Head of People

Open Philanthropy—one of the world’s most ambitious grantmakers—is looking for a mission-driven Head of People to lead our people strategy as we grow both our giving and our staff. In this role, you will oversee the development and implementation of our critical people-centered operations, including talent and performance management, business immigration, employee relations, and more. As a key strategic partner to the leadership team, you will shape how we attract, cultivate, and retain exceptional talent in the years to come.

This is a rare opportunity to guide and deliver on high-standard people practices that support a world-class team working on some of the world’s most pressing challenges. If you’re excited to drive meaningful organizational growth and contribute to our mission, we’d love to hear from you.

About Open Philanthropy

Open Philanthropy is a grantmaker; our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We currently give away over $700 million per year in our effort to mitigate present-day suffering and future existential risk. Our giving areas include potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence, global health and development, scientific research, South Asian air quality, farm animal welfare, and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. We believe we have an opportunity to make measurable progress on some of the most important and neglected problems facing the world today, and this belief animates every aspect of our work. 

About the Role

Our nearly 150-person team is distributed across eleven countries, with offices in San Francisco and Washington, DC, and smaller hubs elsewhere. The People Operations team is critical in ensuring we can hire, develop, and retain the best possible talent from around the world, and to that end the Head of People will manage the leaders of key operational functions, overseeing a larger vertical of about fifteen team members, and possibly more.

Our staff has doubled in size over the past two years, and is likely to grow toward 200 people within the next eighteen months. Reporting to the Managing Director of Operations (our COO equivalent), you’ll evolve our People functions to reflect this larger scale. Your core responsibilities will include:

Strategic leadership of our People functions

• Setting the vision and strategy for how we foster career growth and meaningful feedback across the organization, evolving our performance systems and management toolkit to reflect our larger scale

• Serving as a trusted advisor and coach to our leadership team on organizational development, management excellence, and employee engagement

• Defining our roadmap for managerial support and development at Open Phil, scaling up our resources such as training and development, coaching, and peer management groups

• Owning talent development across the organization, building stronger development and retention systems in pursuit of optimal talent density

• Identifying our biggest people-related opportunities and challenges and driving solutions that work for our unique context

• Bottomlining employee relations, ensuring the best possible resolution to individual situations and the development of stronger employee relations processes

• Helping to maintain and evolve our culture as we grow, ensuring it continues to embody our operating values

• Evaluating and implementing our compensation strategy and advising on its evolution as we grow

Leading high-performing teams

• Leading and developing the managers of individual People functions such as People Operations, Recruiting, and Business Immigration

• Ensuring excellent execution across core functions like compensation, benefits, employee relations, immigration support, talent acquisition, and employee experience

• Raising the visibility of our People functions throughout the organization, with an eye to deepening partnerships across teams and enhancing related supports  

• Guiding our event strategy, overseeing high-impact all-staff events that regularly bring together our remote team

• Directing our approach to performance reviews, promotions, and career development, with an eye to upleveling partnerships across teams

• Bottomlining compliance with employment law and regulations while maintaining appropriate flexibility

• Leading employee engagement analytics and improvement

• Building scalable systems and processes that maintain our values of ownership and low bureaucracy

About You

Fundamentally, you’re excited to help us sustain excellence across our growing organization. You have the skills and experience to scale our world-class People functions, and to advise our seniormost leaders on people and culture questions. You understand and share our operating values, and are prepared to actualize them in service of our mission. Furthermore, you are a great fit because you:

• Have significant experience (8+ years) in HR/People Operations, including experience leading teams and shaping organizational strategy. You've ideally designed and led People Operations functions for organizations with headcounts of 200+, ideally in dynamic or fast-scaling contexts like startups.

• Are an exceptional people leader with a track record of building high-performing teams and developing other managers. You know how to identify and cultivate excellence in others, and you do so both autonomously and proactively.

• Enjoy debating ideas on the merits rather than deferring to precedent or standard practice. Because you know the "why" behind best people practices, you can work from first principles and adapt them to our context.

• Flag and quantify risks rather than prohibit them, and can make and clearly communicate about decisions under uncertainty.

• Model and reinforce our operating values of ownership, openness, and calibration. You have a low-ego, collaborative approach and are excited to give and receive direct feedback.

• Have excellent judgment and emotional intelligence, and are trusted by leaders. You can navigate complex interpersonal dynamics with wisdom and care (e.g. terminations and exits), building trust with staff across different backgrounds and viewpoints.

• Are just as passionate about our culture as you are about the work you do in the org.

• Prior familiarity with our work or related areas such as effective altruism is a plus.

Additional Information

• Compensation: The baseline annual compensation for this role is $307,624.99, which (for US hires) would be distributed as a base salary of $284,624.99 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $23,000.00.

  • This figure assumes a remote work location; we provide an upwards cost-of-living adjustment for hires based in the Bay Area or Washington, D.C. 

  • For exceptionally experienced candidates, compensation could be materially higher.

• Time zones and location: This is a full-time, permanent position with flexible work hours and location. Occasional travel to San Francisco may be required, and you will generally need to be available for calls during most of the U.S. workday. We are happy to consider sponsoring U.S. work authorization for candidates wanting to relocate to the U.S.; 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 U.S. 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.

  • Note: U.S.-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.

Start date: The start date is flexible, and we may be willing to wait for an extended period of time for the best candidate, though we’d prefer someone to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer.

Applications are due by March 30 at 11:59pm PT. Please apply as soon as you can—we may prioritize candidates who can move through the process sooner.

We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. Open Philanthropy is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.