Six clauses every engagement gets, whether you ask for them or not.
AI ethics works best early. A values question raised in week one is a design choice; raised the week before launch, it is a crisis. These six clauses exist so it gets asked while it is still cheap to answer, and heard when it is, not just flagged after the fact. Published, before you ever sign anything.
Independent authority
The ethicist reports to a level with real authority, a board, senior leadership, or the equivalent, not to the team whose product depends on the answer they give.
Right to be heard
A named, protected path to raise a values concern and have it heard, not softened or buried, agreed in writing before day one. Not improvised the first time it is needed.
On the record
If a decision goes against the ethicist's judgement, that judgement is logged and dated as given, not quietly revised afterwards to fit what happened next.
No penalty for honesty
The engagement cannot be shortened, downgraded, or quietly wound down because of a values call the ethicist made. It changes only on its own fixed schedule, for reasons unrelated to what they raised.
Integrity declaration
Conflicts of interest are declared before the engagement starts and revisited on a fixed cadence, and confidentiality, ours and the organisation's, is kept by default, not left to memory or raised only when it becomes awkward.
A real end date
Every engagement carries a fixed review date. Independence is renewed on purpose, on schedule, rather than eroded quietly by default over time.
Why we publish this
Because a charter nobody can read is just a promise, and this role is built to carry real authority from day one. These six clauses go into the engagement agreement for every placement, fractional, and rotation we arrange. They are not an upsell, and we do not soften them. If an organisation will not agree to them, we say so plainly before we introduce anyone. If you want the longer version of why, we wrote up the independence problem separately.
Want a role with these terms?
Tell us what you're carrying, and we'll build the role around this charter from the first conversation.