{"slug": "why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract-research-manager-position", "title": "Why AI safety researchers should consider a contract research manager position", "summary": "Technical AI safety researchers without full-time positions should consider taking a three-month contract research manager role on an AI safety fellowship rather than spending that time on independent research, according to an argument from a researcher who worked as a research manager for six groups on the MARS program. The author contends that the research management option offers overlooked advantages in upskilling, career capital, and networking, and that the AI safety field faces a bottleneck of research managers, making the role potentially more impactful than continuing as a researcher.", "body_md": "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]](https://www.lesswrong.com/feed.xml#fnqevsftn6mm)\n\nBackground 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](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZuykyC5NunSTJvfL7Bs_3nJ_XLpA9jUA1LMIx29bD-Y/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.b9dtytrt95v8).\n\nMy background: I worked as an RM for 6 research groups on the [MARS program](https://caish.org/mars) Winter 2025-26, currently a researcher on PIBBSS fellowship, considering a full transition to a research manager role.\n\nI will consider two options:\n\nThe 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.\n\nBelow I list the advantages of each option in three categories: upskilling, career capital, and networking.\n\nAccording to Ryan Kidd, Co-Executive Director at MATS, the [AI safety field is bottlenecked on research managers](https://80000hours.org/2026/01/the-most-overlooked-roles-in-ai-safety/). 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.\n\nI 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.\n\nFull 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.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract-research-manager-position", "canonical_source": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/MjFArZa85KydKdivh/why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract", "published_at": "2026-05-31 08:27:51+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-31 13:23:19.479178+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-research", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["MARS program", "PIBBSS fellowship", "Pivotal"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract-research-manager-position", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract-research-manager-position.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract-research-manager-position.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-safety-researchers-should-consider-a-contract-research-manager-position.jsonld"}}