Senior Research Manager - Animal Welfare

Rethink Priorities•Remote, PA

9d•$98,500 - $125,000•Remote

About The Position

Rethink Priorities' Animal Welfare Department produces research and strategic advice to help the animal advocacy movement do the most good for animals. The Department is splitting into three teams: the AI and Animals Team, the Frontiers Team, and a new Animal Movement Foundations Team. The Animal Movement Foundations Team will focus on supporting and accelerating the animal advocacy movement towards ending factory farming and reducing suffering for terrestrial vertebrates. This will involve consulting, in-house research, and other activities. Recent consulting work includes economic analysis of egg prices, prioritization of welfare tech ideas, and research on alternative protein regulation. In-house research may involve building data tools or strategic analysis. The team will also run the annual Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum. The department seeks to hire a Senior Research Manager to lead this new team, working with the Director to set strategy, prioritize projects, measure impact, and manage staff. The role requires building structures for the team, hiring, managing consulting projects, designing research processes, and managing staff with diverse skills such as economics, policy, movement experience, M&E, and animal science. The role will report to Sam Hilton, Acting Director of the Animal Welfare Department.

Requirements

Impact first mindset, driven to have maximum impact for animals.
Commitment to integrity in research, following evidence, and transparency.
Decision-oriented research experience, informing or influencing a specific stakeholder's decision.
Good judgment in prioritization and decision-making under uncertainty.
Management experience or clear readiness to manage others, including those with deeper expertise.
Experience or ability to set team strategy and build processes.
Research review skills, ability to interrogate analysis and think about cost-effectiveness.
Excellent communication skills, including reasoning transparency and synthesizing complex information.
Track record of delivering projects on time, involving others.
Ability to work well and make autonomous decisions in a remote, asynchronous, international environment.
Consulting or client-facing analytical work experience, including identifying client decisions and building relationships.
Professional or voluntary experience in the animal advocacy movement, with working knowledge of its organizations, 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, bringing together groups with differing interests.
Talent development experience, running talent programs or fellowships.
Grantmaking experience, distributing funds and evaluating organizations for funding.
Professional level of English language.

Responsibilities

Manage consulting intake, deciding which requests to take on, reshape, or decline.
Identify opportunities and act on them, bringing forward ideas with outsized upside.
Set an agenda of priority projects for research.
Decide whether RP should run other interventions like regranting or talent programs and launch them if they meet the criteria.
Oversee the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum, ensuring the team sets the agenda, decides who attends, and translates the gathering into decisions and impact.
Set team strategy, including prioritization, impact measurement, and work selection, building processes where none currently exist.
Lead hiring decisions for the team, identifying needed skills and running the recruitment process.
Manage the team, including economists and specialists, setting quality standards, and implementing research processes, review standards, and project tracking.
Deliver research that is used by clients, scoping decisions, managing staff to meet deadlines, and following up on client actions.
Represent RP by building networks and relationships to generate new projects and attending conferences.
Fundraise for the team's growth with support from the Development Team.

Benefits

Annual salary between $98,500 - $125,000 USD pre-tax (prorated for part-time work).
Compensation not restricted to USD, GBP, or EUR.
Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, high-impact organization.
Remote-first environment with flexible work hours and schedule.
Virtual co-working spaces, including a private Rethink Priorities Focusmate group.
Comprehensive global benefits program, including statutory and supplemental benefits.
Generous paid time off (PTO) and unpaid leave, including unlimited vacation with a minimum 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: 4 - 9 months of paid and unpaid leave.
Other paid and unpaid leave (e.g., bereavement).
Technology stipend of $2,000 USD equivalent every 3 years for work and office equipment.
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 for professional and personal development.
Paid work trips, including one annual all-staff Mega Team Retreat and relevant conferences.
Caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance.
Low administrative bureaucracy.