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Standards Analyst (Youth AI Safety Institute)

Common Sense Media is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the research-backed information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the age of apps, algorithms, and AI. We rate, educate, and advocate for policies to protect and prepare kids online. Our ratings, research, and resources reach more than 150 million users globally, over 1.4 million educators, and more than 100,000 schools worldwide every year. Learn more at commonsense.org. 

The Opportunity

Launched in May 2026, the Youth AI Safety Institute is Common Sense Media's newest addition to its programmatic pillar. The Institute establishes safety standards, builds open-source evaluations that AI developers can run against their models, independently tests AI products, and publishes the results to provide transparency and accountability. It is an independent research and testing ground dedicated to ensuring that the AI used by children is safe and developmentally appropriate. 

The Standards Analyst will lead the development, documentation, and ongoing evolution of the Institute's AI safety standards for youth-facing AI products and platforms. This is a highly substantive, initiative-driven role requiring deep expertise, strong organizational capacity, and exceptional judgment executed in close partnership with and under the strategic direction of the Head of AI & Digital Assessments. The Standards Analyst must bring substantive grounding in child and adolescent development, youth mental health, or a closely related clinical or developmental field—not to be the expert, but to be a sophisticated and discerning consumer of expert input, capable of identifying the right questions to ask and knowing when to escalate. The Standards Analyst will not operate with total independence; standards work is a collaborative, overseen process in which the analyst plays a central but accountable role.

A core function of this role is participating in multi-stakeholder input processes: engaging as an active listener, thought partner, and synthesizer as the Institute gathers perspectives from subject matter experts, field practitioners, technical evaluators, and industry working groups. The Standards Analyst is responsible for translating what emerges from those processes into coherent, well-documented standards that the Institute publishes transparently. This is ongoing, iterative work, and the Institute's standards will continue to evolve in response to the rapidly changing AI landscape, new research, and lessons from implementation.

Location: San Francisco, California

Reports To: Head of AI & Digital Assessments

Salary: $90,000–$110,000
Type: Full-time, exempt

What You'll Do

Standards Development & Evolution

• In close collaboration with the Head of AI & Digital Assessments, draft, refine, and maintain the Institute's AI safety standards for youth-facing AI products and platforms.
• Translate research, expert input, and evaluation experience into clear, structured, and publicly accessible standards documentation.
• Continually evolve standards in response to new evidence, emerging AI capabilities, expert feedback, and lessons from the Institute's assessment and evaluation work.
• Ensure standards are internally consistent, appropriately scoped, and reflective of the Institute's mission and methodological commitments.

Stakeholder Engagement & Input Synthesis

• Participate actively in structured input processes (including expert convenings, working group sessions, and comment processes) as a listener, questioner, and note taker on behalf of the standards function.
• Synthesize input from a broad range of sources, including perspectives that may be in tension, into coherent standards positions, clearly documenting points of consensus, disagreement, and rationale for decisions made.
• Maintain ongoing familiarity with the perspectives of key experts and organizations in AI safety, child development, education, mental health, and related fields to ensure standards reflect current knowledge and debate.
• Communicate the Institute's standards positions clearly to diverse external audiences, including researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

Evaluation Translation & Operationalization

• Work closely with technical evaluators to ensure that Institute standards are translated into testable, reproducible rubrics and evaluation protocols.
• Identify gaps between standards as written and what can be operationalized in practice, and work with the Head of AI & Digital Assessments to address them.
• Maintain alignment between the standards documentation and the evaluation work the Institute publishes, such that published assessments are clearly grounded in stated standards.

Documentation & Transparency

• Maintain rigorous documentation of the standards development process, including how input was gathered, how decisions were made, and how standards have evolved over time in support of the Institute's commitment to transparency and public accountability.
• Draft and maintain public-facing standards documentation that is accurate, accessible, and suitable for a broad audience, including developers, policymakers, parents and caregivers, and educators.
• Produce process documentation, version histories, and methodology summaries that allow external stakeholders to understand and engage with how the Institute's standards are set.

Project & Process Management

• Manage timelines, workflows, and deliverables across multiple simultaneous standards development tracks.
• Brief the Head of AI & Digital Assessments regularly on progress, emerging issues, and decisions requiring escalation.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; advanced degree preferred. Candidates with graduate training in developmental psychology, clinical psychology, public health, or a related field are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Experience: 4–6 years of experience in policy development, standards-setting, regulatory affairs, research, or a closely related field.
• Standards or policy expertise: Demonstrated experience contributing to formal standards, guidelines, frameworks, or policy documents in a multi-stakeholder environment.
• Synthesis and writing: Exceptional written communication skills, with the ability to distill complex, competing inputs into clear, well-reasoned documentation.
• Stakeholder engagement: Proven ability to engage productively with diverse stakeholder groups (including experts, advocates, and industry representatives) while maintaining organizational independence and integrity.
• Organizational excellence: Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage complex, multi-track workstreams with many moving parts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in AI safety, technology policy, or emerging technology governance.
• Experience working with or alongside clinical or research professionals in child/adolescent mental health, developmental psychology, or pediatric health settings.
• Familiarity with standards-setting bodies, technical working groups, or multi-stakeholder governance processes (e.g., NIST, IEEE, ISO, or similar).
• Experience translating qualitative standards into operational evaluation criteria or rubrics.
• Knowledge of AI evaluation methodologies, red-teaming practices, or platform safety assessment.
• Experience working in mission-driven organizations navigating complex external relationships.

Core Competencies

• Initiative and ownership: Proactively drives work forward, anticipates needs, and surfaces issues early, while operating within clear lines of oversight and accountability.
• Analytical rigor: Brings critical thinking and structured reasoning to complex, ambiguous problems without clean answers.
• Independent judgment: Exercises strong professional judgment within defined parameters; knows when to escalate and when to execute.
• Active listening and synthesis: Absorbs complex, sometimes conflicting input from varied sources and translates it into coherent, well-documented positions.
• Clarity under complexity: Translates nuanced, contested, or technically complex material into documentation that is accessible and actionable.
• Adaptability: Comfortable operating in a fast-moving field where the standards themselves are still being defined.

What We Offer

• The chance to work with talented, passionate professionals. 
• A great health and welfare benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, a matching 401(k), and other key benefits.
• An organization that offers work/life balance.
• The opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of kids and families!

Common Sense Media provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected classification or characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Common Sense Media will also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. However, job offers are made on the condition that the applicant subsequently passes a criminal background check. If the background check indicates a prior criminal conviction, we will conduct an individualized assessment to determine whether the conviction should result in denial of employment. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.