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Roles at frontier labs · Research specialties

AI Safety and Alignment Researcher

57 recorded postings · Partial update · October 8, 2026

Recorded postings, not a live vacancy count. Partial update: some sources retain earlier observations; each listing has its own check date.

Safety and alignment teams study how models fail and how to prevent it: alignment research, misuse safeguards, red-teaming and the evaluations behind a release decision.

What the postings ask for
  1. Safety, red-teaming and misuse 77%
  2. Evals and benchmarks 65%
  3. Python 63%
  4. How language models work 51%
  5. Agents and tool use 47%
  6. Post-training and fine-tuning 40%

taught here course coming not taught

The numbers

Recorded postings at 14 labs
57
Median base pay middle half $326k to $440k, 38 U.S. bands
$400k
No degree requirement stated 5% require a PhD outright
63%
Years asked, median of the 32 that state a minimum
4
Explore opportunities

The recorded snapshot

Postings from 14 labs

In the labs' own words

In the labs' own words

“Strong foundations in experimentation, causal thinking, and/or observational inference; ability to design robust measurement under imperfect data.”
OpenAI · Data Scientist, Preparedness ↗
“Experience working with large language models, including prompting, fine-tuning, or evaluation”
Anthropic · Research Scientist/Engineer, Biological Safety ↗
“Experience working with GPUs (training, serving, debugging)”
Character.AI · Research Engineer, AI Safety & Alignment ↗

Your way in

Three doors to this role

  1. Door 1

    Finishing a degree

    Prof Rod Avatar

    16% mention publications

    The way in is a program: 32 recorded in the snapshot

  2. Door 2

    A software engineer

    Prof Rod Avatar

    63% have no degree requirement stated

    What to add

  3. Door 3

    A PhD

    Prof Rod Avatar

    9% ask for distributed training

    Engineering at scale

Asked often

The short answers

How much does a ai safety and alignment researcher at a frontier lab make?

The median U.S. base salary across 38 recorded ai safety and alignment researcher postings that publish a band is $400k; the middle half runs from $326k to $440k. Equity and bonus are not included.

Do you need a PhD to be a ai safety and alignment researcher?

63% of the 57 recorded postings do not state a degree requirement, 28% mention a PhD or master's, and 5% require a PhD outright.

What skills do ai safety and alignment researcher postings ask for?

Most often: safety, red-teaming and misuse (77%), evals and benchmarks (65%), python (63%), how language models work (51%), agents and tool use (47%).

Which labs posted ai safety and alignment researcher roles in this recorded board?

Recorded board: OpenAI (18), Anthropic (17), Google DeepMind (5), Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) (4), Character.AI (2), Cohere (2), and 8 more.

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The board

Recorded postings, newest first

The newest 40 of 57. Each title opens the lab's own posting. By family: research scientists and engineers · fellowships, residencies and internships · software engineering at labs · machine learning engineers · ml systems and infrastructure

  1. Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Data ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $320k to $485k base

  2. Lead Safety Engineer, Robotics ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $381k to $423k base

  3. Process Safety Engineer ↗

    Periodic Labs · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $200k to $250k base

  4. Trust & Safety Engineer ↗

    Lovable · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated

  5. Data Scientist, Trust & Safety ↗

    Replit · Machine learning engineers · No degree stated · $210k to $310k base

  6. Software Engineer, Trust & Safety ↗

    Vercel (v0) · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $196k to $294k base

  7. [Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  8. Anthropic Fellows Program, AI Safety & Security ↗

    Anthropic · Fellowships, residencies and internships · No degree stated

  9. Data Engineer, Safeguards ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $320k to $405k base

  10. Data Scientist, Safeguards ↗

    Anthropic · Machine learning engineers · No degree stated · $285k to $380k base

  11. Engineering Manager, Safeguards ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated

  12. Engineering Manager, Safeguards Review Tooling ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $405k to $485k base

  13. Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer, Safeguards Research ↗

    Anthropic · ML systems and infrastructure · No degree stated · $350k to $500k base

  14. ML/Research Engineer, Safeguards ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $350k to $500k base

  15. Red Team Engineer, Safeguards ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $320k to $405k base

  16. Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment ↗

    Anthropic · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $350k to $500k base

  17. Research Manager, Biological Safety ↗

    Anthropic · Research in other fields · No degree stated · $405k to $485k base

  18. Research Scientist/Engineer, Biological Safety ↗

    Anthropic · Research in other fields · No degree stated · $300k to $405k base

  19. Staff+ Site Reliability Engineer, Safeguards ML Infra ↗

    Anthropic · ML systems and infrastructure · No degree stated · $320k to $485k base

  20. Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · Bachelor's or equivalent · $320k to $485k base

  21. Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Human Review Tooling ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $320k to $485k base

  22. Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure ↗

    Anthropic · Software engineering at labs · Bachelor's or equivalent

  23. Research Engineer, AI Safety & Alignment ↗

    Character.AI · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience · $225k to $400k base

  24. Software Engineer, Backend/Applied ML (Safety & Integrity) ↗

    Character.AI · Machine learning engineers · Bachelor's degree · $150k to $300k base

  25. Senior Member of Technical Staff, Safety and Security for Agents ↗

    Cohere · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  26. Senior Research Engineer - Safety Tooling and Data ↗

    Cohere · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated

  27. Research Scientist, AGI Safety and Alignment, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · Bachelor's or equivalent

  28. Research Scientist, Gemini Agent Safety, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  29. Research Scientist, Gemini Safety and Behavior, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  30. Research Scientist, Safety Oversight, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  31. Research Scientist, Safety Oversight, DeepMind ↗

    Google DeepMind · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  32. Senior Security Engineer (AI Safety), London, Lausanne ↗

    Isomorphic Labs · Machine learning engineers · Bachelor's degree

  33. AI Research Scientist - MSL FAIR Alignment ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required

  34. AI Research Scientist, AI Safety and Security ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD or equivalent experience

  35. Data Scientist, Meta Superintelligence Labs (Safety) ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Machine learning engineers · PhD required

  36. Research Engineer, Safety Evaluation ↗

    Meta (Superintelligence Labs and FAIR) · Research scientists and engineers · PhD required

  37. Data Scientist, Preparedness ↗

    OpenAI · Machine learning engineers · No degree stated · $345k to $385k base

  38. Data Scientist, Safety ↗

    OpenAI · Machine learning engineers · No degree stated · $265k to $380k base

  39. Fullstack Software Engineer, Child Safety Tools & Systems ↗

    OpenAI · Software engineering at labs · No degree stated · $266k to $385k base

  40. Researcher, Agent Safety, Oversight and System Mitigations ↗

    OpenAI · Research scientists and engineers · No degree stated · $380k to $500k base

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