AI Whistleblowing Policy Lead (Washington, DC)

Deadline: 8 November 2026. We will begin reviewing applications from 5 October 2026 and will continue to consider them on a rolling basis until the role is filled. First-round interviews are expected to take place from mid to late November, with the process anticipated to close by late November / early December***. Timelines are indicative and may change.*

LOCATION: Washington, DC.

Most high-stakes moments in AI over the coming years will involve frontier company insiders having and raising concerns: within companies, to regulators, or through other pathways.

Those insiders tell us they face enormous uncertainty along the “concern raising” path - from detecting concerns to whether and how to voice concerns with maximum impact and minimal risk, which even legally protected whistleblowing can carry.

To date, no organization has dedicated itself deeply to delivering the best strategic, frontier-AI-specific guidance to these individuals, their supporters, and their attorneys (our partners). We exist to ensure that each insider disclosure is maximally impactful and safe for the person making the disclosure.

Working closely and continuously with our partners in AI and whistleblowing policy, you will own AIWI's work to achieve this goal by closing two gaps:

1. Strengthening the laws that protect AI whistleblowers.

2. Improving the effectiveness and safety of the channels through which AI whistleblowers are, theoretically, protected to disclose.

This work is focused on U.S. federal and state level.

Tasks

About the role

Your job is to strengthen and inform the legislation and regulator-level whistleblowing channels that determine both the legal protections available to AI whistleblowers and the effectiveness of channels through which they can disclose.

In the US, that means prioritizing and providing input on federal and state whistleblower bills, on AI bills with implications for whistleblowing, and advising agencies, congressional offices, or other reporting bodies as they set up their disclosure channels.

In a given month, you might:

• Read a newly introduced AI bill and suggest edits to address phrasing that would make non-compliance impossible for an insider to surface.
• Draft model language for a whistleblower provision and get it into the hands of a staffer who asked for help.
• Write comments into a shared doc about why we should accept or reject a proposed amendment that might improve a bill’s chances.
• Rapidly assemble a coalition and write a letter on a specific bill, publish an oped or speak to a journalist on the relevance of a specific provision.
• Advise an agency setting up a new channel on intake, security, and triage by bringing together and collaborating closely with partners, contractors, fellows.
• Manage fellows writing on exploratory topics: For instance on how to design a whistleblowing office enforcing international pause agreements.
• Work with a lobbyist to map out the legislative process for the next six months and identify the core decision-makers you’ll need to inform.

What you will own

Improve Legal protections

Inform US federal and state whistleblower legislation, and the whistleblowing provisions in adjacent AI bills * - through model policy, technical drafting support for congressional and state offices, policymaker briefings, and public education.

• Provide input on non-whistleblowing AI bills where the language determines whether non-compliance can be detected or disclosed by insiders.
• Build and orchestrate broad coalitions to strengthen (non-)AI whistleblowing law in key states.
• Set policy priorities: Development of thought leadership on gaps to be closed and feasibility of addressing those gaps.

Make External Disclosure channels safer and more effective for AI insiders

Best practice for setting up whistleblowing channels largely exists. What matters is reaching out, offering support, and helping offices and agencies adopt them.

• Work with our partners to support congressional, federal, and state bodies in building and improving their channels, including: Congressional Offices, emerging federal AI institutions, state AGs, and state agencies designated to receive disclosures.
• Build relationships with those disclosure channels to uncover opportunities for improvements and training/support needs.

Maintain a view of bodies’ channel quality * - useful to insiders, support organizations, and offices themselves.

Network and intelligence

• Build and maintain relationships with congressional offices, policy advocacy organizations, and the bodies operating disclosure channels.
• Keep track of the AI and whistleblower bills moving across state legislatures, and pick the few worth AIWI engaging with.

Thought leadership

• Release publications and op-eds conducive to your policy efforts.
• Exploratory research, especially in the context of using whistleblowing for verification of international agreements.

Reporting to the founder, you will manage fellows early in your trajectory with us, with a path to managing team members as your function grows.

Your work will primarily be in the civilian domain; on the National Security side, we support our partners rather than drive work ourselves. All of AIWI's policy work is non-partisan and collaborative.

Requirements

Your profile

We expect a successful candidate to bring policy or advocacy experience in either AI or whistleblowing, and to be able to rapidly build understanding of the other.

You should have a strong understanding of how bills are passed and a network that will enable you to do your work well. We usually expect multiple years of relevant experience, but a candidate with a strong record of high-agency work in AI governance may fit with less.

Beyond that, we expect multiple of the following traits:

• You are driven and relentlessly resourceful. You decide what needs to happen and make it happen, without waiting to be told. You get around obstacles rather than stopping at them, and you are never afraid of getting your hands dirty on the operational work this involves.
• You learn fast. You can drop into an unfamiliar bill, regulatory process, or technical debate, ask sharp questions, and reach a working grasp within days. You are energized by conversations with fellow researchers.
• You exhibit exceptionally strong judgment. You can arrive at a well-informed point of view on why particular elements of a whistleblowing policy matter, as well as where AIWI should spend its time to make change.
• You are a natural networker. You seek people out rather than waiting to be introduced, and build trust quickly — with a congressional staffer, an agency official, or an advocate who sees the world very differently. You come across as smart, earnest, and worth listening to, and can build a network from a standing start — you don't need to arrive with a deep DC network.
• You are a strong communicator. You can turn a complex point into model policy language, a two-page briefing, or an op-ed, and pitch it as easily to an expert as to a staffer who needs the gist in five minutes.
• You are energized rather than thrown by tight, unpredictable deadlines. Legislative timing is outside your control; when an opening appears, you move on it fast.
• You care deeply about AI going well — enough to work hard, through setbacks, to make good policy happen.
• You understand the weight of this role and display unwavering integrity. Your work will shape whether critical safety concerns can be raised and heard, and what it costs the people who raise them. This should weigh on and motivate you.

Backgrounds likely to be suitable may include:

• Legislative staffer, policy counsel, or legislative aide in a congressional office or state legislature
• Policy or government affairs staff at an AI governance, safety, or evaluations organization, with a strong record of high-agency work
• Policy or advocacy staff at a whistleblower protection or accountability organization
• Policy or regulatory person at a think-tank or advocacy organization working on emerging technology

Benefits

Package

• USD 130,000-190,000 commensurate with experience
• 100% of medical, dental, and vision premiums covered for employees, and 50% for spouses and dependents
• 401(k) with a 6% employer contribution, no match required
• 20 days PTO plus federal holidays, and the week between Christmas and New Year's
• Paid parental leave
• Professional development budget
• A home office or equipment stipend for hybrid staff
• Wellness budget

Why join?

• Impact: Your work changes the policy conditions that determine whether critical AI concerns can be raised safely and heard by the people best placed to act on them.
• Intellectually stimulating: Work at the intersection of broader AI policy, whistleblowing policy, and alongside leading thinkers in the field.
• Independence and ownership: Run AIWI's policy work in consultation with the founder, and shape how this function grows as the organization scales.
• Growth: Join at a formative moment of AIWI and AI safety.
• A supportive team: Who will stand by your side.

Who you'd be joining:

AIWI is an independent non-profit launched in late 2024. We are ~4 team members today and are scaling to ~15 within the year, spread across the Bay Area, DC, and London. Joining now, you will significantly shape what the future of AI insider support looks like. We are funded until 2029.

Examples of our work to date:

• Policy: We pushed for and shaped the EU AI Office's channel, the world's first AI whistleblowing channel. In the US, we support the federal AI Whistleblower Protection Act and have provided expert research input on implementing SB 53's incident reporting mechanisms through a research coalition, which we helped set up. Read our work in Tech Policy Press, the Institute for Law & AI, and Transformer, and see our AI Whistleblowing Law Best Practice Guide.
• Insider education & support: Our online campaigns have reached thousands of company employees. We produce guides (available upon request), online courses, and help establish connections to our great partner attorneys and support (e.g. on legal advice and defense funding).
• Advocacy: Anthropic published its whistleblowing policy and OpenAI strengthened theirs following our Publish Your Policies Campaign.
• Network: We closely collaborate with the world's leading whistleblowing and AI organizations.

Our ambition is to ensure that each insider disclosure is maximally impactful and safe for the person making the disclosure. Joining us means dedicating yourself to achieving that goal with us.

Hiring process:

• Application review

• Introduction call with our team

• Interview with the hiring manager

• Work task

• Final interview, including meeting our founder

• References

Referral program:

We provide a reward of USD ~5,000 for successful referrals upon completion of a 6-month employment period. Allocation will occur based on a successful applicant's attribution in the case of multiple referrers.

How to apply

• Apply by submitting your application via Join.com.
• We will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis from 5 October.
• The first round is set to take place in mid to late November.
• Therefore, anticipated close date is early December.

Work authorization

You must be authorized to work in the US. We cannot sponsor visas.

Equal opportunity

AIWI is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status.