action-biased: given a broad goal and some context, you turn that into a plan and ship a first version in days, not weeks; you spot what's about to fall through the cracks and fix it before anyone asks.
• Structured and self-organized: you keep your tasks and projects tracked and visible without being chased, run meetings from a prepared agenda and leave them with written notes and clear owners, and hand things off so the next person has everything they need.

Key Responsibilities

Operations & Coordination

• Run the extension lifecycle end-to-end: onboarding and offboarding, program milestones
• Maintain accessible and scalable program processes: extension fellow handbook, internal and external guidelines, documentation
• Coordinate across operations, research, compute, and community teams as part of a global program team
• Prioritize and ship iterative improvements to the program's processes, tools, and workflows, building automations (e.g., streamlining stipend tracking or RM assignments) that keep the program running

Program Delivery & Design

• Run and grow extension programming and on-site delivery including workshops, seminars, professional-development sessions, and events
• Design curriculum, new initiatives, and pilots that strengthen the fellows' experience and contribute to their professional development
• Contribute to shaping and launching broader program initiatives and projects: for example, founder support, partner and funder coordination, and projects across the main and extension programs

Fellow & Team Enabler

• Serve as the program-level point of contact for fellows and MATS staff through the extension
• Enable RMs across the lifecycle with handovers, surfacing and fixing emerging issues, and unblocking while RMs own the individual fellow relationship
• Coordinate reviewers and run the application infrastructure for fellow selection at the transition points from main to extension and further extensions

Impact Analysis & Program Insight

• Perform impact analyses to assess program delivery and outcomes, and identify and implement improvements ensuring world-class program quality
• Run relevant program surveys and track fellow outcomes, analyze the data and communicate results and recommendations to internal and external stakeholders
• Integrate these insights into the wider MATS strategy and services

Growth & Specialization

The role starts broad by design, working across the full extension lifecycle before narrowing. We expect you to become the owner of key processes and aspects of the program quickly, growing in autonomy and leading program efforts depending on performance and fit. As the program team grows, we expect Program Managers to specialize into focus areas that fit their strengths and the team's needs. For example, one anchoring program operations while another focuses on systems and infrastructure. We're hiring two Program Managers now and expect the team to keep growing through 2026/27, so there's genuine room to shape the role and the program.

Depth in any of the following is a bonus, and signals a direction the role could specialize into over time:

• Program Operations: day-to-day operational running of the cohort and core program workflows
• Systems Engineer: technical infrastructure, both internal- and fellow-facing
• Curriculum & Professional Development: educational activities across the engineering, research, and professional toolkit
• Talent Developer: selection and evaluation of applicants, fellows, and their profiles; coaching and talent placement

Essential Qualifications and Skills

• 2+ years of professional experience across a subset of the following:
  • Program or operations management, e.g., in accelerators, fellowships, education, or research organizations
  • AI/ML research, or research management
  • Project or product management in a technical industry
  • Stakeholder management in technical organizations
  • Hiring or talent operations
• Strong alignment with the MATS mission of reducing catastrophic risks from the development of advanced AI systems;
• General technical fluency: ability and willingness to work with our internal toolstack and possibly extending to new tools and systems;
• Excellent English communication skills, both verbal and written for internal and external audiences;
• Ability to process and analyze data to draw conclusions (e.g., program surveys);
• Ability to process and explain complex situations clearly (e.g., project plans or deliverables; complicated written communications between multiple parties);

Desirable Qualifications and Skills

We expect especially strong applicants to have deep experience in at least one of the following areas:

• Demonstrated excellence in program, product, or project management;
• Fellowship, accelerator, or cohort-program operations;
• Strong experience in machine learning and technical AI safety or governance (e.g., produced research or content, ran programming, or worked at an organization in AI safety);
• Technical background in engineering, research or product;
• Experience in hiring for technical or research roles;
• Experience in teaching, curriculum or workshop design;
• Proficiency with AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, and similar) for building tools and automating workflows;

If you do not fit neatly into one of these profiles but feel you could bring the right skills, character, and motivation to the role, we would still be very excited to receive your application.

What We Offer

• High-leverage opportunity to shape the trajectory of MATS extension fellows into careers in AI safety & security
• Real scope to build: creative, ambitious ways to extend our programs and launch new offerings for under-served parts of the AI safety talent pipeline.
• Collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment where AI and safety are the central (but not the only) topics
• Professional development and skill enhancement opportunities (e.g., ML conference attendance)
• Competitive salary (see below)
• Access to our office spaces in London and Berkeley, and other partnered office spaces
• Medical insurance and pension or equivalent local benefit
• Visa support: MATS is currently not able to sponsor UK work visas, but we consider hybrid solutions for EU-based candidates
• Meals provided Monday–Friday at our offices
• Relocation support

Compensation

£75,000–£130,000 annually, depending on experience and location.

Working Hours and Location

Full-time role at 40 hours per week, preferably candidates are based in the UK or willing to relocate to work on-site our London office. We also support hybrid candidates based in EU with regular in-person visits to our London office around relevant program dates such as program kickoffs, milestones, team sprints, and retreats. We are open to alternative working arrangements for exceptional candidates.

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How to Apply

Please fill out the form here. If you use an LLM chatbot or other AI tools in this application, please follow these norms.

Applications will be considered until August 27, with priority given to candidates who apply before June 30, 2026. The anticipated start date for this role is as early as July 2026.

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MATS is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment at the forefront of our field. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.