Deputy Director of Research

To apply: Fill out this application form.

ABOUT CHARITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Charity Entrepreneurship (CE) is a research and training program that launches multiple high-impact charities annually in a number of rotating cause areas, including animal advocacy, mental health, global health and development, and policy.  ​

HOW YOU WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Your research will guide CE’s recommendations about what charities should be started. Previous CE research has led to the founding of seven poverty/health charities, three animal advocacy charities, and two mental health charities. Charities we’ve helped launch include Fortify Health, Charity Science Health (both awarded GiveWell Incubation Grants), and Animal Advocacy Careers (supported by Open Philanthropy, the EA Animal Welfare Fund, and ACE). We aim for the charities to be among the most effective in the world. For example, GiveWell claimed that “Our cost-effectiveness model currently assigns an overall likelihood of 25% to Fortify Health becoming a top charity.”

Last year we received ~3,000 applications to our Incubation Program, and we expect this pool to grow. We are expanding our research team and seek a Deputy Director of Research so we can recommend more and better charity ideas and consequently start a greater number of effective organizations. To do this, we need a senior researcher who will help us make those decisions.

OUR CULTURE
CE has a start-up culture of creativity, casual attire, friendliness and kindness, hard work, flexibility, and task diversity. You will be expected to have a strong work ethic, but our organization is consequentialist when it comes to taking days off. We offer a lot of team socials and community benefits, as well as a flexible working schedule; a caring, friendly team; and snacks (when we return to the office after the Covid pandemic). 10% of your time can be devoted to personal development and learning of your choice, including fairly extensive internal and external training.

ABOUT THE ROLE
By joining Charity Entrepreneurship as Deputy Director of Research, you will directly influence the number and type of charities we recommend and launch. It has been estimated that each new charity is worth $200,000-$400,000 in expectation per year. As a key senior staff member part of the research team, you will help us identify, analyze, and compare charity opportunities. Together with the director of research, you will make decisions about charity recommendations so that funding is directed toward the most effective organizations. By creating 6 charities per year, you will have a direct impact on the $1.2M – $2.4M in expectation. See previous writing on the value of CE and the expected value of a top charity for a more detailed rationale.

The Deputy Director of Research will manage a team of researchers; conduct direct research on and compare a variety of potential interventions in multiple cause areas; and together with the Director of Research make decisions about charity recommendations. The Deputy Director of Research will have high levels of cross-cutting responsibilities and will be expected to gain many new skills on the job. If you are interested in the position but do not have skills in some of the listed areas, please apply nonetheless – we are happy to cater our training to your individual needs.

​Responsibilities include:

• Co-creating a research process
• Generating charity ideas
• Analyzing charity ideas
• Building cost-effectiveness models
• Assessing the strength of evidence for a given charity idea
• Conducting interviews with experts
• Managing a team of research staff
• Communicating our research to the public
• Directly influencing decisions about which charities to start through CE’s annual incubation program.

This job will involve rapid learning and application of knowledge, both directly technical skills (e.g. conducting literature reviews and meta-analyses) and creatively applying empirical data (e.g. using past surveys to derive expected value). It will also involve delving deeply into philosophical topics such as issues of sentience and moral weights, or how to deal with flow-through effects. Day-to-day conversations will include talking about crucial considerations, application of self-improvement techniques, and how to deal with epistemic uncertainty. This job will provide strong learning value for people looking to enter a long term career in the EA movement, research, or charity entrepreneurship.

WHAT WE OFFER

• A job with huge counterfactual impact
• The opportunity to shape the nonprofit ecosystem
• The chance to steer the direction, goals, and achievements of Charity Entrepreneurship
• Flexible working schedule and days off
• Experience working at an early-stage nonprofit start-up
• Community of talented, dedicated, and like-minded EAs
• Training in important skills
• High levels of intellectual challenge
• For the right employee, more perks and benefits could be included
• Salary and moving costs are flexible depending on employee needs

ABOUT YOU
Many excellent candidates will have some (but not all) of the characteristics below, and we encourage you to apply even if you do not have all of the below. Historically, we have offered positions to talented applicants who did not meet all the criteria. ​

WHAT WE NEED
We’re looking for someone:

• Able both to work autonomously and to manage a small team
• A creative problem-solver
• Experienced in both empirical and a priori researchAble to interpret and critically evaluate studies and statistical analysis
• Able to generate and critically evaluate merits of rational arguments, including your own
• Familiar with Bayesian reasoning
• With experience creating and evaluating cost-effectiveness analyses
• Able to break down large challenges into manageable segments
• With strong written communication skills and a high degree of reasoning transparency
• Highly impact-driven and knowledgeable about effective altruism
• Highly intelligent and conscientious
• Able to effectively work across many cause areas, e.g. animal advocacy and global health and development policy
• Able to move to and work in London after CE re-opens its office after the pandemic. (Exceptions may be made for excellent applicants who do not meet this criterion.)
• Intellectually curious and open
• A kind person excited about the job, with a very strong work ethic

BONUS POINTS FOR

• Experience working in effective altruism (volunteering, independent projects, internships, or jobs all count)
• A confident manager with good interpersonal skills and demonstrable experience leading research teams
• Keen to work in a dynamic start-up environment with high level of ambiguity
• Ideally, you would have experience in starting a charity in the past (even an ineffective one 😉 ) or have founded a for-profit.

APPLY NOW

The application deadline is November 20th, 2020.
Fill out this form to apply!
The strongest candidates will be contacted for the first stage interview

Commitment to diversity and equal employment opportunities
​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. Charity Entrepreneurship is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other related questions about applying, please contact ula@charityscience.com