Roles in Grants, Operations, Finance, and Recruiting

Open Philanthropy has a staff of about 50 and currently gives away over $250 million per year with the aim of doing as much good as we can per dollar, in causes like global health and development, farm animal welfare, and potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence. Over the next decade, we plan to increase our giving by several times while continuing to raise our bar for impact.

 

Apply to join the Operations Team

The Operations team’s goal is to provide excellent support to the organization as well as our grantees and collaborators. Our long-term vision is to develop the infrastructure and capacity to support a much higher volume of giving, while maintaining our current quality of service. We are currently seeking mission-aligned operations talent to fill multiple roles (described below). You might be a great fit if you:

• Are able to communicate effectively, and in a professional and welcoming manner. You will be the face of Open Philanthropy to a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
• Constantly seek out improvements and question the status quo in pursuit of a better solution or system.
• Are organized and able to keep on top of a large number of open items and next steps while paying close attention to detail.
• Are service-minded, and comfortable with some amount of repetition in your work; you are motivated by the idea of contributing to what Open Philanthropy needs most, even if it’s not glamorous.
• Are enthusiastic about operations work. We will try to give priority to candidates who are potentially interested in a longer-term career in operations, finance, recruiting and/or project management.
• Are familiar with the ideas of effective altruism and are excited to work at an EA-aligned organization.
  
  If you are interested in any or all of the roles detailed below, please fill out this application form and select the role you are currently most interested in (you will have the opportunity to let us know if you would also like to be considered for other roles). Don’t worry too much about which role to apply for if you’re unsure. If we think you’d be a great addition to our team, we will find the right role for you (and we’ll treat the role you select as your “first choice” for now).

The deadline to apply for these positions has been extended to Monday, December 6, at 11:59pm Pacific Time.

About the Grants Associate Position

Our five-person Grants Management team supports Open Philanthropy’s mission by processing grants efficiently and expertly so that our grantees and program staff can focus on doing the most good possible. We pride ourselves on keeping administrative burdens to a minimum and getting grantees money in a quick and low-hassle way.

Your core responsibilities would include:

• Managing the process of getting funding to grantees once it has been internally approved. This includes determining which vehicle is best suited to make the grant, coordinating with grantees and program staff to get the necessary information, and communicating with external funding entities to ensure grants are paid on time and don’t encounter any roadblocks.
• Knowledge- and information-management related to grants, including record-keeping and updates in Salesforce, maintenance of processes/workflows/guides, tracking of check-ins and renewals, and managing key documents.
• Identifying and managing legal and compliance risk related to grant-making activities and related vehicles, in collaboration with our legal team.
• Noticing areas for improvement and bringing them to the attention of the team. (We’re big on looking for ways to continually improve our systems and practices to better support Open Philanthropy’s mission.)
• Taking on other special projects related to grants management (past examples have included developing training for new program staff, providing ad hoc support to programmatic teams, researching ways to streamline grants in tricky jurisdictions, managing our annual grantee survey process, and designing a formal Individual Grants Program to more easily fund individuals).

We think this role might be a great fit for a strong communicator who is organized, enjoys problem-solving and wants to understand the legal and compliance aspects of grantmaking. Open Philanthropy’s mission is to fund the most impactful work we can identify: we make general support and project grants to U.S. nonprofits, international grants requiring additional diligence and reporting, scholarships and research grants, investments in for-profit companies, and contributions to support lobbying and political work. The grants team plays a critical role in supporting this work by determining how to best get funding to grantees.

Past grants management experience (or other relevant experience, such as paralegal work) is helpful, but not required — we have training available.

Applicants may work from anywhere in the United States.

About the Finance Assistant/Associate Position

You would be the second hire onto our internal Finance team and would help grow and optimize the team’s capacity. The Finance team sits within the Operations team, and you would work closely with our Finance Manager and Director of Grants Management to own all aspects of our day-to-day finance operations, and look for ways to improve them further.

Your core responsibilities would include:

• Managing accounts payable and collecting all relevant information and paperwork to ensure a smooth process.
• Managing staff expense reporting, and troubleshooting finance-related questions from staff and contractors.
• Onboarding Open Philanthropy contractors and making improvements to our contractor process.
• Tracking budgets, building out and managing our expenses database on a monthly basis.
• Conducting recurring and/or ad hoc financial analysis or reports.
• Maintaining and making improvements to staff-facing and department-facing policies and procedure guides.
• Planning and executing projects to improve the team’s efficiency and effectiveness, and supporting the Finance Manager on larger efforts to improve Open Philanthropy’s finance operations.

We think this role might be a great fit for someone interested in learning the ins and outs of finance management at a growing, mission-driven organization. We are open to applicants with varying levels of experience, and there’s no requirement that you be familiar with nonprofit finance operations (though if you are, that’s great!).

Applicants may work from anywhere in the United States.

About the Operations Assistant/Associate Position

The generalist operations team maintains essential functions at Open Philanthropy and provides support to our staff in an effort to boost the overall productivity of the organization. You would report to our Operations Manager, and your core responsibilities would include:

• Event planning and staff engagement (e.g. roundtables where staff share updates on their work, team lunches and happy hours, team-wide retreats, and events for individual program teams, such as grantee convenings or retreats).
• Recurring processes (e.g. publishing grant pages on our website, processing invoices, onboarding new hires, sending communications to staff, and keeping various repositories of internal information organized and up-to-date).
• Support for teams and staff members (e.g. scheduling/calendar management for a senior staff person, data cleaning, taking notes on calls with grantees).
• Designing new processes and providing support on projects that will help the organization better scale.

We think this role might be a great fit for someone interested in gaining a big-picture view of the operations work required to run an effective organization. For this position, candidates must be able to work from San Francisco or Washington D.C., as the role will involve providing on-the-ground support to staff in those locations.

About the Recruiting Coordinator/Associate Position

Our recruiting team works to meet Open Philanthropy’s immediate goals for growth, and to identify new potential talent pipelines. You would report to our Recruiting Manager, and work alongside other recruiting team members to:

• Proactively source candidates by advertising our roles to new audiences, reaching out to prospective candidates, requesting referrals, and conducting introductory calls with potential candidates to answer questions about Open Philanthropy.
• Support and/or manage active hiring rounds. This would involve handling candidate communications, reviewing applications, blinding and/or grading work tests, conducting phone screens with candidates, scheduling interviews, conducting references, and ensuring stakeholders stay informed at key stages.
• Streamline and improve our recruiting systems to make our work faster, and improve the experience for candidates and hiring managers (e.g. investigating faster, more automated ways of handling email communication and interview scheduling, creating more standardized interview and evaluation templates, managing and organizing candidate data).

We think this role might be a great fit for someone interested in a role with a higher proportion of outreach, relationship-building and project management. We are open to applicants with varying levels of experience, and past experience with recruiting is not required. Applicants may work from anywhere in the United States.

Other Information

• These are full-time, permanent positions with an ideal start date in February 2022.
• We are hiring at two levels of seniority across all three positions, which is reflected by a compensation of either $72,254.05 (with a $62,829.61 take-home salary and $9,424.44 unconditional 401k grant or $86,406.61 (with a $75,136.18 take-home salary and $11,270.43 unconditional 401k grant).1
• Level and final title will be dependent on experience level — as a rough guide, candidates with under two years of relevant professional experience should expect to come in at the lower salary level; candidates with three or more will likely come in at the higher salary level.
• We also offer a comprehensive benefits package including full health, dental, vision and life insurance, flexible work hours and location, ergonomic equipment, and more.
• Unfortunately, we are unable to consider candidates who would require Visa sponsorship for roles on the Operations team.
• If you have other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.

We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from self-identified women and people of color who are excited about contributing to our mission. Open Philanthropy is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.