Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health

The Jed Foundation (“JED”) is a nonprofit organization that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for teens and young adults. By equipping individuals, families, schools, and communities with the skills, knowledge, and support to promote mental well-being, JED is committed to ensuring that all young people have the resources they need to thrive. Position Overview The Jed Foundation (JED) is seeking a AI Safety & Wellbeing to advance JED’s growing work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, emerging technology, mental health, and suicide prevention. AI is rapidly changing how people learn, connect, create, seek information and support, form relationships, and navigate the world around them. JED’s work in this area spans advising technology companies; AI safety, evaluation, and benchmarking collaborations; partnerships with research and public-interest organizations; public thought leadership and guidance; and efforts to understand and shape both the risks and potential benefits of emerging technologies. Reporting to the SVP, Youth Strategies & Chief Engagement Officer, the Director will advance key areas of work focused on emerging AI technologies and their implications for mental health and suicide prevention, AI safety and evaluation, technology advising, and the development of JED positions, frameworks, and guidance. The successful candidate will bring meaningful existing expertise in AI technology and safety or evaluation, along with experience applying technology, safety, research, or evaluation approaches in mental health, healthcare, public health, child and adolescent wellbeing or safety, or another high-stakes human context. The role requires understanding of mental health and suicide prevention to work effectively with JED’s experts and partners, alongside the technical fluency to engage credibly with AI researchers, safety and evaluation teams, engineers, and product leaders.

Candidates in Bay area, Boston, and NYC encouraged to apply!

• Maintain a sophisticated understanding of developments in AI technology and assess their implications for mental health and suicide prevention, including emerging forms of human-AI interaction such as conversational and relational AI, multimodal systems, agents, memory and personalization, ambient and wearable technologies, and embodied AI.
• Advance JED’s work in AI safety, evaluation, benchmarking, standards, and related field-building efforts, working with technology, research, mental-health, suicide-prevention, and public-interest partners to bring relevant priorities into evaluation frameworks, scenarios, constructs, measures, and other approaches.
• Apply knowledge of model and system behavior, safety evaluations, red-teaming, safeguards and mitigations, failure modes, and evaluation methodology to identify where current approaches are strong and where important gaps remain.
• Advance approaches that consider not only acute safety failures but broader questions involving relationships and dependency, connection and belonging, agency, coping, help-seeking, protective factors, developmental differences, and beneficial uses of AI.
• Manage substantive technology-company advising work, assessing AI products, features, and safety approaches and developing actionable recommendations related to model and product behavior, safety, evaluation, developmental appropriateness, help-seeking and crisis pathways, relational dynamics, and responsible deployment.
• Develop JED POVs, frameworks, principles, recommendations, and guidance on AI and emerging technology, drawing on technical and research developments, expert consultation, JED expertise, and learning across external engagements.
• Identify emerging issues, evidence gaps, and opportunities that warrant JED engagement through advising, guidance, partnerships, evaluation, field-building, or other strategic action.
• Build and manage substantive relationships across technology companies, AI safety and evaluation organizations, academic and independent research institutions, public-interest organizations, philanthropy, and mental-health and suicide-prevention organizations.
• Collaborate with JED’s Knowledge & Advising, Policy, Programs, MarComms, and other teams to bring relevant expertise into the work and connect insights from AI partnerships and advising to JED’s broader efforts.
• Represent JED in appropriate collaborations, working groups, expert processes, convenings, and external forums, and contribute to the development of new initiatives, partnerships, proposals, and funding opportunities.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise