Plugging the generalist gap in AI safety with freelancers
TLDR:
The field of AI safety is bottlenecked on talent. Running recruitment processes is expensive and time-consuming. Freelancers are overlooked. Hiring freelancers can provide a way to quickly and cheaply test a person’s fit within an org, and vice versa. Plus, real work gets completed, and freelancers get both compensation and a portfolio piece.
Last week, I wrote about my experience of transitioning into AI safety as a generalist in 2026. Immediately after hitting post, I checked my email and had my first offer for paid work in the field. Reading all of the comments from other generalists sharing their experiences on my last post, I felt very lucky to have some return on the time and effort I have invested into this transition.
One thing I keep thinking is that if I were looking for a full-time role, I would probably not have received an offer at this point. It is much less costly for an organisation to pay for a couple of days of work from a freelancer than it is to hire for a full-time role. If the person isn’t a good fit for the org, some mediocre work is created, but the org wouldn’t be at a huge loss. A couple of my conversations at EAG London 2026 went something like:
Them: “I’m looking for someone to do x work”
Me: “Great, I do x work”
Them: “Let’s try a small project together and see how it goes?”
Me: “Sounds good!”
In the best case scenario of an org hiring a freelancer, the project goes well, the freelancer gets paid, and real work gets completed that the org wouldn’t have been able to complete otherwise, i.e. counterfactual impact is created. Even better, this could lead to ongoing freelance work or a full-time role, either with the original org or another org to which they were able to refer the freelancer.
In London two weeks ago, I spoke to Maja Webster Nenadov, who founded Freelancing for Good. She was very surprised to hear from multiple EA orgs that they had not considered hiring freelancers to plug the gap between the work they wanted to do and their current capacity. When I shared insights from the reading I had done about the need for generalists in AI safety, we agreed that solving this problem could help with the talent bottleneck.
I’m exploring the potential for a project/org that will help AI safety orgs to hire those looking for work in the field as freelancers/contractors. I have a lot of unknowns to figure out and have begun to schedule calls with many of the generalists who commented on my post last week in order to figure these out. I also want to speak to hiring managers or anyone else who has a good sense of why orgs aren’t hiring more freelancers.
Some of the questions I want to get answered by generalists:
Could you do freelance work if you wanted to? If not, what are the barriers?
Does the country you live in make it easy to try out freelancing?
Would you be open to freelance work? Why/why not?
Could your work (e.g. in operations, communications) be projectised? If not, why not?
Does your role need a lot of org-specific context?
What worries would you have in taking on freelance work?
Some of the questions I want to get answered by hiring managers:
Has your org considered using freelancers? Why/why not? How has it gone so far?
What work that your organisation needs is most suited to being handled by a freelancer?
In general, what types of roles that are currently in demand within AI safety (communications, operations, etc.) are best suited for a freelancer to take on?
What worries would you have in contracting a freelancer?
Do freelancers need to signal alignment and/or understanding of the field in order to work with your org?
If you believe you are well-positioned to answer any of these questions, please feel free to leave a comment, message me privately, or schedule a meeting where we can talk more freely.
Further thoughts:
This project idea is still very much in its infancy, and the form that any solution may take is still unknown. I wanted to share some ideas for what it could look like anyway:
A curated directory or roster of vetted freelancers with AI safety alignment, searchable by skill type (design, ops, comms, engineering) - adjacent to Freelancing for Good’s directory
A pilot program where a small number of orgs each commit to one scoped freelance project, with structured feedback afterward
A Slack channel or lightweight community where orgs post scoped work and freelancers can express interest
A standard “freelance starter pack” for AI safety orgs, including contract templates, onboarding checklists, project scoping guides
Adjacent project idea:
Outreach to freelancers who are seeing their work be destabilised due to AI, i.e. those being replaced/scared of being replaced by AI—offering them a track into a well-funded field could be very impactful
Hi Emily—I enjoyed and took inspiration from your previous post on your pivot journey. This inquiry on freelancing and atomization of tasks is a smart follow up.
As an experienced grantmaking generalist currently working for a non-EA foundation, I think there is a useful distinction between generalist tasks that can be projectized vs longer-term functions that are harder to separate from deep-seated organizational context.
Tasks that lend themselves well to freelance work have a clear end state and a well defined standard of quality:
creative-forward projects like web design (traditionally left to freelancers given lack of continuity)
clearly scoped writing projects like research memos, due diligence, landscape scans, or grant applications (assuming the org has heavily documented their own priorities and context)
one-time database hygiene checks, workflow documentation, template creation
bounded process analysis and automation projects (when the org knows how to define its desired end state—difficult / not a given!)
surge capacity for proposal review, event logistics, heavy reporting
All of this scoping and documentation that (I feel) is required to hire a freelancer responsibly requires significant internal capacity to spin up. If those conditions are missing, the freelancer may be set up to fail.
It is also common for any of the above tasks to overflow their clean deliverable scoping and brush at deeper matters of prioritization judgment, internal inconsistencies, informal or unwritten context, org chart tensions, etc. One piece of the value of a full-time generalist is their ability to notice and take initiative to address these kinds of problems, which may require deep, long-term, and emotionally aware engagement. They can be especially prevalent for orgs with a startup culture or those that scale rapidly. Freelancers may notice these deep issues but tend not to be in a good position to address them out of fear of overstepping or creating relational friction that a full-time employee is far more incentivized to tackle.
I’ve also observed that EA orgs are extremely discerning about their hires, and rationally so. Freelancers occupy an awkward position where it is not cost-effective to conduct a similar vetting process given short project timelines and expected turnover, but the risk surface for the org is still fairly high if this person turns out to deliver subpar work: the deficiency needs to be identified, the contract reassigned, and the work repeated.
This very cost-benefit tension is the kind of issue that a high-level, embedded operations person could identify and solve. When do we take on the risk of a freelancer to power through something urgent in the short-term, and when is it more sustainable to take time to solve the underlying capacity issue?
I do love the idea of a freelance generalist directory. It may benefit from some scaffolding: tips on turning organizational pain points into scoped projects and perhaps some sort of pre-vetting process. Either way, I’d love to support!
Hi Emily, I’m a fractional CFO (in Australia) and mostly work with high impact organisations—in fact, I scale my hourly rate accordingly, with the theory that at least I donate 10% (via GWWC pledge) of my income so one way or another I’m having an impact. Fortunately, I’ve been lucky enough to work with really great high impact orgs (paid work with non AI but EA-aligned org, and volunteer Board role with AI safety org) so haven’t felt like I’ve been compromising too much there.
In asnwer to your questions
Could you do freelance work if you wanted to? I already do—but hadn’t been aware of Freelancing for Good, in fact I was looking for a resource like this when I first started out on my self employed journey!
Does the country you live in make it easy to try out freelancing? Yes (Australia)
Would you be open to freelance work? Yes, although I prefer ongoing regular monthly support, rather than project based freelance work, as it takes time to get to know the organisation properly, and also that fits with what they were looking for.
Could your work (e.g. in operations, communications) be projectised? Some work—for example developing a marketing strategy, building a website, providing PR advice, is where the organisation I’m working with is looking for contractors to provide this.
Does your role need a lot of org-specific context? Not really—certainly nothing insurmountable that can’t be learned quickly on the job, but the more I know the organisation and field in general, the easier to add value.
What worries would you have in taking on freelance work? I’m lucky that I’m deliberately looking for flexible work as I wear a few different hats, so this is the only type of work I could do.
In general regarding using freelance / ‘fractional’ resources directory, it has been important and relevant for the organisations I work with to know that I am values-aligned, and better understand the EA mindset for want of a better term (i.e. has completed various EA or bluedot courses etc) rather than just finding a contractor via a typical freelance jobs board, where everyone is competing on rate. These roles came through direct relationships (we met in person at an EAGX event, and had been virtually introduced prior to that), but I believe work would be given preferentially to freelances/fractional people that are focussed on high impact work—mainly because I think it would be assumed that those people would ‘get’ the mission, want to be bloody good/effective at their job, and not waste the company’s time (because wasted time/money = foregone impact)!
Not sure if this helps you—but happy to talk more if you wanted to reach out.
Also—to add, if you’re UK based, not sure if Impact Ops would consider taking on freelancers to support their consulting offerings to clients, but that could be another avenue.
Thanks for sharing Emily. I think it’s totally doable and each potential problem is solvable: boundaries, payment terms, scope and quality etc. Upwork has solved these already–of course it’s never perfect, but neither is having a talent shortage.
I wonder how much the orgs factor in the opportunity cost of each path. Surely hiring a freelancer with good reviews, a solid portfolio, a clear scope, and strong motivation is preferable to having critical work left undone.
My concern is that even if you create the freelancer directory, the orgs who are hesitant still won’t participate if there’s a feeling it’s risky (even if it isn’t). Getting to the bottom of their concerns will be key. I’d ask “what would make you change your mind?”
Thanks for this Ronan. I do have the sense that I need to actually test if orgs would use the directory, and not purely trust what they say about their enthusiasm. Not sure how I could do that though.
Thanks for writing this, Emily! I have had many similar thoughts and am part of a few groups for those who do contract work for cause-based organizations. I wkk ok next what they have to say about uptake. I started doing consulting, contract, and fractional marketing and communications because I wanted to try my fit in different organizations, and because I felt that the kinds of organizations I wanted to work with didn’t have much money to afford a full-time me (with many years of experience and a wide range of skills sets), but could afford smaller or fractional engagements. I thought I could do more good this way. It has proven to be not as impactful as I’d have liked. I’m trying to improve my targeting so that I can do more good, instead of just “get work”.
If there’s a way I can help, let me know! Perhaps I’m wrong about my assumptions, but they are similar to yours about hiring being expensive and that full-time commitments can be a risk for organizations.
To your questions:
Could you do freelance work if you wanted to? Yes but the barriers are just that the freelance opportunities for someone with my skill set seem few and far between
Does the country you live in make it easy to try out freelancing? Canada is good for this. Except that we no longer qualify for employment insurance or get other benefits, though healthcare is freely available
Would you be open to freelance work? I’m already doing it!
Could your work (e.g. in operations, communications) be projectised? Yes, even the strategy work I do can be done as a project. I offer a few different models including marketing and communications function set-up, project based work, and fractional engagements
Does your role need a lot of org-specific context? To some degree, yes. Some organizations have much of it written down in an accessible format, and in some cases, I’d be creating that context. That’s part of my offering. And in some projects (often campaign-based) sufficient context is easily come by and can rely on general best practices for execution
What worries would you have in taking on freelance work? Not getting paid :) Which does, in fact, happen. With little information about the company’s finances, it’s hard to know ahead of time how secure they are. It takes a long time to take a delinquent client to court, and may not result in full payment, even if you have a good contract.
Thank you for your responses, Cathy! I may be in touch soon as I further develop this idea. Could you tell me more about the groups you’re part of for those who do contract work for cause-based organizations?
Of course! Although this is a list of organizations who are INVOLVED in that sector, not necessarily doing the contract work. There’s a bit of a spectrum.
Independent Nonprofit Consultants (https://thomasappleyard.com/nonprofit-consultants) and is based in Canada.
IMMA Collective helps its independent-consultant members collaborate on opportunities (https://www.immacollective.com/).
SOCIAL PURPOSE CONSULTANTS—there are a variety of companies like this, but I’m fairly sure you’re not asking about that now. However, I suspect that many are collections/networks of consultants.
SUPPORT—These may be useful to contact for more info on the landscape and if looking to expand your network of target audience.
Probably Good https://probablygood.org/ is more general career like 80K Hours vs specific to contracts.
High Impact Professionals (https://highimpactprofessionals.org) is similar in that it’s not specific to contractors, but more impact careers generally.
Consultants for Good (https://www.consultants4good.com/) is more about creating a community.
Consultants for Impact (http://consultantsforimpact.org) is a network with career advising, support etc.
I think I may be missing some. Anyway, I hope this is helpful and what you were looking for.