Special Projects Director

Application Deadline: 12 October 2026

Department: Leadership

Employment Type: Flexible

Location: Remote

Reporting To: Chief Operations Officer, Carolyn Footitt

Compensation: $130,000 - $160,000 / year

Description

• Role: Special Projects Director (Leadership)
• Salary: $130.000 – $160.000 gross annual. For other currencies, we use a 5-year rolling average exchange rate. 
• Location: Fully remote. UTC-5 to UTC+2 preferred.
• Job Type: Full-time (40 hours per week) preferred, and minimum 35 hours per week required.
• Reports to: Chief Operations Officer, Carolyn Footitt 
• Start date: As soon as possible, but no later than January 4, 2027
• Application Deadline: Monday, October 12, at the end of the day (23:59) Anywhere on Earth (UTC-12:00).
• Application Process: Click "Apply Now" to respond to the prompts. We ask that you spend no more than 2 hours preparing your responses to the prompts.
• Contact: Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.
  
  

Key Responsibilities

• Own SP's overall strategy and roadmap, positioning the program to capture the current wave of AI-related philanthropic capital and project demand.
• Decide which projects join, graduate, or spin off from fiscal sponsorship, and build the frameworks behind those calls
• Own SP's value proposition and Theory of Change with input from RP leadership
• Evaluate the inbound project pipeline and proactively source new fiscally-sponsored opportunities rather than only waiting for them to arrive
• Represent SP externally to prospective projects, funders, and peer fiscal sponsors, and sharpen how SP positions itself against other sponsors
• Explore new service lines where they'd extend SP's value, such as regranting structures
  
  

• Establish a formal project risk assessment framework covering financial, employment, legal/reputational, and leadership risk, with mitigation measures for top risks.
• Serve as a senior escalation point on operations compliance matters: HR, finance, and compliance matters.
• Create a project graduation framework — criteria for when a project should spin out vs. stay within RP, with clear spin-out milestones.

• Keep the SP fee model fair and sustainable for RP and project directors
• Track a defined SP revenue target quarterly against a forecast.

• Decide when to add capacity, what roles come next, and how management layers evolve as headcount and project count grow, in coordination with the COO and other Ops teams
• Manage the Special Project Managers directly: weekly 1:1s, performance and feedback, coaching and professional development
• Watch for capacity strain and wellbeing issues on the team before they become a problem
• Handle skip-levels and interpersonal issues, and know when to loop in People & Culture
  
  

• Ensure SP’s processes are documented and standardized — onboarding, offboarding, financial reporting, risk review — so growth doesn't depend on tacit knowledge
• Set and track OKRs for the team
• Keep SP's relationships with funders, project directors, and other RP departments strong
• Make sure project directors are genuinely satisfied with the support they're getting

What We Are Looking For

• Strategic Thinking and Systems Evaluation — Understands the bigger picture of how SP functions as a system; identifies performance indicators and the actions needed to improve them.
• Judgment and Decision-Making — Weighs costs and benefits of potential actions, spots risk before it becomes a crisis, anticipates opportunities, and stays comfortable operating across a genuinely varied portfolio.
• People Management — Motivates, mentors, and develops direct reports (including other managers); builds a durable management layer rather than concentrating decisions personally.
• Business Development and Relationship Management — Builds real trust with project directors, funders, and peer fiscal sponsors, and is comfortable representing SP externally.
• Solution Orientation — Proactively proposes solutions and improves systems and processes rather than waiting for problems to surface.
• Social Perceptiveness — Navigates complex, multi-stakeholder relationships (project founders, RP leadership, funders) with sensitivity and respect.
• Cultural Competence — Works effectively across a remote, multi-country team and a diverse portfolio of sponsored projects.
• Adaptability — Adjusts strategy and structure as SP scales; knows when to seek expertise from Core Ops, legal counsel, or RP leadership.
• Communication — Conveys strategy, policy, and difficult decisions (including saying "no") clearly in writing and speech.
• Execution. Strong prioritization and attention to detail, the ability to get an 80/20 understanding of an unfamiliar topic fast, and self-direction so that you don't need close oversight to stay on track.
  
  

• Solid experience in an operations role — HR, legal, finance, or general operations — with working knowledge of US 501(c)(3) rules and how they shape org decisions.
• Familiarity with the effective altruism landscape and at least one of RP's cause areas (AI safety/global catastrophic risk, animal welfare, or global health and development), enough to understand what our sponsored projects are actually trying to do.
• A generalist streak: you've had to get up to speed on unfamiliar domains before and know how to do it fast.
• People management experience, including managing managers across a scaling team
• Project/program management for large, varied portfolios

• Fiscal sponsorship (particularly Model A structures), and how that shapes what a sponsored project can and can't do.
• Financial forecasting, budgeting, and fee or pricing model design
• UK and US nonprofit and employment regulatory environments
• Experience working with a PEO (we use Justworks) or an EOR (we use Remote) to employ staff compliantly across borders.
• Experience working with project management software (we use Asana) to manage work, delegate, and keep people informed of project progress.

What We Offer

• Annual salary range: $130,000–$160,000 USD pre-tax, based on a 40-hour workweek.
• Exact salary will be based on the candidate's prior relevant experience and corresponding title level, calculated using RP's salary algorithm.
• Compensation is not restricted to USD and can be offered in other currencies. We use a 5-year rolling average exchange rate.
• To ensure fairness across the organization, RP does not negotiate salaries.

• Opportunity to lead a program accelerating new high-impact organizations, and shaping how they get built.
• Flexible work hours and location.
• Comprehensive global benefits package (varies by country; RP aims for equity and quality across all staff).
• Generous paid time off, including unlimited vacation (with a minimum required statutory minimum), "mandated" mid- and end-year organization-wide breaks, unlimited personal/sick leave (within reason), and parental leave (4–9 months paid/unpaid, taken within 2 years of a child's birth or adoption).
• A collaborative leadership team and low administrative bureaucracy.
• Technology stipend of $2,000 USD equivalent every 3 years for work and office equipment.
• AI tools budget of $40 USD equivalent monthly.
• Professional Development Budget of $5000 USD per year.
• Learning opportunities, including workshops/training sessions and 10% of work time dedicated to professional and personal development.
• Paid work trips, including one annual all-staff Mega Team Retreat and relevant conferences.
• Virtual co-working spaces, including a private Rethink Priorities Focusmate group.
• RP Peer Support Program for New Employees.
• Other benefits at the discretion of RP Leadership.
• A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance.
• We don’t provide snacks, but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want!

1. Initial Selection: Applications will be reviewed primarily based on responses to the initial prompts on the application page but also your CV.
2. Evaluation Rounds: Candidates who progress will complete a paid skills assessment and/or structured interview, followed by an opportunity to have a “meet and greet” with other SP team members. We will ask for references as well.

• Extension requests: We can accommodate extension requests made before the deadline, up to one week.
• Language: Please submit all application materials in English; professional-level English proficiency is required.
• Accessibility: We're committed to an inclusive, accessible hiring process — reach out to [email protected] with any accessibility requests.
• Inclusivity and fairness: RP is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive workplace. We encourage applicants regardless of age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity, or other background.
• Hiring Software: We use Pinpoint for recruitment; all correspondence comes via Pinpoint (@pinpoint.email and @pinpointhq.com) — please check spam/promotions folders if you don't hear from us.
• Note Before Applying:  Please do not include a cover letter, photograph, or headshot of yourself, or any personal information that is not relevant to the role for which you’re applying (including marital status, age, identity traits, etc.).
• Contact: Please email [email protected]  if you have any questions.

1. A consultancy doing commissioned work in response to demands from organizations doing high-impact work 
2. A research institute driven by research agendas we set according to our own priorities.
3. A think tank aiming to inform public policy to improve the world.
4. An accelerator, incubator, and base for priority projects.
   
   

• Bringing attention to neglected issues, such as lead exposure, fungal diseases, and shrimp welfare. 
• Increasing the collective impact of advocates across each field in which we work through strategic coordination.
• Investigating potential interventions and identifying the most cost-effective options. In 2025, our research influenced tens of millions of dollars in foundation grants. 
• Creating practical tools for philanthropists to compare resource allocations across different species and cause areas and to build giving portfolios despite uncertainties.
• Providing organizations with data to inform their decisions. For example, we have conducted surveys on perceptions of existential risks, AI, effective giving, and other topics. 
• Providing fiscal sponsorship and operational support to ensure that high-impact initiatives in areas like AI safety and animal welfare can launch and grow effectively.
• Donor Compass - Cross Cause Fund Tool to guide philanthropic giving