The Head of Student Affairs plans, organises and directs CAISH’s entire Cambridge student portfolio: an annual budget of roughly £219,000 and a paid student committee of roughly four organisers.
This is a management role, not an events-administration one. The postholder decides what the Cambridge programme consists of, who delivers it, and how its money is spent, and is accountable for whether it produces people who go on to do serious AI safety work. Judgement, budget-holding and people management are the core of the job.
Cambridge is one of the world’s most intellectually vibrant cities. We want CAISH to be a place where talented students, researchers, and professionals can understand AI safety, build relevant skills, and find collaborators.
Our student programmes help Cambridge University students enter the field through the Alignment Fellowship, the Alignment Desk, regular student socials, and a student committee that helps maintain and grow the community.
Our upskilling programmes support people further along. MARS is a part-time research training programme, and the Hardware Assurance Programme is a week-long bootcamp for people moving into AI verification and assurance.
Plan, organise, coordinate and direct the people, money and activities of the Cambridge student portfolio, holding its budget of roughly £219,000 a year. Decide which fellowships, events, retreats and grants run each term, at what scale, and with what resourcing. Define how the portfolio’s success is measured, including participants’ progression into AI safety work, evaluate the programme against those measures, and redesign it accordingly.
Formulate and implement the policies that govern the portfolio, including facilitator pay and recruitment, grant-making criteria, and standards for events and residential programmes. Ensure the portfolio’s activities, contracts and spending meet legal and statutory requirements and the requirements of our fiscal sponsor, Meridian Impact CIC.
Recruit, line-manage and develop a paid student committee of roughly four organisers: define their roles and deliverables, set and administer their pay, and hold them to account for delivery. Recruit, train and pay the facilitators who deliver fellowships, reading groups and course blocks.
Represent CAISH in consultation and negotiation with the University of Cambridge, its colleges, student groups and societies, visiting speakers, and partner AI safety organisations. Negotiate venue hire and partnership arrangements, including flagship events at colleges hired at external rates. Host roughly ten visiting marquee speakers a year.
Administer the portfolio’s grant pots: student travel grants for conferences and field trips, and pilot grants of around £3,000 that let students drop a part-time job to work on AI safety. Approach the University for funding towards the student portfolio where opportunities exist, co-draft funding proposals and funder reports with the co-directors, and help hold those funder relationships.
Stimulate interest in AI safety across Cambridge through the weekly speaker series, public talks at colleges, the annual symposium, hackathons and essay prizes, and direct recruitment and outreach so each term’s cohorts are strong and full. Direct the preparation and dissemination of programme information and materials, and monitor and report on the portfolio’s spending and outcomes.
Termly fellowships in technical alignment and AI governance plus the Alignment Fellowship, three terms a year with cohorts of 60 to 70. Ten course blocks drawn from a curriculum database of 252 readings, delivered by paid facilitators. A weekly speaker series and weekly socials across roughly 24 weeks a year. Termly flagship college events and roughly ten visiting marquee speakers. Two residential retreats a year of around 35 people each. Termly formal dinners and a presence at May Balls. Hackathons, essay prizes and an annual symposium. A paid student committee of roughly four. Travel and pilot grants. Partnerships with Cambridge colleges and other AI safety organisations.
Experience of the charitable, not-for-profit or education sector in roles of increasing responsibility, for example coordinator, programme or committee-leadership roles; substantial student-society or volunteer leadership counts. Experience managing people: setting objectives, giving feedback, and holding a team to account for delivery, which can come from paid, volunteer or student-committee settings. Experience holding and managing a budget, and the judgement to make defensible spending decisions without close supervision; we do not expect candidates to have held a budget at this portfolio’s scale before. Strong organisational ability across many concurrent workstreams. Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to represent an organisation credibly to senior external stakeholders such as college officers and visiting speakers. Genuine interest in AI safety and motivation to grow the pipeline of people working on it. Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends for events, retreats and dinners, with time off in lieu.
A degree or equivalent qualification. Experience working in or with a university or student community, especially Cambridge and its collegiate system. Experience organising large events or residential programmes. Experience administering grants. Experience securing funding, whether through funding bids, institutional applications or partnership proposals. Familiarity with the AI safety field and its research and policy landscape.
Cambridge, UK. The portfolio is delivered in person in Cambridge, so regular in-person presence is required, including some evenings and weekends during term. This is not available on a remote or hybrid basis. We can discuss start dates and relocation logistics with candidates moving to Cambridge from elsewhere in the UK or abroad.
Full-time, 40 hours a week. Paid annual leave. Employer pension contributions. Visa sponsorship is available: we can sponsor a Skilled Worker visa for this role, and we encourage applications from candidates who would need sponsorship.
Applications for this role closed on 19 July 2026. If you have questions about the role, email hiring@caish.org. See all roles.