Program Associate/senior Program Associate - Innovation Policy

This role sits within Open Philanthropy’s Innovation Policy team. See here to learn more about the team’s goals.

About Open Philanthropy

Open Philanthropy is a philanthropic funder and advisor; our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We believe in openness to many possibilities and have chosen our focus areas based on importance, neglectedness and tractability. We’re particularly interested in hits-based giving that may be too unconventional for other funders. 

In addition to Innovation Policy, our current giving areas include global health and development, scientific research, South Asian air quality, farm animal welfare, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, and potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.

In 2023, we committed just under $800 million to high-impact causes, and we have committed over $3 billion since our formation.

About Innovation Policy

Our Innovation Policy program sits within the larger Scientific Research focus area at Open Philanthropy and seeks to drive economic growth without unduly increasing risks from emerging technologies. The program launched in November 2022 with the goal of safely accelerating scientific and technological progress to improve life for billions of people. 

Current strategies in Innovation Policy focus on:

• Building a scientific ecosystem that learns from experimentation.
• Supporting early-stage technologies with the potential to significantly accelerate scientific progress.
• Reforming policies to facilitate skilled migration.
• Providing financial support for individuals to write 'living literature reviews.'
• Funding initiatives to identify and minimize potential catastrophic risks.

Our grantmaking efforts are ongoing, with plans to expand into diverse projects in the future. Some of the grants we’ve recommended include J-PAL’s Science for Progress Initiative, the Institute for Replication, Speculative Technologies’ Brains training program, the Talent Mobility fund, and the Institute for Progress.

About the Role

In this role, you will primarily focus on grant investigations for opportunities linked to the Innovation Policy program’s recently expanded set of strategies. You will work most directly with Matt Clancy, who leads the Innovation Policy program. To learn more about his work, you can read Matt’s blog, New Things Under the Sun, a living literature review about academic research on the economics of innovation, science of science, creativity, and discovery, or listen to this 80,000 hours podcast on whether science is good.

Your work will include a mix of:

• Identifying new grant opportunities: Staying attuned to trends in innovation policy, meeting potential grantees, and attending conferences.
• Investigating grant opportunities: Analyzing and evaluating the potential impact of grants, writing detailed recommendations for funding decisions.
• Following up on grants: Maintaining relationships with grantees, conducting check-in calls, and assessing the progress of funded projects to decide on renewals.
• Researching new sub-strategies: Conducting research on new sub-strategies and evaluating their likely social return on investment using Open Philanthropy’s methodology. Sample strategies include high-skilled immigration reform outside the US, funding technology transfer offices, and assessing the social return on investment in various fields.

Who might be a good fit

You might be a good fit for this position if you have:  

• Experience in academia, industry, or policymaking related to metascience, innovation policy or related fields.
• A high level of comfort in quantifying concepts and theories of change, and grounding quantitative estimates in the best evidence available, even if imperfect.
• Excellent judgment. You will help the team prioritize the most crucial information for decision-making such as due diligence on grantees, and making recommendations based on that.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, especially the ability to quickly grasp complex issues, skeptically evaluate claims, and make recommendations based on rigorous analysis.
• Strong written communication skills, particularly the ability to transparently and clearly communicate complex information.
• Great interpersonal skills and social instincts. You will need to be able to build rapport and relationships with grantees, and sometimes communicate about sensitive topics. As much of our grantmaking is international, you will also need to be able to work effectively with ideologically and culturally diverse partner organizations.
• Risk tolerance aligned with our approach to hits-based giving. We make decisions based on expected value and will make grants with a low probability of success if the total upside is large enough.
• Primary research experience (for example, a PhD) may be a bonus to help you assess the quality of other people’s research, but is not required for this role.

We expect all our staff to: 

• Put our mission first, and act decisively to help us realize our ambitious goals for impact.
• Work to model our operating values of ownership, openness, calibration, and inclusiveness.

The ideal candidate for this position will possess many of the skills and experiences described above. However, there is no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we would strongly encourage you to apply.

Additional Information

• • The compensation for a Program Associate would be $123,368.30, with a base salary of $107,276.78 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $16,091.52.

  • We anticipate that a Senior Program Associate would have significantly more experience (7+ years) in their field. Compensation for that role would be $160,355.45, with a base salary of $139,439.53 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $20,915.93. 

    • These compensation figures assume a remote location; there would be geographic adjustments upwards for candidates based in the San Francisco Bay Area or Washington, D.C.
    • By default, this role will be employed by Open Philanthropy Project LLC.

• Time zones and location: This is a full-time position with flexible work hours and a remote location. 

  • We are open to hires outside the US who can regularly overlap with US business hours (Central Time).
  • Open Philanthropy is headquartered in San Francisco, but many staff members work remotely. If located in San Francisco, our staff are welcome to work from the office as often or as seldom as they’d like.

• Start date: The start date is flexible, though we’d prefer someone to start relatively soon after receiving an offer (likely in late Summer or early Fall of 2024).

• • Excellent health insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any eligible dependents) and an employer-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangement for certain other personal health expenses.
  • Dental, vision, and life insurance for you and your family.
  • Four weeks of PTO recommended per year.
  • Four months of fully paid family leave.
  • A generous and flexible expense policy — we encourage staff to expense the ergonomic equipment, software, and other services that they need to stay healthy and productive.
  • A continual learning policy that encourages staff to spend time on professional development with related expenses covered.
  • Support for remote work — we’ll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you need one, or connect you with an Open Phil coworking hub in your city
  • We can’t always provide every benefit we offer US staff to international hires, but we’re working on it (and will usually provide cash equivalents of any benefits we can’t offer in your country).

We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who share our passion for accomplishing as much good as we can. We are committed to creating an environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed, and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.

Please apply by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on 30 June 2024 to be considered.

US-based program staff are typically employed by Open Philanthropy Project LLC, which is not a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. As such, this role is unlikely to be eligible for public service loan forgiveness programs.