Principal, Programs and Policy (Tech and AI)

About Omidyar Network (ON):

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic organization whose mission is to bend the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power prosperity and possibility. Digital technology is a powerful and ubiquitous force that harnessed wisely makes wondrous things happen. We believe in working together to guide techs trajectory intentionally. Our vision is for our shared humanity to steer our digital future. So far we have committed more than $1.94 billion to initiatives that share our vision. We engage partner and fund some of the worlds brightest thinkers and innovators to guide our digital future toward the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

About the Programs and Policy team:

Our programs and policy team focuses on the key drivers of our shared digital future: the culture the governance and the business of digital tech. Through our grant making and advocacy we aim to shape more intentional societal governance and amplify our shared agency. We collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders including investors tech firms policymakers consumers and workers to guide techs trajectory and establish coalitions and countervails in civil society. Programs team members join Omidyar Network from a wide range of backgrounds in policy advocacy nonprofits community organizing technology consulting philanthropy education and the arts.

About the Role:

In this role you will help shape how frontier technology develops and who has the capital andconveningpower to influence that trajectory. Our portfolio includes some of the most consequential AI companies of the decade and our partners include the people writing the policies papers and standards that will govern these technologies for the next two decades.

This role is built for someone who reads a new model release and immediately wants to know what it means for governance; who is drawn to questions about how powerful technologies get built and by whom; and who wants to spend the next phase of their career working inside those questions.

You will work across investments grants ecosystem-building and thought leadership helping originate and complete both for-profit deals and grants building the relationships that make those deals possible and helping shape ONs voice on where technology is heading. This is neither a pure investing role nor a pure grantmaking role.

This is a builders role for someone who is fluent in the language of frontier tech comfortable moving between Silicon Valley boardrooms and civil societyconvenings andenergized by the question of how to make powerful technologies go well.

This role will report to Director Programs and Policy (based in Washington DC).

How Youll Contribute to our Impact:

• Helpimplement the Responsible Technology & AI strategy.Translate strategy into action across our priority domains frontier AI nuclear and advanced energy brain-computer interfaces and adjacent areas. Help shape how the strategy evolves as the technology and the field evolve.

• Originate andmaintainrelationships across the ecosystem.Build a deep durable network across AI labs and technology companies venture capital firms AI-focused philanthropies academic institutions and civil society organizations. Use these relationships to surface signalsidentifytrends early and connect the right people to one another. Many of ONs best opportunities and best ideas come through this network you will be a primary node in it.

• Manage complex stakeholder ecosystems. Convene and participate in conversations across constituencies that dont typically share a room journalists founders researchers policymakers funders and practice this means organizing small listening events and roundtables attending relevant conferences participating in relevant working groups and serving as a credible interlocutor for ON across very different audiences.

• Develop ONs point of view in writing.Develop internal memos and external thought pieces on where the technology is going what we are seeing in the field and what ONs point of view is. Some of this will be public; much of it will inform investment committees board materials and partner conversations.

• Help execute transactions investments and grants.Run diligence structure deals draft memos and manage the operational details of deploying capital whetherthatsan equity round into a frontier lab a SAFE into an early-stage company or a grant to a research institute. You will work alongside seniorinvestorsand program leads on a portfolio that ranges from frontier AI companies to public-interest technology infrastructure.

Location:

This is a hybrid role with employees working in the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This position will be based outofourSan Francisco office. Employees mustresidewithin 100 miles of their assigned office location. Candidates must have a current U.S. work authorization to be considered.

Compensation:

This is a full-time salaried position that features competitive pay andbenefits including health care (medical/dental/vision) paid time off and a generous employer 401k contribution. The salary range for this role is$171400-$214200. ON manages pay equity seriously and new hiresgenerally startat the midpoint of this range.

What Youll Bring to the Team:

• 7 years of relevant experience. Strong candidates may come from:
  • Product management at a technology or AI company with exposure to how frontier products actually get built shipped and positioned.
  • Early-stage venture capital especially with a track record of sourcing or working on technical deals and a desire to broaden the aperture beyond pure financial return.
  • Technology journalism especially reporters who have moved past writing about the industry to wanting to shape it.
  • Strategy business development or growth roles at a technology startup particularly where you have had to operate cross-functionally and externally.

• Genuine fluency in technology and AI.Youdontneed to be an ML researcher but you should be able to read a technical paper understand the broad architecture of a frontier model and hold your own in a conversation with founders and researchers.A track recordof self-directed learning writing building side projects matters more than credentials.

• Comfort across discourses.Our work sits at the seam between several intellectual communities working on AI from technical safety research to public-interest tech from venture and founder circles to traditional philanthropy. You should be able to engage seriously with each and translate between these worlds.

• A bias toward originating.This role is for someone who finds opportunities builds relationships and starts things not someone who waits for deal flow to arrive.

• Strong written and verbal communication.A meaningful share of your impact will come through writing memos briefings op-eds decks and through how you show up in rooms.

• Endless curiosity.The best people in this work read widely take meetings out of intellectual interest rather than transactional value and treat the world as a thing to be understood.

Application Timeline:
To apply submit your resume and cover letter. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and priority consideration will be given to applications received by June 23 2026.

Omidyar Network is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes people from all experiences abilities and perspectives to apply. We fundamentally believe that people are inherently capable but often lack opportunity. We know that a diverse workforce reflecting a broad range of backgrounds and views allows us to see problems in more nuanced ways creating the thought leadership needed to elevate humanity and evolve the culture governance and business of technology. We actively recruit develop and retain the most talented people from a broad candidate pool.We are committed to an inclusive and accessible hiring process. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in any part of the application or interview process please let us know at.