Program Director, Fellowship

Program Director, Fellowship

Job Description

Compensation: $115,000 - $160,000+ in the US; £75,000 - £90,000+ in the UK

Location: London / San Francisco (preferred); New York or Washington DC possible.

Application deadline: Sunday, March 8, 2026. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and may close early if a strong candidate is hired.

The Tarbell Fellowship is one of the most competitive journalism programs in the world. We select 20 fellows from 1,600+ applicants and provide fully-funded placements at Bloomberg, The Guardian, TIME, and MIT Technology Review. We're hiring a Fellowship Program Director to scale it during a critical period for AI reporting, leading the team that makes it happen.

In your first year, you'll grow the program from 15 to 30+ fellows annually, with ownership of a $3.5M+ budget. Strong performers will have a clear path to Chief Programs Officer within 18–24 months, overseeing all talent programs with a combined budget of $8M+.

This is a rare opportunity to build a global network of AI reporters with the knowledge and resources required to cover AI during a transformative period.

About the Tarbell Center

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism supports journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI. We provide funding and training to strengthen AI reporting at major news outlets.

Since 2023, we've raised ~$20M in funding and supported 50+ journalists through fellowships, grants, and residencies. We're now entering a period of rapid expansion as we scale from a $4M budget in 2025 to $14M by 2027.

Across our programs, we’ve supported a wide range of impactful reporting:

• Accountability reporting: Our journalists have broken corporate accountability stories about OpenAI’s legal tactics against nonprofits and xAI violating its own safety policies. A recent investigation about Character.AI's failure to protect minors on its platform contributed to the company banning under-18s within a week of publication.
• AI policy coverage: Our reporters have produced expert policy analysis, revealed exclusive information about state-level AI policy developments, and investigated AI policy lobbying.
• Impacts from AI: Coverage of the impacts from current systems, ranging from the climate impacts to mass discrimination, and the emerging risks from frontier models, such as sabotaging shutdown mechanisms or helping engineer pandemics.
• Sensemaking: We’ve supported explanatory journalism that helps the public make sense of the circular funding deals, advancements in automating AI R&D, military integration, and developments in China.

We believe journalism will be essential to helping society understand and respond to AI advancements in the coming years. By 2030, we aim to grow Tarbell into the leading institution supporting AI journalism globally – providing the funding and training needed to make that possible.

About the role

As Program Director, you'll lead the team behind our Tarbell Fellowship.

The fellowship is in a strong position – $6.5m in secured funding, 25+ newsroom partnerships, and 1,600+ applications this year. We’re now looking for an exceptional leader who can take this from 15 fellows to 30+ annually while maintaining the exceptionally high bar that has made the fellowship one of the most competitive journalism programs in the world.

You'll own the fellowship end-to-end. That means setting the strategy, selecting the fellows, shaping the curriculum, and managing the team that executes it all. The Executive Director will be a thought partner, but the program is yours to run.

What you'll inherit:

• A program that's achieved strong outcomes to date and is ready to scale 2x this year
• $6.5m in secured funding for the fellowship through 2027
• Marketing and recruitment processes that recently attracted 1,600+ applications
• A team of 2 with experience spanning journalism, AI policy, and computer science
• Strong relationships with 25+ newsroom partners, including Bloomberg, The Guardian, and many more
• A 3-month training curriculum, covering AI and journalism fundamentals
• Ideas for how to expand the fellowship in 2027 and beyond (e.g. adding a podcasting fellowship, a video/documentary fellowship, an editorial fellowship, a Substack fellowship)

Strong performers will have a clear path to Chief Programs Officer within 18–24 months, overseeing the fellowship, residency, and future talent programs with a combined budget of $8M+.

Responsibilities

• Program strategy and leadership: You'll own the fellowship end-to-end. This means setting the vision, defining annual goals, and making the key decisions that determine whether the program succeeds. You'll work closely with the Executive Director as a thought partner, but the fellowship is yours to run.
• People management: You'll build and lead a growing team, starting with 2 direct reports, potentially growing to 5+ over time. This includes hiring, coaching, and developing your team members. "Hire the best, then invest" is a core operating value at Tarbell – you'll help your people develop into increasingly senior roles with greater responsibility.
• Fellow recruitment and selection: You'll design recruitment strategies to attract 2,000+ applications annually from top emerging journalists and AI talent globally. You'll lead our multi-stage vetting process—reviewing applications, evaluating writing samples, conducting interviews—and make final selection decisions. The top 0.1% of potential candidates should end up in our program; you'll ensure this happens.
• Training and curriculum: You'll oversee our 10-week AI Journalism Fundamentals course and week-long Bay Area Summit. This means shaping the curriculum, recruiting expert speakers and instructors, and continuously improving the program based on fellow feedback. Past speakers have included Jack Clark (Anthropic), Kevin Roose (NYT), Helen Toner (ex-OpenAI board), and senior reporters from the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and TIME.
• Systems and operations: You'll build scalable systems for recruitment, training, placement, and ongoing fellow support – ensuring the fellowship can grow from 15 to 30+ fellows without quality dropping. You'll create clear milestones, track progress, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Who we’re looking for

We’re open to two distinct candidate profiles: deep expertise in journalism OR artificial intelligence. You need one, not both.

1. Journalism profile: Substantial experience in professional journalism. You understand how newsrooms operate, what makes exceptional reporting, and can evaluate journalistic quality with rigor. You've likely worked at or closely with top-tier outlets, possibly as a senior editor. Ideally, you’ve trained journalists, and know how to turn people into world-class reporters.
2. AI profile: Strong understanding of AI concepts (transformers, scaling laws, capabilities evaluations) and governance (responsible scaling policies, compute governance). Deep familiarity with the key players and debates in the AI landscape.

Whichever profile you come from, you must demonstrate genuine interest and potential in the other domain. AI experts should show they understand what makes great journalism; journalists should show they can engage seriously with technical AI developments.

We also expect:

• Leadership experience. 5+ years of experience managing high-performing teams. You have good judgment about people, can have difficult conversations constructively, and know how to build and lead teams through organizational change.
• Exceptional project management skills. You build systems that scale, maintain standards under pressure, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. You might have honed these skills at a leading newsroom, a high-performing startup, a top consulting firm, or a fast-growing AI institution.
• Independent execution. You take ownership of complex programs and drive them forward without needing constant direction, even when that means doing difficult or unusual work yourself.
• Talent identification. You can quickly assess whether someone will succeed in a demanding role. You've led hiring rounds before, and have experience evaluating work against world-class standards. You know the difference between "good" and "excellent" and can articulate why.
• Clear communication. Your writing is concise and persuasive. You can represent the organization professionally in high-stakes situations with newsrooms and stakeholders.
• Mission alignment. You believe in Tarbell’s mission to support journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI.

We care more about evidence of these criteria than a conventional resume. If your background is unusual but you can demonstrate these capabilities, we want to hear from you.

Salary and location

We’ll offer a salary of $115,000 - $160,000+ in the US; £75,000 - £90,000+ in the UK based on experience and seniority.

Our benefits include:

• 33 days of annual leave in total (including national holidays)
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave, increasing to 24 weeks after 3 years of service
• $5,000 per year in professional development funding
• Up to 5% employer contribution towards a standard pension/401(k)
• For employees based in the US: Platinum health, dental, and vision plans, with 95% of premiums paid for by Tarbell
• Flexible working hours
• Productive, collaborative offices in London and San Francisco

We prefer candidates based in London or the San Francisco Bay Area and will require such candidates to work 2 days/week from our office space. We’re also open to New York or Washington DC, or candidates who require short periods of remote work. We are able to sponsor UK work visas for this role.

Please inquire with recruitment@tarbellcenter.org if questions or concerns regarding compensation or benefits might affect your decision to apply.

Application process

Interested candidates should express initial interest by filling out an application (<15 minutes) by Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 11:59pm PT. We’ll review applications on a rolling basis and may close the role early if we identify a strong candidate, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

The application process will involve paid work tests, a structured interview, reference checks, and a paid in-person work trial. We will acknowledge receipt of all applications and aim to get back to candidates within 10 business days of the application deadline. Our ideal start date is April 2026, though flexibility is offered for exceptional candidates.

Tarbell is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, sexual preference, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.