About the Responsible AIxBio Collaborative

R-ABC is a new nonprofit working to make the world a safer place by reducing the misuse risk of AI-enabled biological tools. We do that by catalyzing and accelerating governance for AI x bio: bringing into being the standards and shared resources that don't exist yet. Our stakeholders are the world-leading frontier companies, platforms, and research groups building AI for the life sciences. We work with them directly, not around them. R-ABC was founded in 2026 and is still small.

Ryan Ritterson founded and leads R-ABC. He spent a decade at Gryphon Scientific running biosecurity and biosafety risk assessments, including work on gain-of-function research and the security side of AI-enabled biotech. He's published widely on biorisk and dual-use governance, and sits on NIST's AI Safety Institute Consortium and NTI's AIxBio Global forum.

About the Role

Responsible AIxBio Collaborative is looking for a Program Lead, Working Groups to strategically shape, manage, and run high-impact working groups focused on reducing risks from intentional misuse of AI-enabled biological tools. You'll own the working group workstream end to end: turning strategy into practical workplans, managing senior stakeholders, shipping high-quality outputs, and making sure the work generates real value for members and the broader field.

R-ABC is a small, new nonprofit, so this role is for someone who wants to be an early employee and can operate with the urgency, flexibility, ownership, and resourcefulness of an early-stage startup, while bringing the judgment, discretion, and credibility this work demands.

What You'll Do

Be an early employee at a new nonprofit

Join early: Help build R-ABC from the ground up while we're still small, new, and moving fast.
Move like a founder: Take ownership, solve messy problems, fill gaps, and drive progress even when roles, systems, or processes aren't fully defined yet.
Adapt fast: Stay effective as R-ABC's structure, priorities, staffing, and operating model evolve.
Think alongside the team: Partner with other early employees as we grow, pressure-testing priorities, improving how we operate, and turning emerging needs into action.
Execute critical responsibilities: As a member of a small team, independently develop and execute critical early functions of this growing organization

Own the working group workstream end to end

Turn strategy into execution: Translate R-ABC's strategic aims for the working groups into practical workplans, timelines, meeting structures, participant expectations, and deliverables.
Drive follow-through: Keep commitments, dependencies, and next steps moving so working groups produce tangible outputs instead of becoming discussion forums.
Get ahead of risk: Spot and address threats to member engagement, stakeholder trust, timelines, or workstream coherence before they become problems.
Collaborate with outside experts: In the beginning, R-ABC will draw technical expertise from outside partners. Manage those relationships to produce high quality products.

Be the senior stakeholder interface

Represent R-ABC: Engage directly with senior stakeholders from AI labs, biotech companies, platform providers, funders, policy organizations, and partner institutions.
Earn trust: Show up prepared, discreet, credible, and respectful of participants' time.
Bring sharp judgment: Lead productive conversations among organizations with different incentives, maturity levels, legal constraints, and technical perspectives. Manage dissenting views and steer the group without marginalizing participants.
Deliver value: Make participation genuinely useful for members while advancing R-ABC's broader governance objectives.

Drive high-quality outputs and decisions

Shape the materials: Produce the documents that turn working group input into usable decisions, controls, case studies, and synthesis products.
Design for impact: Structure sessions so live time is used for judgment, debate, decisions, and alignment.

Who You Are

You're mission-driven: You care deeply about reducing risks from intentional misuse of AI-enabled biological tools.
You've led complex initiatives: You have significant experience leading multi-stakeholder work with senior external participants.
You operate independently: You've shown you can exercise judgment and make progress in ambiguous environments without waiting for detailed direction.
You know the AI/tech landscape: You have experience in or around AI, frontier technology, cybersecurity, platform governance, technical standards, safety, risk management, or emerging technology policy.
You manage workstreams well: You bring strong program, project, or workstream management experience, including timelines, deliverables, meeting design, stakeholder follow-up, and cross-functional coordination.
You communicate clearly: You have excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex input for busy decision-makers.
You exercise discretion: You bring high professional maturity, discretion, and credibility when handling sensitive discussions and confidential participant information.
You facilitate across stakeholders: You can guide productive conversations among stakeholders with different incentives, technical backgrounds, and levels of governance maturity.
You thrive early-stage: You're comfortable working as an early employee in a lean, fast-moving nonprofit where priorities may shift, processes need to be built while the work is underway, and no task is too small if it advances the mission.

Nice to Haves

Fast-moving technical environments: You're familiar with the culture, speed, and stakeholder dynamics of the AI or technology ecosystem.
Biosecurity learning capacity: You can quickly develop working fluency in biosecurity concepts, dual-use risk, model governance, red-teaming, access controls, and related topics.
Relevant network: You have existing relationships in AI, technology, biosecurity, synthetic biology, philanthropy, policy, or related communities.

What Success Looks Like

Launch with confidence: Working groups begin with clear purpose, strong participant trust, and well-structured expectations.
Deliver member value: Participants experience the working groups as a useful venue for peer learning and practical governance development.
Produce real outputs: R-ABC delivers concrete working group products on schedule, including gap analyses, draft controls, pilot plans, case studies, and synthesis products.
Generate useful intelligence: The workstream surfaces member priorities, implementation barriers, blind spots, and emerging governance needs.
Free senior leadership: The Executive Director and other senior leads can focus more time on strategy because day-to-day execution is reliably owned.
Move beyond convening: By the end of year one, the process has produced credible, participant-supported governance artifacts that can be hardened, scaled, and shared as public goods.

Salary and Working Arrangement

Compensation for this role is expected to range from $125,000-$185,000, depending on experience and qualifications

Responsible AIxBio Collaborative is fully remote with no offices. We provide an allowance for a home office setup or co-working space, whichever you prefer. We're open to candidates outside the US, though we have a slight preference for US-based for this role given the nature of the work. All else equal, we're happy to work across time zones for the right person.

Interview Process:

We know applying takes real effort, so here is what to expect.

Application review: Our recruiting partner reviews every application.
Screening conversation (20 minutes): A call with our recruiting partner covering your background, what you're looking for, and what this role involves day to day.
Conversation with the Executive Director (30 minutes): A discussion with Ryan Ritterson, Responsible AIxBio Collaborative's founder, about the work, the field, and how you think.
Facilitation Exercise: A live scenario reflecting the kind of session you'd run in this role.
Final conversations: A conversation with a senior reviewer from Sentinel Bio, our founding funder, to bring an additional perspective into the decision.