Talent Scout

Epoch AI is looking for a high-context Talent Scout to help us rapidly expand our team and scale our impact. Help us find great researchers, engineers, and support staff who are excited to inform the world about the trajectory and impact of AI. 

 

We are looking for a Talent Scout to help us find and engage the people who will define Epoch's next phase of growth. Over the coming six months we expect to hire across research (data centers, benchmarking, polling, and supply chains), engineering, communications, and operations. You'll work closely with our people operations team, hiring managers, and researchers as our first dedicated sourcer to build our talent pipelines from scratch.

Your job is to help find great researchers early. That means mapping talent landscapes, running outreach campaigns, showing up at the right events, and building the kind of relationships that make someone take your call six months from now. You'll work closely with hiring managers to translate fuzzy role needs into real candidate profiles, and help keep our hiring pipeline streamlined so that nothing slips through the cracks.

We are a primarily remote organization, but for this role we’re looking for candidates based in the Bay Area, and we would be especially excited about candidates who are open to working a hybrid or in-office schedule from our well-equipped office space in Berkeley. 

We invite anyone who is interested to apply, regardless of background, experience, or credentials. Please do not include a cover letter, photograph, or headshot of yourself, or any personal information that is not relevant to the role for which you're applying (including marital status, age, identity traits, etc.). 

Top-of-funnel sourcing: Research and build lists of strong prospective candidates across research, engineering, and operations roles, with particular emphasis on high-context AI talent.

Pitch and host networking events: Attract talent and introduce them to Epoch through in-person events like dinners, workshops, and game nights, owning logistics and contributing to preparation.

Candidate outreach and engagement: Run personalized outreach across LinkedIn, email, and other channels; track responses; and keep prospective candidates warm and excited about Epoch through to application.

Building referral and community networks: Cultivate relationships with grantees, community organizers, and others who can refer strong candidates, and help us tap AI and research communities (conferences, workshops, etc.) for leads.

Pipeline and systems design and management: Design and iterate on workflows, communications, and key touchpoints. Gather structured feedback to understand what's working and where talent experiences friction. Maintain a well-organized sourcing pipeline in Lever, including source attribution and lead tracking.

Partnering with hiring managers: Guide hiring managers to turn role needs into concrete, sourceable candidate profiles, and iterate as searches evolve.

You communicate clearly and warmly with a wide range of people, from early-career graduates to senior researchers. You have excellent written and verbal communication, write compelling outreach, and represent Epoch credibly to candidates.

You're good at finding people: you should feel comfortable digging through LinkedIn, GitHub, conference programs, as well as attending events and finding less conventional sources to build candidate lists.

You don’t let things fall through the cracks: you keep a clean hiring pipeline, follow up reliably, and don't let candidates or leads go without timely updates. 

You can identify talent in the AI field. You don't need to be a subject-matter expert, but you have enough context on AI research and Epoch’s mission to engage credibly with technical AI candidates and identify who's worth pursuing. 

Annual salary between $130,000 and $175,000 USD, depending on seniority and prior experience. 

Remote/hybrid environment, including flexible work hours. 

Comprehensive health insurance program including supplemental health benefits, life insurance, and a 3% 401K match. 

Generous paid time off (PTO), including no specific annual limit, with 30 days PTO per year protected, unlimited personal and sick leave, and 4 months paid parental leave for permanent staff with at least 12 months of tenure (prorated parental leave if less than 12 months). 

A flexible and generous expense policy for you to spend on equipment and a large range of productivity tools or learning/development opportunities, including unlimited spending on AI tools, subject to regulations and manager approval. 

Paid work trips, including 3 staff retreats per year and relevant conferences.

Full access to our very well-equipped offices in Berkeley, California, including paid meals, snacks, gym, and more.

We strongly prefer candidates for this role who are based in the Bay Area. Most of our staff work between UTC–8 (Pacific Time) and UTC (Greenwich Mean Time). We also prefer candidates who can travel: we hold three retreats per year, during which we record podcast episodes and other communication efforts.

Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional level English proficiency.

Epoch is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. We’re committed to finding the best people for our team, so please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. Please email careers@epoch.ai if you have any questions about this role, accessibility requests, or if you want to request an extension to the application deadline. However, we will not review applications submitted to this email address; please submit your application through the link on this page.

Epoch AI is a research institute that investigates trends in machine learning and the economic consequences of AI. Our mission is to develop a comprehensive, publicly accessible knowledge base on AI that informs policymakers, industry leaders, and society at large.

 

We strive to achieve both rigor and accessibility to our work, as exemplified by some of our most successful projects, including our database of AI models and our AI trends dashboard. Our body of research includes our work on compute trends (IJCN 2022), data scarcity (ICML 2024), and algorithmic progress (NeurIPS 2024). You can read more about our work and mission on our website and in this Time profile.