Head of Fellowship / Program Associate Roles
Since launching our first fellowship less than a year ago, Non-Trivial has attracted over 25,000 applications, making the Fellowship one of the most competitive global programs for teenagers.
We’re hiring for two roles:
- As Head of Fellowship, you will take complete ownership over the fellowship’s curriculum, activities, and experiences from start to finish.
- As our first Program Associate, you’ll have the ability to rapidly gain skills, assume responsibility, and have an outsized impact developing the next generation of leaders.
I’d be very grateful for any help reaching the right people who could help with our mission – please share or reach out (peter@non-trivial.org) if you might know someone.
Overview
Location: London (preferred)/Remote
Application Deadline: Apply by December 10th, 2023
Start Date: January 2024 (flexible)
Reporting to: Peter McIntyre (CEO)
Hours: 40/week (flexible)
Visas: We can sponsor visas for those eligible.
Compensation:
Program Associate: £55,000 - £75,000
Head of Fellowship: £75,000 - £100,000
About Non-Trivial
Our mission is to build a community working towards solving the world’s most pressing problems, which we believe are currently existential risks like advanced AI.
We run an online fellowship that helps teenagers start an impactful research, policy, or entrepreneurial project aimed at making a large impact. Fellows receive $500 scholarships, get expert guidance to choose their project, and join a world-class community.
Since launching our first fellowship in December 2022, we’ve attracted over 25,000 applications, making the Fellowship one of the most selective global programs for teenagers. This wide reach has enabled us to select exceptional participants, who score higher on our admissions tests than the average Harvard undergraduate. Our alumni have already gone on to co-author a report for the UN and secure funding from OP for impactful projects.
Now we aim to scale up, planning to 3.5x by having capacity to support 700 fellows annually by the end of 2024. To do that, we’re growing beyond our team of two. If you think you might be a good fit, apply by December 10th.
Head of Fellowship
Responsibilities
As the Head of Fellowship, you will take complete ownership over the fellowship’s curriculum, activities, and experiences from start to finish. You will be responsible for the vision and direction of our flagship program with a ~$1M annual budget. You’ll be working closely with and reporting directly to the CEO, Peter McIntyre.
You might do things like:
Dramatically expanding the reach and impact of this selective program by overseeing marketing, outreach, and admissions.
Build systems and infrastructure to scale the fellowship while maintaining quality.
Provide mentorship to fellows, helping them have significantly more impact than they otherwise would.
Evaluate our impact. Tracking outcomes, gathering feedback, and evaluating long-term impact.
Recruit, develop, and manage facilitators and core staff working towards growing the impact of the Fellowships.
About You
You might be a particularly good fit for this role if you:
Share our passion for empowering people who want to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
Enjoy talking to people and coaching them to be their best selves.
You enjoy solving difficult problems. You carefully use reason and research the best available evidence to answer mission-critical questions.
Have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. You convey complex ideas clearly and transparently.
Are detail-oriented, organized, and conscientious. You can manage the many demands on your time by prioritizing effectively.
It’s a bonus but not required to have:
Experience with teaching, mentoring or coaching
Experience in one of our focus areas (AI safety, biosecurity etc.)
Experience in research, policy, community building, or (non-profit) entrepreneurship
As Head of Fellowship, you would play an instrumental role in dramatically expanding our program while upholding quality, rigor, and impact. If you’re interested in this work, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t feel like you meet each requirement.
Program Associate (Fellowship)
Responsibilities
As our first Program Associate, you’ll have the opportunity to help build and shape our flagship fellowship program from the ground up in a fast-paced environment. You’ll work closely with our CEO to empower some of the world’s most promising young people working on humanity’s biggest challenges. This role offers exceptional learning and professional development with the ability to rapidly gain skills, assume responsibility, and have an outsized impact developing the next generation of leaders.
You might do things like:
Play a key role in designing and facilitating educational experiences to equip fellows with critical skills to help them solve pressing problems.
Hire and coordinate facilitators to help deliver an engaging program.
Advise and mentor fellows, increasing their potential for impact.
Work with our developer to build systems to offer our product to more people and streamline operations.
Ensure the smooth running of the fellowship program
Manage our communications (e.g. our newsletter of >110,000 subscribers) and lead initiatives to help us reach more of the world’s most talented and dedicated teenagers.
Run events to help fellows start more impactful projects, learn key concepts, and form useful connections.
Conduct research and gather data to inform program improvements.
About You
You might be a particularly good fit for this role if you:
Are enthusiastic about empowering talented young people and reducing existential risks.
Enjoy talking to people and mentoring promising students.
Can grasp complex issues and think critically to solve problems.
Communicate clearly both verbally and in writing.
Excel at organization, attention to detail, and managing multiple demands.
Are service-minded and are motivated by the idea of doing whatever will have the most impact, even when it’s not glamorous.
As Program Associate, you’ll gain broad experience and rapidly take on leadership in our mission to nurture talented, dedicated young people tackling humanity’s most pressing issues. If you’re interested in this work, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t feel like you meet each requirement.
Application Process
Submit your application form by December 10th with your resume/CV and relevant writing sample(s). We’ll be conducting rolling interviews, so apply earlier to be considered sooner.
If selected, you will be invited for 1-2 interviews where we can both assess our fit for the role.
Next, you will complete a 2-3 hour work sample relevant to the role.
Finally, promising candidates will be invited for a multi-day work trial with our team (in-person in our London office strongly preferred).
We are committed to protecting your data. See our privacy policy for more information.
Benefits
Our benefits include:
25 days of paid holiday, plus bank holidays
Standard UK pension, with 3% contribution from employer
£5,000 mental health support allowance
£3,000 annual technology budget
Private medical insurance
Flexible work hours
A supportive work environment to grow and do your best work
Compensation:
Program Associate: £55,000 - £75,000
Head of Fellowship: £75,000 - £100,000
Logistics
We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Many of our strongest candidates won’t meet every requirement. People from underrepresented backgrounds may be particularly likely to rule out positions that they could be a good match for. So we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and submit an application if you’re interested in our work.
Location: Non-Trivial’s core team is based in London but we are open to a remote position for the right candidate. Some travel to our London office several times per year is expected.
UK visa support: We welcome international applicants and can provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates. Effective Ventures (Non-Trivial’s fiscal sponsor) has successfully sponsored multiple visa applications. We can’t guarantee that your application will be successful, but if you’re offered a role we’ll do our best to get you into the UK.
Apply now
Applications close December 10th but we’ll be conducting rolling interviews, so apply earlier to be considered sooner.
I wanted to add my experience as a Non-trivial winner to show the positive impact it’s had on me and my career trajectory, and hopefully show why you should consider applying if it’s a good fit.
I completed the Fellowship over the summer as part of a team working on policy to improve the information security of leading AI companies. We were awarded first prize in both the main category and AI Governance Grand Challenge for our final outputs—you can watch our presentation and read our policy proposal, with the supporting list of promising security practices.
Here’s some of the counterfactual impact that completing the Fellowship has had on me:
It demonstrated that there’s nothing stopping me from contributing right now, so I’m continuing to work on projects in AI infosec and other areas
It significantly increased my confidence, agency, and professionalism
I now plan to work on AI safety (or whatever’s high impact while still being fun) where I was previously interested in cybersecurity and finance
I met some really cool people in the process!
The feedback and advice of Peter and the facilitators was especially valuable as a Fellow, along with the resources Peter created and compiled. This suggests that a good Program Manager and Program Associate could be particularly important in increasing the Fellowship’s impact, as there’s lots of low-hanging fruit still out there.
Overall, I would really encourage applying if you think these roles might suit you. The Fellowship really helped me and was massively fun, and getting the right people working on it could make it even better!
I’m one of the alumni mentioned and a former intern — just to add my perspective, Non-trivial is a great initiative and I highly recommend and enjoy working with Peter!
This is pretty wild, congrats
Thanks, very kind of you to say!