Director of Academic Programs / Academic Programs Manager
Independent nonprofit think tank researching and advising on legal and policy challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
Funding history
About Institute for Law & AI
LawAI conducts research and consulting on how laws, legal institutions, and policymakers should respond to increasingly capable and deployed AI systems. Its work spans US law and policy, EU law, and Legal Frontiers research.
Skills
Candidate Availability
Required and preferred rules are kept separate and reflect the wording in the original posting.
About the Role
You will either lead the strategy, growth, and delivery of the Academic Programs team or serve as a founding operational member. You will develop and improve academic programs, support researcher recruitment and selection, evaluate program impact, coordinate events and logistics, and build relationships with academic stakeholders. Director-level work includes setting strategy, expanding programs, and managing team performance.
Requirements
- Familiarity with Legal Frontiers workstreams and LawAI teams
- Ability to communicate complex law and AI concepts accessibly to academic audiences
- Interest in identifying and supporting research on beneficial and safe AI
- Ability to work independently and adapt to shifting priorities
- Director candidates: executive or director-level experience with team and organizational performance
- Director candidates: ability to engage thoughtfully with legal and policy scholarship
- Director candidates: ability to build relationships with academics, lawyers, law students, and policy professionals
- Manager candidates: project management, talent management, or events management experience
- Manager candidates: familiarity with legal talent profiles across the US, UK, other common-law jurisdictions, and the EU
- Availability for significant overlap with working hours across the US and Europe
Responsibilities
- Lead the Academic Programs team’s strategic direction and objectives
- Review existing programs and decide whether to expand, adapt, or retire them
- Identify, scope, and execute new projects and scaling opportunities
- Build relationships with academic institutions, researchers, experts, and aligned organizations
- Grow, develop, and performance-manage the Academic Programs team
- Design and deliver academic programs from end to end
- Manage processes for identifying, attracting, and selecting researchers
- Evaluate program effectiveness through metrics, data collection, and impact analysis
- Organize in-person and online event logistics
- Ensure an excellent participant experience across operations, networking, career development, and wellbeing
- Design and implement communications, events management, logistics, and analytics
Benefits
- Flexible working hours
- 5 weeks of recommended PTO per year plus public holidays
- 12 weeks of paid parental leave, with additional unpaid leave available
- Employer pension or matching 401(k) contribution up to 4% of salary
- Health insurance for employees in countries without nationalized healthcare
- $5,000 annual productivity and professional development reimbursement
- $5,000 annual mental health support reimbursement
- $2,500 annual equipment and office supplies reimbursement
- Annual team retreat
- Honorarium for the work trial
Hiring Process
Submit application by November 1, 2026 → initial screening call → approximately two-hour work test → remote interviews and reference checks → paid one-day remote or in-person work trial → employment offer.