GENERAL RESEARCHER

Application open date: Oct 20, 2023
Application close date: Nov 12, 2023

JOB DESCRIPTION

• Reports To: Charity Evaluations Manager or Programs Director
• Hours: Full-time (40 hours/week); must routinely be available between 8-10 am Pacific Time, otherwise daily schedule is flexible.
• Salary: From $66,272 USD annually
• Location: Remote.
• Paid leave (vacations and holidays): 30 days per year.

POSITION SUMMARY

At Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE), our mission is to find and promote the most effective ways to help animals. You can learn more about us by visiting our website.

We are seeking a detail-oriented and strategic-minded individual to join our Programs team. As a researcher on our team, you will keep up to date with empirical literature relevant to effective animal advocacy, assess charities’ programs to find the most promising ones, and help share our thinking with the community to influence spending and decision-making. Leading up to each evaluation season, you’ll engage in literature searches, present and deliberate research findings with other team members with the goal of updating our stances on various interventions and theories of change, and refine our evaluation methods (e.g., by developing quantitative models) and processes. During the evaluation season, you’ll apply these methods and models to assess the work of charities selected for evaluation.

This position offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to a robust understanding of effective ways to help animals. This includes using tools from a wide range of disciplines, such as economics, philosophy, statistics, and animal welfare science, to help make decisions about where animal advocates should allocate our limited resources. The ideal candidate will have strong reasoning and communication skills and bring to ACE a relevant background in quantitative modeling and/or cost-effectiveness analysis, impact evaluation, social change/movement ecology, or a related skill set that differentiates them from others on our team.

Key areas of responsibility

• Compose charity evaluations. In collaboration with our team, you will learn the intricacies of specific interventions and their implementations to inform charity evaluations. You will lead the assessment and drafting of some criteria for our charity reviews.
• Identify and implement improvements to ACE’s charity recommendations process. You will have the chance to help refine the core aspects of our evaluative work, which will impact our overall findings; e.g., you will identify research topics that support charity evaluations, improve the accuracy of our evaluation methods, or implement process improvements that streamline evaluation methods for our team and our evaluated charities.
• Contribute to ACE’s research strategy. We are continually learning new information and considering our direction as an organization. You will have the opportunity to provide meaningful feedback in strategic discussions and shape ACE’s future research direction.
• Collaborate with individual advocates and external organizations. One of the most interesting aspects of our work at ACE is our place at the intersection of the animal advocacy movement and effective altruism. Through our evaluative work, you will have the opportunity to discuss movement-level strategies with various groups and learn from individual advocates from around the world. You will have regular opportunities to engage with academics and the advocacy community.
• Compose reports on research projects. You will hone your writing skills by constructing reviews, blog entries, and other materials for publication on our website.
• Find and review external studies and research relevant to farm animal advocacy, wild animal welfare, and other potentially high-­impact fields. We currently view farmed animal advocacy and wild animal welfare as the most effective ways to help the greatest number of animals, but we are actively considering other possibilities. You will be at the forefront of our research, helping investigate new exciting opportunities for maximizing our impact.
• Contribute to ACE’s Movement Grants program. This involves participating in the Movement Grants program as a guest reviewer by assessing select batches of applications and contributing to granting decisions.

Sample projects

• Charity Evaluations. You will participate in our Charity Evaluation program, including identifying promising charities, researching and writing reviews, and selecting charities for recommendation. (Example review: The Good Food Institute.)
• Research. You will research, summarize, and integrate topics relevant to effective animal advocacy to inform ACE’s Charity Evaluations and Movement Grants programs. (Example topic: What is the current state of evidence for farmed insect sentience?)

Skills We’re Seeking

Essential skills

• Commitment to ACE’s mission to find and promote the most effective ways to help animals
• Strong quantitative and qualitative reasoning skills
• Excellent understanding of and comfort with methods for quantifying impact and uncertainty (e.g., subjective confidence intervals and weighted factor models)
• Excellent skills in spreadsheet software, especially Google Sheets
• Shared commitment to increasing representation/diversity, equity, and inclusion in our movement and organization
• High degree of professionalism, including discretion in handling confidential information
• Ability to work both independently and in a team
• Strong attention to detail, with a commitment to high-quality work
• Excellent written communication skills
• Highly organized and self-motivated

Preferred skills

• Prior experience with cost-effectiveness calculations and/or quantitative modeling
• Excellent oral communication skills
• Demonstrated strategic thinking skills
• Skills in data visualization
• Solid understanding of social movements and social change
• Familiarity with effective altruism and counterfactual thinking

APPLICATION PROCESS (ALL DATES IN THIS TIMELINE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Step 1: Fill out the application and accompanying questions by the deadline of Nov 12th, 2023.

Step 2: In mid-November, successful candidates will be invited to complete some paid work tasks.

Step 3: In early-mid December, successful candidates will be invited to participate in an interview (conducted by video call).

Step 4: ACE aims to make a final decision and notify all remaining applicants by mid-late December.

All applications will be processed in strict confidentiality.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) provides equal employment opportunities and highly values representation, equity, and inclusion. We want to engage all those who can contribute to our mission and make an impact. We offer mission-driven, meaningful work, a remote, flexible environment, and a competitive compensation package.

We strongly encourage women, people who are Black, Indigenous, or of the global majority (of color), LGBTQ+ individuals, persons living with disabilities, and people of all socioeconomic backgrounds to apply to work with us.

ACE is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, creed or religion, sex, gender and/or gender expression, sexual orientation, body size, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, family status, genetic information or characteristics (or those of a family member), ancestry, place of origin, socioeconomic status, political belief or activity, conviction of an irrelevant offense, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

All applications will be processed in strict confidentiality. ACE thanks all candidates for their interest.

ABOUT ANIMAL CHARITY EVALUATORS

ACE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the United States with a globally distributed team dedicated to finding and promoting the most effective ways to help animals. We work toward this mission by evaluating and recommending charities, awarding grants to promising projects, and driving capital in the movement.