About the Global Aid Policy team

The Global Aid Policy program, launched in 2022 and led by Norma Altshuler, seeks to increase the amount and the impact of wealthy countries’ foreign aid.

As a team, we are unusually flexible about our policy agenda. We’re open to any approach that could substantially increase the quantity and/or quality of aid and other forms of development finance that can improve people’s health and well-being. Our grantmaking is not restricted by sector or geography. We fund a wide range of tactics, including lobbying, incubating new advocacy and research organizations, and directly supporting analytical capacity within aid agencies.

Examples include supporting faith and business leaders advocating to protect aid levels, backing think tanks to develop high-impact policy reforms, and funding technical support to help aid agency leaders design and implement evidence-based programs. We’ve made grants in more than ten donor countries across Europe and East Asia, and we’ve also increased our U.S. policy grantmaking in response to recent changes in U.S. foreign aid policy. You can learn more about our work here.

We expect our geographic focus and policy agenda will evolve over time, based on where we think we can do the most good. We’re looking for colleagues who are excited about contributing to this evolution.

About the role

You’ll work closely with our Senior Program Officer, Norma Altshuler, and our Senior Policy Advisor, Hetty Kovach, to support their work and help them get more done. The role combines strategic analysis with essential operational support, and contributes to both grant decisions and program efficiency. A successful candidate will be enthusiastic about both aspects of the role.

Strategic and analytical work (~80%)

In close collaboration with program staff — especially Norma — help identify and assess grant opportunities. This will involve speaking with leaders in the field to identify promising grantees, analyzing whether a grant will cost-effectively advance our program’s priorities, writing up your reasoning for making specific grants, and monitoring grantee progress. Over time, you will take increasing responsibility for these efforts, including recommending and overseeing your own grant portfolio.
Conduct back-of-the-envelope calculations (i.e. BOTECs) to inform grant and strategic decisions, estimating the social return on investment of different opportunities
Help draft grant writeups for other program staff and manage check-ins with grantees
Contribute to program strategy discussions and help evaluate new policy priorities

Operational and administrative support (~20%)

Lead the program’s operational work, including tracking our budget and pipeline and coordinating with Open Philanthropy’s operations team
Handle behind-the-scenes administrative tasks that enable Norma, Hetty, and other senior staff to focus on high-impact work, including by finding ways to help Norma save time and work more efficiently
Support meeting coordination and execute on follow-ups

There is substantial room for growth for strong performers in this position. The person who previously held this role eventually led our grantmaking in two high-priority donor countries, and managed relationships in those countries with senior government officials and leaders in civil society. Depending on your skills and background, you may conduct research to inform the program's policy priorities and/or represent the program externally. Even as you take on more responsibilities, however, the bulk of this role will likely involve working with and supporting other program staff.

For a look at what life as a Program Associate might be like, see Sam Anschell’s entry in our “Day in the Life” series.

Who might be a good fit

You might be a great fit for this work if you have:

Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, especially the ability to quickly grasp complex issues, identify and evaluate key questions, and make clear recommendations.
Good written and verbal communication skills. This includes communicating in a clear, information-dense, and calibrated way, with good reasoning transparency.
The ability to identify tradeoffs and use evidence to inform your decisions.
An interest in pragmatically analyzing the most cost-effective ways to maximize our impact. You will conduct back-of-the-envelope calculations (BOTECs) that estimate the social return on investment of different grant opportunities. You don’t need to have experience with this kind of work, but you do need to show strong capacity to quantitatively estimate benefits with imperfect information.
Project management skills that elevate team performance, and the habit of taking ownership over the outcome of a task, including poorly scoped tasks that require first-principles thinking.
Interpersonal skills. You will need to be able to build rapport and relationships with Open Phil colleagues, grantees, and advisors, and sometimes communicate about sensitive topics.
Capacity to manage up. You should be willing to ask questions if you are confused, and push back on conclusions you disagree with or don’t understand, even if they come from your manager or someone else more senior than you.
The ability to learn quickly, rapidly build new skills, and learn about new contexts (e.g. the policy process in a country you may not know much about).
The capacity to work effectively with ideologically and culturally diverse partner organizations across multiple countries.
Relevant experience, ideally in or adjacent to policy work. This could come from at least a year or two working in government or in other policy positions, such as at a think tank or advocacy group; it does not need to be in aid policy specifically, though that is a bonus, as is knowledge of or experience in U.S. policy and politics. Candidates without policy experience will be more competitive if they have experience in global development.
Ability to travel at least several times a year (though the extent to which you’ll actually need to will depend on how the work evolves).
Excitement about our mission, and enthusiasm about taking on any task that furthers it.

The ideal candidate for this position will possess many of the skills and experiences described above. However, there is no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Role details & benefits

Compensation: The baseline compensation for this role is $126,233.59, which would be distributed as a base salary of $109,768.34 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $16,465.25 for U.S. hires.
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: We offer remote work in many countries. While we are not able to sponsor visas for this role, we are open to hires outside the U.S. willing to consistently work business hours with heavy overlap with Pacific time, including for a portion of the afternoon Pacific time. You would need to be available to meet with colleagues in San Francisco, on the U.S. East Coast, and in Europe.
We strongly prefer hires to be based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and will support candidates with the costs of relocation to the Bay. However, we'll consider candidates based elsewhere, particularly in Washington, D.C. If you are based elsewhere, you need to be willing to travel to the Bay Area regularly, particularly early in your time in this role.
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. We currently have offices in San Francisco and Washington D.C., and multiple staff working from several other cities in the U.S. and elsewhere.
We can’t always provide every benefit we offer U.S. 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 like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer .

Global Aid Policy - Program Associate

Anywhere in the world

Remote

Senior

Open Philanthropy