[Hiring] Lead Research Scientist @Singapore AI Safety Hub

Role Description

We are looking for a Lead Research Scientist to help determine what Neo should work on next, and to build the research programme needed to answer those questions. This is a role for someone who wants substantial ownership over both individual research projects and the direction of a growing research organization.

What you’ll do:

• Set and evolve Neo’s research agenda, deciding where our researchers, engineers, compute, and external collaborations can have the greatest impact.
• Lead major research projects yourself, from problem selection and methodology through analysis and publication.
• Develop rigorous approaches to studying difficult-to-observe frontier-model behaviours, including cases where models may recognize evaluations or have incentives to conceal relevant behaviour.
• Guide and mentor researchers, review experimental designs and results, and help maintain a high bar for evidence across Neo’s work.
• Work closely with research engineers to turn ambitious research questions into robust experimental systems.
• Build collaborations with AI Safety Institutes, frontier labs, academics, and model developers, and represent Neo’s research externally.
• Help recruit exceptional researchers and shape Neo’s research culture as the organization grows.

Qualifications

• A track record of original research in AI safety, model evaluations, machine learning, or a closely related field.
• Strong understanding of frontier-model behaviour and evaluation or elicitation methodology.
• The ability to turn broad problems into concrete research programmes and published results.
• Excellent technical writing and the ability to communicate with researchers, engineers, and external partners.
• Comfort operating in an early-stage environment where the important questions are not fully settled.
• A collaborative working style and willingness to stay hands-on.

Requirements

• A PhD or equivalent research output (helpful, but not required).
• Research on dangerous capabilities, alignment, agentic systems, or model evaluations (helpful, but not required).
• Experience leading research projects or building a research function (helpful, but not required).
• Familiarity with frontier safety reports, the EU AI Act, or NIST AI RMF (helpful, but not required).
• Mandarin reading or writing ability (helpful, but not required).

Role Logistics & Benefits

• Location: This role can be based in Singapore or remotely. Our team is globally distributed, so remote team members should be comfortable maintaining some working-hour overlap with colleagues across regions.
• Compensation: Our compensation takes location, experience, and level into account, with indicative salary ranges of $200,000 - $250,000+. We may offer above this range for exceptional candidates.
• Benefits: Competitive benefits and leave policies.