Open Philanthropy is looking for interns to help us conduct further research within our Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) Cause Prioritization, Global Catastrophic Risks (GCR) Cause Prioritization, and Farm Animal Welfare (FAW) teams. The internship will run from June through August 2025. It is open to students currently enrolled in or have completed a Master's or PhD, students starting a Master's or PhD program in 2025, or candidates working for an organization that offers externship/secondment opportunities. 

About Open Philanthropy 

Open Philanthropy is a philanthropic funder and advisor; 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. Our current giving areas include potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence, global health research & development, global public health policy, scientific research, global aid policy, farm animal welfare, innovation policy, effective altruism, and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. In 2023, we recommended just under $800 million to high-impact causes, and we’ve recommended over $3 billion in grants since our formation.

About our teams

Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) Cause Prioritization

The Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) team focuses on making grants across scientific research, policy advocacy, and global development to advance our mission of helping others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We prioritize grants that have the potential to improve health outcomes and economic wellbeing, with a particular focus on people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

Within GHW, the Cause Prioritization team, which will host the internship, works closely with senior leadership and program officers to conduct research that improves our grantmaking and high-level strategy. We investigate potential new cause areas, prioritize across causes, recommend new grants, evaluate our past work, and translate research insights into recommendations for internal and external decision-makers. Past work by Research and Strategy Fellows on the GHW Cause Prioritization team includes shallow investigations into potential new cause areas like Telecommunications in LMICs and Civil Conflict Reduction, more in-depth research leading to the launch of our most recent GHW cause areas in Global Public Health Policy and Economic Growth in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, and running the $150 million Regranting Challenge.

Global Catastrophic Risks (GCR) Cause Prioritization

The Global Catastrophic Risks (GCR) team works across focus areas aimed at reducing the chances of events that might cause major harm on a global scale. The Global Catastrophic Risks Cause Prioritization team focuses on investigating potential new cause areas, evaluating existing cause areas, advancing research agendas within cause areas, and informing high-level strategy within GCR. The team’s main focus areas are risks from advanced artificial intelligence and biosecurity. These areas, like the rest of Open Philanthropy’s focus areas, were chosen after extensive research (see here for our investigation on Biosecurity and here for Potential Risks from Advanced Artificial Intelligence). 

Farm Animal Welfare (FAW)

The Farm Animal Welfare team works to identify the most promising opportunities for grantmaking to help animals confined on factory farms. The FAW team supports over 100 grantees worldwide, who use various tactics including corporate campaigns, legislative advocacy, and animal product alternatives. You can read more about our program’s strategy and past grantmaking here. The intern will work with the two-person FAW research team on strategy evaluation, cost-effectiveness modeling, and targeted research to support grantmaking.

About the internship

We plan to hire 7-9 interns for Summer 2025 (June–August 2025) across the following distribution:

• 4 internships within the GHW Cause Prioritization team.

• 2-4 internships within the GCR Cause Prioritization team.

• 1 internship within the Farm Animal Welfare team. 

Within the GHW and GCR Cause Prioritization teams, we offer two distinct tracks: Research and Strategy. The responsibilities for these tracks largely overlap, and candidates for both positions will be evaluated using the same application materials. The main difference is one of emphasis: while Research track interns primarily focus on core research (such as evaluating how promising a potential new cause is), Strategy track interns are sometimes tasked with working on non-research projects (such as running an external request for research proposals).

As such, the Research track may be ideal for those who are comfortable critically evaluating scientific evidence and research methodologies in fields like economics, political science, public health, epidemiology, or medical science. The Strategy track may be better suited to people with consulting, policy, or similar strategic experience. You will be asked to indicate your preferred track in the application, but we may decide to consider you for the team or track we believe aligns best with your skills and experience.

What you’ll do

Interns will work on multiple projects at different levels of depth, similar to a full-time team member. Each intern will report to an existing team member and be assigned specific projects, which will depend on the team’s needs and the intern’s skills. Core responsibilities include:

• Conducting research to assess potential cause areas, evaluate programs, and inform overall strategy.

• Collaborating with team members and presenting findings in team meetings.

Typical project tasks may include:

• Talking to global experts, reviewing reports and academic papers, and working with potential grantees to evaluate whether a potential cause area is important, neglected, and tractable. 

• Creating back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the social returns and cost-effectiveness of potential grants.

• Managing time between gathering new information and synthesizing it into concrete recommendations.

Who we’re looking for

We’re open to hiring students who are currently enrolled in or have completed a Master's or PhD program, candidates who will begin a Master's or PhD program in 2025, or candidates working for an organization that offers externship/secondment opportunities. 

You may be a great fit for this work if:

• [For the Research track] You have a background in analytical research (including, but not limited to, having or working towards a Master's or PhD).

• [For the Strategy track] You have a background in consulting, policy, or similar strategic experience, or have worked on projects that required strategic thinking.

• For GHW: 

  • You have a background in quantitative social science, global/public health, medical sciences, or a related field.

  • You have some familiarity with quantitative approaches and methods, and experience in topics that are core to the GHW approach, such as economic development/growth, public health, or scientific research.

• For GCR: 

  • You have a background in quantitative social science, computer science, or another field relevant to Global Catastrophic Risks. 

  • You are interested and informed about Global Catastrophic Risks, especially AI safety. However, prior experience in these fields is not required.

• For FAW:

  • You have a background in quantitative social science or a related field.

  • You have some familiarity with quantitative approaches and methods, and experience in topics relevant to FAW such as agriculture, social change, government policy, alternative proteins, or retail/food service markets.

• You have a strong quantitative skill set, including the ability to incorporate uncertainty into your quantitative models.

• You are comfortable performing “back-of-the-envelope calculations” in domains with sparse data, e.g., to estimate the social returns and cost-effectiveness of potential grants.

• You are excited about working in a fast-paced research environment that covers a wide range of potential research topics.

• You exhibit good epistemic judgment, including a willingness to update on new information and a commitment to reasoning transparency.

• You have strong written and verbal communication skills and can convey key information with the appropriate level of uncertainty.

• You are independent, organized, and self-motivated.

We expect all our staff to: 

• Put our mission first, and act with urgency to help us realize our ambitious goals for impact. 

• Work to model our operating values of ownership, openness, calibration, and inclusiveness.

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 would strongly encourage you to apply. 

While past interns have occasionally been offered full-time roles at Open Philanthropy, our internships are temporary positions with no assumed extension by default.

If you have any questions about your eligibility, please feel free to reach out to jobs@openphilanthropy.org.

Process and timelines

Our process for all GHW, GCR, and FAW team internships will include:

• An initial application

• A take-home work test

• Final interviews with Open Phil team members

After reviewing applications, we will reach out to candidates in late January with an update. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit a work test in February. We hope to make internship offers by the end of March 2025. 

• GHW internships will run for 9-10 weeks between June and August 2025, though these dates are somewhat flexible. If your current University program doesn’t allow a 9-10 week internship during that time, but you would be able to commit for at least 5 weeks, please let us know your dates in the application form and we will try to find alternative arrangements (e.g., a shorter internship or continuing with a part-time work arrangement).

• GCR internships will start on 9 June and conclude in 10 weeks, i.e., by 15 August.  

• The FAW internship is flexible, though we think the best time to start would be between June and August 2025.

Projects past interns have worked on 

Past intern projects have included: 

• [GHW] Shallow investigations assessing the impact of US patent reforms on innovation, evaluating tobacco control interventions, or investigating potential interventions to reduce the disease burden from pediatric sepsis in LMICs.

• [GCR] Investigating the importance of global consensus-building in AI governance, analyzing the results of an internal Open Philanthropy worldview survey, or making a model of declining returns to GCR funding which better accounts for noise and bias.

• [FAW] Using the cross-price elasticities literature to estimate the potential displacement effects of alt protein, assessing cage-free progress among companies with commitments, and sensitivity modeling of portfolio-level cost-effectiveness.

Additional Information 

• Compensation: Compensation will be $2,100 per week, based on our entry-level researcher salary.

• Time zones and location: This position is remote. You can work from a location outside the US and must have work authorization in that country. However, we expect interns to attend weekly meetings virtually and be available to meet team members whenever possible. 

  • For GHW, our weekly meetings are held between 8:30–9:30 AM PST. Candidates should have at least two hours of consistent overlap with either GMT or PST working hours. 

  • For GCR, our weekly meetings are typically held between 9–10 AM PST.

  • For FAW, this is typically held at 9–10 AM PST.

  • Additionally, we encourage interns to meet with colleagues to the extent possible, e.g., during our organization-wide “Togetherness Week” in San Francisco, which typically takes place in July. Open Philanthropy will pay for flights and temporary lodging during this travel.

• OPT/CPT sponsorship: We are happy to consider applicants currently studying in the United States on student visas and provide any supporting documentation they may need to be eligible for this internship. However, we don’t control who is and isn’t eligible for a visa and can’t guarantee approval under the applicant's student visa program. 

  • If you are an F-1 student, you must have an OPT or STEM OPT EAD card in hand that is valid for at least the entire duration of the internship, or you must be eligible and able to apply for CPT work authorization in order to apply for this role.

If you would need OPT/CPT sponsorship for this internship, please let us know in the application.

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.

Please apply by 11:59 pm Pacific Time on Sunday, 12 January 2025 to be considered.