Suppose you are a technical AI safety researcher who has done some research, but has not yet landed a full-time job. In this post, I argue that taking a contract research manager position (~3 months) on one of the AI safety fellowships could be more valuable for your research career than spending these 3 months on your own research.[1]
Background on research management (RM): to get a sense of what a typical RM role involves, see section 1.3 “Overview of Responsibilities” of Guide to Research Management at Pivotal.
My background: I worked as an RM for 6 research groups on the MARS program Winter 2025-26, currently a researcher on PIBBSS fellowship, considering a full transition to a research manager role.
I will consider two options:
The goal of the post is NOT to make a fair comparison, but to highlight some advantages of RM option which are often overlooked. So for the Researcher option, I write shorter and only the main points, thus partially strawmanning it. Also note that the Researcher option is “mentee on AI safety fellowship”, and I do not consider other options like independent research, internship, etc. I also do not cover in depth the main downsides of RM option, which are: you don't advance your own research agenda, you may lose momentum on ongoing projects, and managing others can be emotionally taxing.
Below I list the advantages of each option in three categories: upskilling, career capital, and networking.
According to Ryan Kidd, Co-Executive Director at MATS, the AI safety field is bottlenecked on research managers. This suggests that the RM option likely has a higher counterfactual impact than the Researcher option, but of course, it depends on how replaceable you are in each role.
I want to make the case that a contract RM position can actually speed up your research career. If a few researchers try a contract RM position as a result of this post, some will produce direct value for the field, and some may decide to fully transition to RM, which the field needs.
Full career transition from researcher to research manager is also a valid option, but in this post, I assume you return to a researcher position after RM contract.