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 stress openness to many possibilities and have chosen our focus areas based on importance, neglectedness, and tractability. We’re particularly interested in high-risk, high-reward giving that may be too unconventional for other funders. Our current giving areas include global health and development, scientific research, South Asian air quality, farm animal welfare, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, and potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence. In 2023, we recommended just under $800 million to high-impact causes, and have recommended over $3 billion in grants since our formation.
About the Finance Team
The Finance Operations Team oversees accounting and internal financial controls at Open Phil. Our team primarily manages the day-to-day, internal operating financial activities and supports a small portion of tax-exempt compliance work. We work closely with our external bookkeepers and tax consultants but we aren’t just accountants; we take ownership of processes in the finance team’s remit and bring operational excellence to Open Phil.
The Finance team’s expertise enables the rest of Open Phil to operate efficiently. Open Phil’s focus on taking advantage of unconventional funding opportunities means we encounter more organizational complexity than most other funders. The finance team helps to mitigate those risks by adhering to governance and compliance best practices. We work to model our operating values of ownership, openness, calibration, and inclusiveness, and to put our mission first. As of May 2023, the team consists of three members: Manager Jake Schwarber, Phillip Greene, and Josephine Williams.
About the Role
As part of the team, you would assist with all aspects of our day-to-day finance operations and help build more sustainable processes to support Open Phil’s organizational growth.
Your responsibilities would include:
- Monitoring our shared finance inbox, which includes processing invoices, troubleshooting finance-related questions from staff and contractors, flagging complex inquiries to more experienced members of the team, and helping to coordinate with other teams on collaborative projects [40%]
- Day-to-day management of our accounts payable process, including collection of relevant information and paperwork to ensure a smooth experience for our vendors and internal stakeholders [20%]
- Assisting with the review of staff expense reports and period-end close [20%]
- Onboarding Open Phil contractors, and continually looking for ways to improve our contractor process [10%]
- Assisting with the implementation of new tools and software to make Open Phil’s finance operations more efficient [10%]
Open Phil has more than doubled in size in recent years, and we anticipate continued growth. Over time, we anticipate the scope of the role to change and we’re excited about the potential for your responsibilities to grow as the organization continues to scale.
Who we’re looking for
We’d ideally like applicants to have studied finance / accounting or have prior work experience in those fields (0-2 years). We’re also open to applicants who have worked in operations or project management at a startup, tech, or management consulting company.
You might be a great fit for this role if you:
- Are extremely organized and detail-oriented in your work; you rarely, if ever, let anything fall through the cracks and are motivated by maintaining clean systems. Managing a high volume of questions, emails, and tasks is one of your strengths
- Are a transparent, professional, and empathetic communicator; you can break down complex finance / accounting concepts in an accessible, non-intimidating way and are able to effectively tailor your message to the recipient. Written communication as the primary mechanism for interacting with other teams feels comfortable to you
- See internal and external stakeholders as customers, and want to make sure they walk away feeling helped whenever they come into contact with you or your team
- Are always looking for systems, tools, and strategies to save time and effort, particularly when handling repetitive processes
- Are proficient in Google sheets, including the ability to utilize advanced functions and analyze financial data efficiently. You can streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and provide insightful data analysis
- Derive intrinsic satisfaction from seeing systems work well, even if your efforts end up being invisible to most staff
- Are interested in learning the ins and outs of finance operations at a growing, mission-driven organization
- (Bonus) Experience with an accounts payable process, expense reports, and / or period-end close
- (Bonus) Familiarity with the US banking system, as well as object-level familiarity with the IRS accountable plan rules
Role details & benefits
- Compensation: Compensation for this role will be $93,699.04. This would be distributed as a base salary of $81,477.43 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $12,221.61.
- These compensation figures assume a remote location; there would be geographic adjustments upwards for candidates based in the San Francisco Bay Area or Washington, D.C.
- Time zones and location: You can work remotely. While we are not able to sponsor visas for this role, we are open to hires outside the US in areas with at least five hours of overlap with East and West coast US business hours.
- Benefits: Our benefits package includes:
- Excellent health insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US 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
- Support for remote work — we’ll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you would like one, and have Open Phil coworking hubs in select cities
- We can’t always provide every benefit we offer US staff to international hires, but we’re working on it (and will usually provide cash equivalents of any benefits we can’t offer in your country)
- Start date: We’d ideally like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer. We expect to make offers by mid-May with candidates able to start by June.
We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives and backgrounds who share our passion for accomplishing as much good as we can. We are committed to creating an environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed, and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.
The deadline for this application is Sunday April 7, 2024 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. We will consider all applications as a cohort.