ThroughLine is the global safety net for people in crisis, helping millions access verified crisis support resources and guided self-help on the world's largest platforms – ChatGPT, Google, Pinterest, Roblox, Tinder – just to name a few.

We're solving some of the hardest problems at the intersection of mental health, AI, and global scale. That means working alongside a team of clinicians, engineers, and operators who care deeply about getting this right, where the stakes are real and the work matters.

We move fast and we trust our people. You'll have real autonomy and responsibility from day one, and you'll be part of a team that's genuinely diverse because the people we serve are genuinely diverse. We're building ThroughLine to reflect that.

🚀 The role

As Clinical AI Specialist, you'll design care navigation and guided self-help experiences that reach millions of people through AI conversation.

Your days will vary: designing conversation flows for safety planning modules, reviewing real conversations our AI is having with users in distress to spot where it needs better guidance, shaping training data to improve responses, and advising major platforms on their crisis intervention approaches.

The experiences you design will help people navigate to the right resource, find support while they wait, or get help in a moment when talking to a human feels impossible.

This is clinical work at the frontier of AI and mental health where methods are still evolving and the ethical questions don't have easy answers. The expertise you build – and impact you’ll make – will be genuinely unique.

🏃‍♂️ What you'll do

• Design care navigation and guided self-help conversational experiences

• Review conversations between our AI and real users to evaluate safety, helpfulness, and clinical appropriateness

• Contribute to model improvement through clinical evaluation and labeling of conversational data

• Think through the ethical challenges unique to AI-delivered mental health support – when to escalate, how to handle risk, what boundaries need to exist

• Collaborate with a small, fast-moving team to iterate and improve quickly while maintaining safety

What this isn't…

• A clinical practice role. You won't be providing therapy or crisis counseling.

• A research role. We're building products, not running studies (though evidence-based practice guides everything we build).

• Corporate healthcare. We're a startup, which means less structure and more problem-solving in real time.

• Easy. We’re solving complex problems and there’s always an enormous amount of stuff to do.

🧭 What You’ll Bring

• Master's degree or higher in clinical psychology, counselling, social work, or related clinical field.

• 3+ years clinical practice experience. You need to know what good support actually looks like in practice.

• Some tech or digital mental health background. You've thought about mental health support beyond the therapy room.

• Comfort using AI tools in your work. We use AI not just in our product but in our daily workflow to be more productive.

• Builders mindset. You're excited to design experiences from scratch, not just deliver existing protocols.

• Clinical judgment under ambiguity. You can think through "what could go wrong" scenarios and design accordingly.

• Mission-driven. You're here because you’re passionate about expanding access to mental health and crisis support and believe AI can expand this access – not just because it's technically interesting.

• Comfort with startup pace. Things move quickly and your role will evolve, but never at the expense of safety.

• Bonus: Experience working with adolescents, either in clinical practice or designing mental health resources/tools for young people.

✨ What we offer

ThroughLine is well-funded and based in Auckland, New Zealand. Here are some reasons to join us.

The best benefit: your team

You'll be joining a small, senior, cross-disciplinary team. Your manager is a clinical psychologist who codes in Python and thinks in systems. You'll work closely with a technical product leader (three startup exits, codes daily) and a former AI startup CTO with Samsung research experience. Every conversation here raises your bar.

Our culture

• We've all experienced times when we needed help – that's why we care deeply about this work

• We bring perspectives shaped by gutsy choices – immigrating, founding companies, career pivots, living our identities openly

• We move fast but sustainably (no burnout culture here)

• We're collaborative and non-hierarchical – good ideas matter more than tenure

• We listen in all moments, whether things are going well or not (and not just on work stuff)

• We work with care and urgency because people rely on us on their worst days

• We start every week with a genuine personal check-in and end on Fridays with a check-out with a rotating leader

• We're technology realists who believe human ingenuity should be focused on reducing suffering

Our benefits

We are small and nimble, so you’ll get all the benefits of joining a growing team that’s having a global impact:

• Mission that matters: Your work here saves lives every day

• Competitive salary + meaningful equity: Everyone shares in the financial upside

• Hybrid flexibility: 2 days / week in our Auckland office.

• Supportive team: We bring our full selves and genuinely care about each other.

• Visa support: We sponsor exceptional global talent.

⚠️ You shouldn't choose us if…

We're not a fit for everyone – and that's okay.

• We're driven, really driven: Our mission is personal to us. If you're not passionate about doing things differently with mental health support, you might find it a bit much.

• We're small: We're early on our journey, so no specialized roles and no "that's not my job."

• We're a startup: We're still figuring things out, which means incomplete information and unexpected changes.

At ThroughLine, we serve people across all genders, ethnicities, racial and religious backgrounds. We want our team to reflect this too. As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome all applicants. We especially encourage candidates from under-represented communities to apply. If you think you have what it takes, apply!

Application note: In your cover letter, tell us about a time you adapted clinical knowledge or practice to a non-client-facing context. What did you learn about what translates and what doesn't?