Senior Recruiter

Open Philanthropy is a philanthropic advisor and funder; our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We stress openness to many possibilities and have chosen our focus areas based on importance, neglectedness, and tractability. Our current giving areas include potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence, global health and development, scientific research, global public health policy, farm animal welfare, and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. In 2024, we directed $650 million to high-impact causes, and we’ve directed over $4 billion in grants since our formation.

Open Phil is growing rapidly. The organization has more than doubled in size over the last two years, and the Recruiting team has overseen every step of this growth, helping teams do everything from identifying their initial hiring needs to making final offers. We develop and implement the systems by which Open Phil finds and evaluates top talent, and are Open Phil’s institutional memory and point of call for all things hiring. The team currently has seven members, and is led by Interim Recruiting Manager Phil Zealley.

Recruiting at Open Phil comprises two primary workstreams: pipeline development and round management. Roughly, pipeline development is everything we do to get strong candidates to apply to Open Phil, and round management is everything we do to find and hire the strongest candidate from the applicant pool. If you’re receiving this job description, we’re hoping you’ll consider applying for the pipeline development workstream, which is discussed in more detail below. 

Open Phil first established a pipeline development sub-team in 2022 by hiring Evan McVail, who currently leads this portfolio, and then expanded the sub-team at the end of 2024 with the addition of Miriam Hinthorn. Evan is now stepping into a new role at a grantee organization, and we are seeking a strategic leader to own and elevate this critical function. You will report to the Interim Recruiting Manager and be responsible for designing, directing, and evolving Open Phil’s overarching strategy for talent pipeline development. Your sub-team leadership will ensure we proactively build the robust and diverse talent pipelines necessary to meet Open Phil’s ambitious growth targets and continue hiring world-class individuals across all focus areas. Your responsibilities would include:

• Pipeline Development Leadership & Strategy: Lead the pipeline development sub-team, including setting strategic priorities for the function and directly managing our Pipeline Development Recruiter (Miriam Hinthorn).

• High-Priority Round Sourcing: In addition to guiding Open Phil's overall candidate outreach strategy, you will personally lead on sourcing for many of our hiring rounds (especially high priority or senior ones) by finding and inviting leads, taking informational calls with promising candidates, and overseeing the team's response to indications of interest.

• Network Building & Key Partnerships: Oversee the cultivation and strategic expansion of our internal and external referral networks. This includes managing key relationships with external partners (such as grantees, relevant community organizers, and peer organizations) and serving as a primary point of contact.

• Event Strategy & Representation: Determine Open Phil's strategy for participation in recruitment-relevant events and conferences (e.g., EA Global, AIS retreats). You will decide which events to prioritize, define our objectives for attending, and serve as a key representative to build relationships.

• Systems Improvement & Reporting: Oversee the maintenance and improvement of systems for tracking leads, relationships, and sourcing outcomes. You will ensure these systems effectively report on pipeline health and sourcing efforts, providing necessary visibility for senior leadership.

• Employer Brand Collaboration: Collaborate closely with Open Phil’s Communications team to inform the development of our employer brand. You will contribute to shaping how we present ourselves to potential candidates and guide updates to platforms like our Careers page and Glassdoor account.

• Cross-functional Support: Occasionally support active round management and contribute to other recruiting priorities or projects as needed, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness across the team. This would also include supporting on strategy and leadership of the broader recruiting team as needed.

It’s hard to predict everything that you might be doing — we expect all staff to be flexible about what they work on and put contributing to our mission first. 

We think people from a variety of backgrounds could be great fits for our team. While direct prior experience leading a sourcing or pipeline development function is not required, we expect the strongest candidates might have relevant experience in areas like recruiting, partnerships, EA/GCR community building, and/or people management.

We think you might be a great fit for this work if you:  

• Have strong interpersonal judgment and communication skills. You'll be representing Open Phil to senior candidates and key external partners. You can build trust, convey what's compelling about working here, navigate sensitive conversations effectively, and maintain a high degree of transparency.

• Enjoy thinking strategically about people and organizational needs. You can assess individual potential against complex role requirements, take a broad, systems-level view of Open Phil’s talent needs across diverse cause areas, and connect pipeline strategy to long-term goals.

• Possess deep context on Open Phil and our talent sources. You understand our mission, culture, and the nuances of our different program areas well enough to engage credibly with sophisticated candidates and partners in these spaces, particularly in communities dedicated to work in Effective Altruism or Global Catastrophic Risk.

• Have experience managing people or leading teams. You are adept at setting clear goals, providing constructive feedback, and supporting the development of team members, ideally having directly managed staff previously.

• Like to move fast, prioritize effectively, and ensure execution. You can manage competing demands in a fast-paced environment, identify high-leverage activities, and ensure that you and your team deliver results reliably. Recruiting work often feels urgent, and you are comfortable maintaining momentum.

• Are highly conscientious, organized, and reliable. You can oversee complex workflows and relationships, ensuring important details don't fall through the cracks and stakeholders (including senior leadership) have appropriate visibility into the pipeline function's progress.

While not required, we’d be particularly excited if you have:

• Significant past experience with talent sourcing specifically for hard-to-fill or senior roles, possibly in an executive search capacity.

• Established, relevant networks within communities central to Open Phil’s work (e.g., technical AI safety, global health and development, biosecurity, public policy).

• Experience designing or significantly improving systems for tracking talent pipelines and reporting on key metrics.

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 strongly encourage you to do so.

• Compensation: The baseline compensation for this role is $148,207.23, which (for US hires) would be distributed as a base salary of $128,875.85 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $19,331.38. 

  • These compensation figures assume a remote location; we offer higher compensation for candidates located in San Francisco or Washington, D.C. San Francisco total compensation would be $160,649.51, and Washington, D.C. total compensation would be $158,269.53.

  • All compensation will be distributed in the form of take-home salary for internationally based hires.

• Time zones and location: We offer remote work in many countries. We are flexible with work timings and are open to hires outside the US willing to have some overlap with both US and UK time zones. Our team currently has members based in the US, the UK, and Brazil.

  • We are happy to consider sponsoring US work authorization. However, we don’t control who is and isn’t eligible for a visa and can’t guarantee visa approval.

• Benefits: Our benefits package includes: 

  • 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) 

• Start date: We’d like to fill this role as soon as possible. We expect to make an offer in April or May, and hope new hires can start as soon as possible after receiving an offer. That said, we understand that some candidates may need longer to exit existing commitments (and hope you’ll let us know if this timeline doesn’t work for you, so we can follow up with you at a later date). 

We’re accepting applications on a rolling basis. Please apply as soon as you’re able.

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 [email protected].

US-based Operations 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.