Director, AI Strategy & Mental Health

Application Deadline: 14 November 2026

Department: YSE-Youth Strategies & Engagement

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Remote

Reporting To: SVP, Youth Strategies & Chief Engagement Officer

Compensation: $120,000 - $160,000 / year

Description

Key Responsibilities

• 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

• Approximately 7+ years of relevant professional experience, including substantial work in AI, AI safety, responsible AI, AI evaluation, human-AI interaction, or a closely related field. Exceptional candidates with a different career trajectory but equivalent depth of experience will be considered. 
• Strong working knowledge of contemporary AI technologies, including generative AI, large language models, multimodal systems, conversational AI, agents, memory/personalization, and emerging human-AI interfaces. 
• Demonstrated knowledge of AI safety and evaluation, including model and system behavior, evaluation and benchmarking, red-teaming, failure modes, safeguards and mitigations, and the strengths and limitations of current approaches. 
• Experience applying technology, safety, evaluation, research, or related expertise in a high-stakes human domain such as mental health, suicide prevention, healthcare, public health, child and adolescent wellbeing or safety, child protection, online safety, violence prevention, or another closely related area. 
• Working knowledge of mental health, suicide prevention, behavioral health, public health, or an adjacent field sufficient to engage meaningfully with domain experts and understand the implications of AI systems for people experiencing distress or vulnerability. 
• Technical fluency sufficient to engage credibly and independently with AI researchers, engineers, evaluation and safety teams, and product teams. This role does not require the candidate to be an ML engineer. 
• Demonstrated ability to connect technical developments to their implications for human behavior, safety, wellbeing, products, institutions, or society. 
• Excellent analytical, synthesis, writing, and communication skills, with experience developing frameworks, strategy, recommendations, guidance, or thought leadership. 
• Strong judgment and comfort working across technical and nontechnical disciplines in an area where technology, evidence, practice, and regulation are evolving rapidly. 
• Experience advancing complex work involving multiple internal and external stakeholders, with strong relationship-building and collaboration skills. 

• Direct experience in mental health, suicide prevention, behavioral health, digital mental health, or a closely related field. 
• Experience focused on children, adolescents, families, development, or populations experiencing heightened vulnerability. 
• Experience working directly with technology-company product, safety, evaluation, or research teams. 
• Experience developing or applying benchmarks, evaluations, safety frameworks, standards, or red-teaming approaches. 
• Experience translating technical research for public-interest, product, policy, practitioner, or other nontechnical audiences.