Applied Researcher - Global Catastrophic Risks

ABOUT US:

At Founders Pledge, our mission is to empower entrepreneurs to do immense good. Since launching in 2015, we’ve raised over $10 billion for the most impactful social causes. We offer the simplest path to impact for successful entrepreneurs, providing end-to-end giving infrastructure, pioneering research, and access to a worldwide network of experts. In other words, we help tech leaders become strategic philanthropists. Our 1900+ members include the people behind industry-leading companies such as Airbnb, UiPath, Dropbox, Skype, Spotify, and Uber.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

We’re looking for an Applied Researcher with a focus on global catastrophic risks to work on our Research team, which identifies and evaluates high-impact funding opportunities (HIFOs) to enable our broader member-base to give as effectively as possible. Our member base consists of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who use our HIFO recommendations to guide their giving.

Our aim is to provide the highest-impact funding opportunities across these areas. Reporting to our Global Catastrophic Risks Research Lead, you’ll have an active interest in the ideas of effective altruism and you’ll have deep engagement with international security and existential risks, with a focus on impact maximisation. This is a fantastic opportunity to ensure that the most funds possible are donated to the most high-impact causes globally, and may include working closely with our Global Catastrophic Risks Fund and Patient Philanthropy Fund. You may also help provide recommendations to a small set of UHNWIs that Founders Pledge works with closely, with the potential to influence tens of millions of dollars in HIFO giving.

You’ll conduct:

• Cause area investigations: Investigations into the most pressing problem areas that seek to identify the most cost-effective approaches of tackling them, and to recommend funding opportunities that implement those approaches, often leading to a cause area report that we publish on our website.
• Funding opportunity investigations: individual investigations into promising funding opportunities to see if they meet our bar for recommendation, feeding into a report or other internal or external materials.
• Shallow investigations: Internal investigations of less than a week into a particular problem area or methodological question relevant to our research.
• Active grantmaking investigations: Working with potential grantees to shape new high-impact project ideas for the Global Catastrophic Risks Fund.

You’ll also support our Philanthropic Advisors to provide expert advice and recommendations based on our research, as well as providing support to our Programmes & Events teams by presenting research findings to our members.

ABOUT YOU:

You’re likely to have:

• A commitment to social impact with strong understanding of impact maximisation and the nuances of charity evaluation from multiple worldviews
• An interest in global catastrophic risks, existential risks, longtermism, AI governance, and related fields.
• Excellent analytical skills: Comfort working with systematic quantitative frameworks; understanding of, and the ability to build, quantitative models.
• Good calibration: Knowledge of the extent of your own knowledge, and a good sense of how confident you should be in your beliefs.
• Intellectual curiosity and openness: A willingness to consider alternative points of view, to follow good arguments wherever they lead, and an openness to changing your mind.
• Clear writing: The ability to express nuanced evidence and complex concepts in a clear way.
• Conscientiousness and prioritisation: A willingness to work hard and to focus time on top priorities.
• Good judgement: For example, the ability to decide how long to spend on a project, or on what sections to include in a report.
• The ability to work well with others, to communicate honestly and directly, and to be open to feedback.
• Willingness to work in a high-growth, dynamic startup environment and comfortable with ambiguity.
• The confidence and experience to lead your own research, working independently (we are open to candidates of varying seniority).

We would be especially excited about candidates with experience or interest in any of the following:

• AI governance and AI safety (NB: this is not a technical AI safety role)
• Multi-track diplomacy
• International security
• Great power competition, especially U.S.-China relations
• Policy advocacy

WHY WORK WITH US?

You can find more about the benefits we offer here, but what makes us truly special is both our mission and our people. We’re a diverse team, from both charitable and commercial backgrounds, who believe that amazing things can happen when we tackle problems together. We offer a flat structure and an opportunity to help shape the future of philanthropy.

There's no expectation for you to attend an office on a regular basis. At the same time, if you think you’d benefit from a desk in a co-working space close to your home, this can be arranged. Otherwise, you just need a great home wifi connection and we’ll provide you with everything else you need to be successful in your role.

We bring the global team together once per year for a global offsite. This is a week of collaborative learning, ideas generation and socialising. In addition to this, each team has the opportunity to meet together at least once per year.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Founders Pledge. We seek people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds, who share our drive to understand and solve complex social challenges.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Finding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems requires different perspectives and unique ways of thinking and we are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone can do their best work.