Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health based in the United States. The Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health will shape strategic initiatives at the intersection of artificial intelligence, mental health, youth well-being, and suicide prevention. In this leadership role, you will evaluate emerging AI technologies and help ensure their development and deployment prioritize human safety and emotional well-being. You will collaborate with technology companies, AI researchers, public-interest organizations, and mental health experts to advance safety evaluations, benchmarking approaches, and responsible AI practices. You will also translate complex technical developments into actionable recommendations, frameworks, and guidance for diverse stakeholders. Working across technical, research, policy, and program teams, you will identify emerging risks and opportunities while helping shape the broader conversation around AI and mental health. This fully remote opportunity is ideal for an experienced AI professional who combines technical fluency, strategic judgment, and a strong commitment to protecting vulnerable populations.

Accountabilities As Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health, you will lead strategic work on emerging technologies and their implications for mental health and suicide prevention, combining technical analysis, external partnerships, and organizational leadership to promote responsible AI development.

• Monitor developments in AI and assess their implications for mental health, emotional well-being, and suicide prevention, including conversational AI, relational systems, multimodal models, agents, memory and personalization, wearable technologies, and embodied AI.
• Advance AI safety, evaluation, benchmarking, standards, and broader field-building initiatives in collaboration with technology companies, researchers, mental health experts, and public-interest partners.
• Assess model and system behavior, evaluation methodologies, red-teaming practices, safeguards, mitigations, and failure modes to identify strengths, limitations, and gaps in existing approaches.
• Develop approaches that address both immediate safety risks and broader concerns involving relationships, emotional dependency, social connection, belonging, personal agency, coping, help-seeking, and developmental needs.
• Lead technology advisory engagements by assessing AI products, features, and safety strategies and providing practical recommendations on product behavior, developmental appropriateness, crisis pathways, evaluation, and responsible deployment.
• Develop strategic positions, principles, frameworks, recommendations, and guidance on AI and emerging technologies, informed by technical research, expert consultation, and lessons from external partnerships.
• Identify emerging issues, evidence gaps, and opportunities for strategic engagement through research collaborations, advisory work, evaluations, public guidance, and new initiatives.
• Build and maintain relationships with technology companies, AI safety and evaluation organizations, academic and independent research institutions, philanthropic partners, and mental health and suicide prevention organizations.
• Collaborate with internal teams across knowledge and advising, policy, programs, communications, and other functions to integrate AI-related insights into broader organizational initiatives.
• Represent the organization in expert working groups, research collaborations, industry convenings, and external forums.
• Contribute to new partnerships, strategic initiatives, proposals, and funding opportunities that advance responsible AI and mental health objectives.

Requirements The ideal candidate brings substantial expertise in AI technology and safety or evaluation, combined with experience applying technical, research, or safety approaches in mental health or another high-stakes human-centered domain. They must be able to connect technical developments with their implications for people, products, institutions, and society.

• Approximately 7 or more years of relevant professional experience in AI, AI safety, responsible AI, AI evaluation, human-AI interaction, or a closely related field. Candidates with alternative career paths demonstrating equivalent expertise may also be considered.
• Strong working knowledge o…