(Senior) Research Fellow
Applications close on 26th October 2025
Forethought is a non-profit that researches the transition to a world with superintelligent AI systems.
We are hiring researchers to work on important questions related to navigating the intelligence explosion.
We are looking for people with either a strong research track record or a lot of promise, who want to seek the truth and work on important problems. In return, we'll offer freedom to focus on what you think is most important, smart people to discuss ideas with, and support turning your ideas into action.
You can see our previous work here and some questions we’re interested in here, but researchers will have a lot of freedom in how they pursue and publish their work.
What we’re looking for
We are looking to hire:
- Senior research fellows to lead their own research direction
- Research fellows who are still developing their own research direction to collaborate with and support other research staff.
We’re also open to hiring visiting researchers in either category, for people who can join for 3-12 months.
Senior research fellows
Senior research fellows will lead their own research projects and set their direction, typically in areas that are poorly understood and pre-paradigmatic. They might also lead a small team of researchers working on these topics.
You could be a good fit for this role if:
- You care about working on important questions related to navigating the intelligence explosion
- You have your own views on what is most important and ideas for research directions to pursue.
- You have a strong track record of producing original research, particularly in poorly understood, interdisciplinary domains
- You can work autonomously and are able to make consistent progress on gnarly problems without much guidance from more established researchers (since there often aren’t people who have thought more deeply about the questions you’d be tackling)
- You are collaborative, truth-seeking, and can communicate clearly
Research fellows
Research fellows are in the process of developing their own independent views and research directions, since they might be earlier-career or switching domains.
Initially, Research fellows will generally collaborate with senior research fellows, to produce research on important topics of mutual interest. We expect research fellows to form their own view on topics that they work on, and to spend 20-50% of their time thinking and exploring their own research directions.
We expect some research fellows to (potentially rapidly) develop their own research agenda and begin to set their own direction, while others may continue to play a more collaborative role within the team. Both are very valuable.
You could be a good fit for this role if:
- You care about working on important questions related to navigating the intelligence explosion
- You are developing your own views on what is most important and ideas for research directions to pursue.
- You have a track record of getting obsessed with a project, committing to it, and performing extremely well. This will most likely be in research or academia, but could also be in other domains.
- You are productive, autonomous, and strong at quantitative and conceptual reasoning.
- You are collaborative, truth-seeking, and can communicate clearly in writing (and verbally)
Visiting researchers
We’re also open to hiring visiting fellows in any of the above categories, if you only want a 3-12 month stint (e.g. an academic sabbatical).
What we offer
We want you to have uncluttered time to think, freedom to focus on what you think is most important, and smart people to discuss ideas with.
- Freedom to think about what you think is most important
- An environment where people care deeply about impact, and we regularly discuss project prioritization
- A culture where no topic is too weird to discuss, no conclusion is a priori unacceptable and friendly disagreement is encouraged.
- Significant freedom to spend your time on what you think is most important, and to think about it in the way that is most productive for you.
- Smart people to talk to, both within the organization and in our network
- We are likely to stay a fairly small, collaborative team. We often co-author, and provide research assistance.
- We hold regular (optional) seminars, whiteboarding sessions, and discussions with external speakers.
- We expect you will have or develop your own perspectives on these issues, and frequently disagree with others on our team.
- We give each other feedback regularly, and get feedback from external researchers on our work.
- Help translating ideas into action
- We will help you publish your ideas on our website, podcast, and Substack, and share them widely. We can also help with academic or book publishing, and external media engagements.
- We want to help you translate ideas into action without it being a major distraction from research, so we are building an impact team focused on changing AI companies’ policies, influencing policy efforts, and helping to set up new organizations.
For more on what it’s like to work at Forethought, see our careers page.
Logistics
Max (our Director) would manage you, meet with you weekly to discuss your work, and support your productivity and development. You would also meet regularly with others on our research team, collaborate closely with them, and share feedback.
Compensation
Salary varies based on skill level, experience, and location.
- Senior Research Fellows would normally earn £130,000-£155,000 in the UK, with flexibility upwards for exceptional candidates
- Researchers and Research Fellows would normally earn £80,000-£100,000 in the UK, with flexibility upwards for exceptional candidates
Salaries are slightly higher in Berkeley due to cost of living adjustments.
We offer generous benefits, see details here.
Location
We are especially excited to hire people who can work from our offices in Oxford or Berkeley, but you can work from anywhere. We expect to be able to sponsor US and UK visas in most cases. For more details, see here.