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About the role

Rethink Priorities’ Animal Welfare Department produces research and strategic advice to help organizations make well-informed decisions for animals. The Department is splitting into three teams. The AI and Animals Team helps organisations navigate an AI-transforming world. The Frontiers Team advances the field of animal welfare, focusing on neglected animals (such as shrimp) and emerging topics (such as breeding for welfare). And a new Animal Welfare Strategy Team, described below.

The Animal Welfare Strategy Team (working name) will focus on  supporting and accelerating funders and organizations toward achieving their core goals of accelerating the end of low-welfare farming and reducing the suffering of animals on farms, with a focus on terrestrial vertebrates. This will involve a mix of consulting work, in-house research, and other activities.

• Recent consulting work has included economic analysis of egg prices for a policy advocacy organization, prioritization of welfare-tech ideas for a venture studio, and research on alternative-protein regulation to guide a large grantmaker with a $10m+ portfolio. RP is independent: clients get the answers that the evidence supports, whether or not they are the ones they hoped for.
• In-house research might involve building data tools and resources to map where animals are suffering on farms, or strategic analysis to guide stakeholders’ decisions.
• The team will also run the annual Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum, which brings together leaders from across the animal welfare landscape. Going forward, it may build capacity for other actions to enable the success for existing and new projects, such as regranting or talent programs.

The department seeks to hire a Senior Research Manager to lead this new Animal Welfare Strategy Team. This is a leadership role in a Department that is growing and being restructured. You will need to work with the Director to set a strategy for this team covering how the team prioritizes projects, and how the team measures and maximizes impact for the animals. We are looking for someone excited to build these structures. You will also work on hiring, managing incoming consulting projects, designing research processes, and managing staff. We want to create a team with a mix of cross-cutting skills, such as economics, policy, animal welfare ecosystem knowledge, stakeholder management, M&E, and animal science. We have 1–2 economist staff ready to join this team.

This role will report to Sam Hilton, Acting Director of the Animal Welfare Department.

Ideal start date: Monday 4th January 2027 

Key Responsibilities

You are responsible for leading the team’s areas of work. This includes:

• Manage consulting intake. Decide which requests from funders, advocacy organizations, and entrepreneurs RP takes on, reshapes, or declines.
• Identify opportunities and act on them. Bring forward ideas with outsized upside, research or otherwise. For research, set an agenda of priority projects. For other interventions, such as regranting or talent programs, decide whether RP should run them and launch what clears the bar.
• Oversee the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum. Ensure your team: sets the agenda, decides who is in the room, and turns the movement’s annual leaders’ gathering into decisions and impact.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Set strategy. Decide how this team prioritizes, how it measures impact and what work it takes on. There is no project prioritization process, impact framework or intake system yet – you will build them alongside the Director.
• Hire. Decide which skills the team needs next: policy, M&E, animal science, movement experience. Run the rounds, supported by RP’s in-house recruitment specialist.
• Manage the team. Lead economists and specialists with deeper expertise than yours in their own fields. Set the quality bar. Put in place research processes, review standards and project tracking.
• Deliver research that gets used. Scope clients’ decisions, manage staff to deliver on deadline, and follow up on whether clients acted on the findings.
• Represent RP. Build the networks and relationships that generate new projects. Attend conferences where you are able to travel.
• Fundraise. With the Development Team’s support, raise additional funds as the team grows.

What We Are Looking For

Essential criteria

• Impact first. Driven to have as much impact for animals as possible. Committed to integrity in research, to following the evidence, and to being transparent about what it shows.
• Decision-oriented research experience. Experience conducting or overseeing research aimed at informing or influencing a specific stakeholder’s decision.
• Good judgment. Demonstrated judgment in prioritization and decision-making under uncertainty.
• Management experience. Experience managing or mentoring others, including people with deeper expertise than yours, or clear readiness to step into a people-management role.
• Strategy and process design. Experience of, or clear ability to set a team’s strategy and build processes to deliver it where none existed.
• Research review skills. Ability to interrogate both qualitative and quantitative analysis you did not produce, and to “think at the margin” about cost-effectiveness.
• Communication skills. Excellent reasoning transparency: ability to show the assumptions and evidence behind your conclusions. Strong ability to synthesize complex information and communicate strategic insight in writing and in person.
• Delivery. Track record of getting projects finished, on deadline, involving other people. Works well and makes autonomous decisions in a remote, asynchronous, international environment.

Desirable criteria

• Consulting experience. Consulting or other client-facing analytical work: identifying the decision a client is actually facing, shaping or declining work accordingly, and building relationships with clients and fundraising leads.
• Experience of the animal organizational landscape. Professional or voluntary experience of animal advocacy. A working knowledge of the organizational landscape, funders, and strategic debates.
• In-depth expertise in a relevant area. Such as economics, policy and regulation, M&E, or animal science.
• Events and convening experience. Running convenings or facilitating events that bring together groups with differing interests.
• Talent development experience. Running talent programs or fellowships.
• Grantmaking experience. Distributing funds and evaluating organizations for funding.

We expect that even highly qualified applicants will not meet all of these criteria. We encourage you to apply even if you do not have some of these skills, knowledge and experiences. 

What We Offer

Compensation

• We offer an annual salary within the following ranges for a full-time position, prorated for part-time work:
  • $98,500 – $125,000 USD pre-tax
  • £76,590 – £97,176 GBP pre-tax 
  • €89,459 – €113,527 EUR pre-tax
• Compensation is not restricted to the currencies listed above. 
• The exact salary will be based on the candidate’s title level, and calculated using RP’s salary algorithm. Towards the upper end we would expect a track record of leading a research team to drive impact. Towards the lower end we would expect strong research judgment with a shorter management record, or management experience but weaker research skills. You do not need to say which end you think you fit; we assess this from your application.
• To ensure fairness across the entire organization, RP does not negotiate salaries.

Other Benefits

• Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, high-impact organization — our research is used by key decision-makers who influence the distribution of hundreds of millions of charitable dollars.
• Remote-first environment, including flexible work hours and schedule. Virtual co-working spaces, including a private Rethink Priorities Focusmate group
• Comprehensive global benefits program, including statutory benefits as required by local law, and supplemental benefits specific to each country (varies by location)
• Generous paid time off (PTO) and unpaid leave, including:
  • Unlimited vacation with a minimum number of required statutory days off
  • “Mandated” 3 weeks total mid- and end-year organization-wide breaks
  • Unlimited (within reason) personal and sick paid and unpaid leave
  • Parental leave — at least 4 – 9 months of a combination of paid and unpaid leave, available prior to and/or during the first 2 years after a child’s birth or adoption
  • Other paid and unpaid leave (e.g., bereavement)
• Technology stipend of $2,000 USD equivalent every 3 years for work and office equipment and an AI tools budget of $40 USD equivalent monthly
• Professional Development Budget of $4000 USD per year. Learning opportunities, including workshops/training sessions and up to 10% of work time dedicated to professional and personal development
• Paid work trips, including one annual all-staff Mega Team Retreat and relevant conferences
• A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance.
• Low administrative bureaucracy.
• We don’t provide snacks, but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want!

Apply here

Application deadline Mon 19th October, end of day (anywhere on earth). Please click the link on the sidebar / at the foot of this page to apply.

Additional Information

Role-Specific

• Work Environment and Visa Sponsorship: This role is fully remote and we are able to legally hire in many countries. In certain cases, we may be able to provide visa sponsorship to the US or UK and help candidates relocate. If you have questions about whether we can hire or provide visa sponsorship in another country and if this will influence your decision about applying, please contact careers@rethinkpriorities.org before submitting your application.
• Time Zones and Working Hours: While we welcome applicants from all time zones, you will need to have some availability for meetings between 3pm and 5pm UK time on most weekdays, when our Europe-based and US Central time based colleagues overlap. Depending on where you are, this may mean early morning or evening calls.
• Full and Part Time Position: This role is open to full-time and part-time candidates who are available to work at least 24 hours per week. Candidates able to work at least 30 hours a week will be preferred.
• Travel: Travel is not an essential requirement for this position. Travel is not mandatory, but encouraged. A majority of our staff travel a few times per year for conferences, team and all-staff retreats, and other work-related purposes. If, for any reason, you would prefer not to travel for work, please do not be discouraged from applying. Depending on the event, we can likely make accommodations, such as allowing virtual participation when possible.
• Language: Professional level of English language is required for all roles at Rethink Priorities. 

Application process

There are 4 evaluation stages. Only candidates who meet the minimum bar at a given stage will proceed to the next stage. We aim to complete assessments for each stage within a week, so you can quickly learn whether you will proceed to the next stage.

Stage 1: Application Prompts

• We will score whether your responses to the prompts indicate:
  • alignment with our mission 
  • ability to perform tasks that are common for the role 
  • relevant experience in similar roles

Stage 2: Skills assessment

• You will complete a ~5-hour task that assesses core competencies for the role.
• You will be paid $45 USD per hour for completing this assessment 

Stage 3: Interviews

• We will ask you questions relevant to a variety of skills and experiences required for the role.
• Most of these questions will be sent in advance. In a few cases, we will tell you about the topic in advance, but not the specific question.
• You will have an opportunity to ask questions about the role, the Animal Welfare department, and RP more broadly.

Stage 4: Reference checks and offers

• We will ask for two to three references about your job experiences.

Hiring Process-Specific

• Anonymity: We initially assess on anonymized application prompts and test tasks. Please do not send a cover letter, and do not include your name in your responses to the longer application prompts.
• Extension requests: We will try to accommodate extension requests made before the deadline, up to 3 days. We generally cannot accommodate extension requests made after the application deadline, or that are longer than 3 days, and cannot accept late submissions to ensure fairness to other applicants.
• AI use in initial application: You may search for information online or use a free AI assistant (such as ChatGPT, free tier) to provide you with additional support in responding to the initial application questions. If you use an AI assistant, please disclose how you used it and how it changed your responses.
• Application materials: All application materials must be submitted in English language; otherwise, we will not be able to evaluate your candidacy.
• Inclusivity and fairness:  RP is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. Please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. We provide reasonable accommodations and benefits, including, for example, flexible work schedules and locations, mental health coverage through medical benefits (as available), as well as  technology budgets and professional development time that can be used, for example, to purchase assistive technology or engage in job coaching. 
• Accessibility: We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible hiring process. We warmly invite you to reach out to careers@rethinkpriorities.org with any questions or accessibility requests such as chat box use during interviews.
• Hiring Software: We use Pinpoint for our recruitment and hiring processes and all of the email correspondence is done via Pinpoint. We encourage you to add Pinpoint domain (@pinpoint.email) to your trusted contacts and/or check your ‘spam’, ‘promotions’ and ‘updates’ folders, if you don’t hear from us within the expected timeframe.
• Past applicant policy: We may be able to accelerate your job application if you have applied to the same or similar role within RP or a similar institution and advanced within the last 2 years. Please get in touch stating which role you applied to, when, and to which stage you were advanced at which organization if you would like to be considered for this possibility. 
• Consideration for other roles: We sometimes identify strong candidates in one hiring round whose skills are well matched to other senior roles within the department. If you are not selected for this position, we may contact you to ask whether you would like to be considered for a related senior opening, should one arise. You do not need to indicate interest at the application stage.
• Other: Visit our Career webpage if you’d like to know more about our hiring process, culture, and what working at RP is like.

About Rethink Priorities

Founded in 2018, Rethink Priorities (RP) is a think-and-do tank. Through research and action, the organization improves the lives of humans and animals—both now and in the future. We work to identify solutions, mobilize resources, and empower our team and others to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. Our team conducts rigorous research across animal welfare, climate change, global health, international development, and other important and neglected areas. Our operations experts help high-impact organizations to improve efficiency and achieve meaningful results.

RP works as all of the following:

1.  A consultancy doing commissioned work in response to demands from organizations doing high-impact work 
2.  A research institute driven by research agendas we set according to our own priorities.
3.  A think tank aiming to inform public policy to improve the world.
4.  An accelerator, incubator, and base for priority projects.

Accomplishments include: 

• Bringing attention to neglected issues, such as lead exposure, fungal diseases, and shrimp welfare. 
• Increasing the collective impact of advocates across each field in which we work through strategic coordination.
• Investigating potential interventions and identifying the most cost-effective options. In 2025, our research influenced tens of millions of dollars in foundation grants. 
• Creating practical tools for philanthropists to compare resource allocations across different species and cause areas and to build giving portfolios despite uncertainties.
• Providing organizations with data to inform their decisions. For example, we have conducted surveys on perceptions of existential risks, AI, effective giving, and other topics. 
• Providing fiscal sponsorship and operational support to ensure that high-impact initiatives in areas like AI safety and animal welfare can launch and grow effectively.
• Donor Compass – Cross Cause Fund Tool to guide philanthropic giving

We welcome you to review our research database and our latest annual report. 

Contact

Contact: Please email careers@rethinkpriorities.org  if you have any questions.