Social & Community Partnerships, Fellowship Program

Partnerships, Fellowship Program

The Obvious Fellowship Program is building the first generation of AI-native operators — through real work, world-class mentorship, and the AI fluency that sets you apart.

AI is about to reshape every institution that matters — government agencies, nonprofits, school districts, workforce programs, small businesses on Main Street. Right now, the organizations with the least resources are the last to get access. That's backwards. And we're going to fix it.

The Social Progress Fellow will bring Obvious to the frontiers of society where AI can do the most good. You'll work with state workforce agencies to put Obvious in the hands of people who just got laid off — helping them find jobs, start businesses, and reskill for an economy that's changing faster than any training program can keep up with. You'll partner with nonprofits, community organizations, and small businesses that don't have an AI strategy because nobody's built one for them yet.

This isn't charity work. It's infrastructure work. You'll build partnerships with Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, and others to get the cost of AI tokens covered so that access isn't gated by budget. You'll navigate policy conversations with state and local government. You'll organize communities. And you'll ship — building the actual workflows, templates, and programs that put AI to work for people who need it most.

This isn't a 9-to-5. It's intense — fast iteration, high expectations, and a lot of building and shipping. If that sounds exhausting, this isn't for you. If that sounds like exactly what you've been looking for — keep reading.

What You'll Do

Build government partnerships — Work with state workforce agencies, unemployment offices, and economic development programs to integrate Obvious into public services. You'll navigate procurement, write proposals, run pilots, and prove that AI can help displaced workers find jobs, build skills, and start businesses.

Secure token sponsorships — Partner with AI labs and cloud providers — Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, and others — to subsidize or cover the cost of AI compute for civic and nonprofit users. You'll build the case, negotiate the terms, and manage the relationships that make free or low-cost access possible.

Work with nonprofits and community organizations — Identify nonprofits, workforce development orgs, community colleges, and social enterprises that would benefit from AI. You'll run workshops, build custom workflows, and help these organizations do more with less.

Support small businesses — Work with Main Street businesses, minority-owned enterprises, and small business development centers to bring AI-powered tools to people who are building something with limited resources. You'll show them what's possible and help them get there.

Shape policy — Engage with policymakers, civic tech groups, and government innovation offices. You'll contribute to conversations about AI access, digital equity, and workforce transformation — and you'll bring real implementation experience to the table, not just talking points.

Program manage across all of it — This role spans partnerships, community, policy, and building. You'll manage multiple workstreams, track progress, coordinate partners, and keep everything moving. You'll build the systems to scale what starts as pilots into programs.

Build, always build — Use Obvious to create the workflows, templates, and tools that make all of this work. Reskilling programs for displaced workers. Grant-writing assistants for nonprofits. Business planning tools for first-time founders. You'll ship things that people actually use.

What We're Looking For

Mission-driven operator — You care deeply about equity, access, and the role technology plays in society. But you're not just passionate — you're effective. You get things done in complex environments with lots of stakeholders.

Comfortable in government and institutional settings — You've worked with or around government, nonprofits, or civic organizations. You understand how these institutions make decisions, and you have the patience and persistence to work within those systems while pushing them forward.

Partnership builder — You know how to walk into a room — whether it's a state agency, a foundation, or a tech company's social impact team — and leave with a commitment. You build trust fast and follow through.

Community organizer at heart — You know how to bring people together around a shared cause. You've organized something — a campaign, a program, a coalition, a community group. You understand what it takes to mobilize people and sustain momentum.

Policy-literate — You can read a government RFP, understand a workforce development program, and speak the language of public policy without losing the thread of what actually matters: getting tools into people's hands.

Builder — You're not afraid of the product. You'll use Obvious to build workflows, create demos, and ship tools. You don't need to be an engineer, but you need to be someone who learns fast and builds with AI.

Scrappy and relentless — The playbook for this role doesn't exist. You'll write it. You'll figure out how to get meetings with the right people, how to run a pilot with a state agency, how to convince a foundation to fund AI access. You don't wait for permission — and you don't stop until the work is done.

New grad or no degree — Capability matters more than credentials. But you can't be a current student — this is a full-time commitment.

What You'll Get

Meaningful work from day one — You won't be writing memos about impact. You'll be in unemployment offices, community centers, and city halls making it happen. The work is real, the stakes are real, and the people you'll help are real.

Access to major partners — You'll work directly with social impact and partnership teams at Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, and others. The relationships you build here open doors that don't open easily.

Policy and government exposure — You'll learn how government works from the inside — procurement, pilots, policy conversations. That experience is rare for someone early in their career and invaluable for whatever comes next.

Travel and field work — Based in Atlanta but traveling to state capitals, community organizations, and partner offices across the country. Expect 30–40% travel.

A front-row seat to what AI can really do — Not just for tech companies and enterprises. For the people and institutions that hold society together. You'll see what happens when powerful tools reach the people who need them most.

Career-defining experience — You'll graduate as one of the first people in the industry who knows how to bring AI to civic and nonprofit institutions at scale — a skill set that's about to be in enormous demand as every government agency, foundation, and community organization figures out their AI strategy.

Logistics

• Location — Atlanta, GA (home base, in-person required)

• Travel — 30–40% (state capitals, community organizations, partner offices)

• Term — Anticipated to be approximately 1 year

• Pay — $45,000 annually

• Classification — Full-time, exempt

• Experience — New grads or no degree. Not current students.

• Start — Spring, Summer, and Fall 2026 cohorts

How to Apply

No resume. No cover letter. Just show us how you'd bring AI to the people who need it most.

Step 1 — Apply and get access. Apply here, and if approved, you'll get access to Obvious with no waitlist.

Step 2 — Build something impressive. Use Obvious to create a project that shows how you'd approach this role. Map out a state workforce partnership. Draft a proposal to get AI tokens sponsored for a nonprofit. Design a reskilling program for displaced workers. Build a workflow that helps a small business owner do something they couldn't do before. Whatever demonstrates that you can think about systems, build with AI, and move institutions.

Step 3 — Share your project. Add jon@obvious.ai and jessica@obvious.ai to your project with chat history enabled. We want to see your thought process — how you researched, strategized, and built. The conversation matters as much as the output.

Step 4 — We'll reach out. If we like what we see, we'll schedule two quick 30-minute interviews. In the first, be prepared to walk us through your project and iterate on it live. We're looking for how you think about complex systems and stakeholders.

The Bottom Line

The biggest risk with AI isn't that it'll be too powerful. It's that it'll only be powerful for people who can already afford it. The gap between who has access to AI and who doesn't is growing — and it maps almost perfectly onto the gaps that already exist in our economy and society.

This fellowship exists because we believe that's a solvable problem. Not with white papers or panel discussions — with actual partnerships, actual tools, and actual programs that put AI in the hands of displaced workers, small business owners, nonprofit leaders, and government agencies.

You'll spend your time proving that the most meaningful use of AI isn't making rich companies richer — it's making powerful tools available to everyone. You'll build the playbook for how a technology company shows up in civic life. And you'll come out the other side as one of the most uniquely qualified people in the industry.

If you believe AI should work for everyone and you're ready to prove it — this is your shot.

Obvious AI, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.

The term of this position is anticipated to be approximately 1 year. Employment is at-will, meaning either party may end the relationship at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice. Specific employment terms will be detailed in the offer letter.