Applied/Senior Researcher - Climate

ABOUT US

At Founders Pledge, our mission is to empower entrepreneurs to do immense good. Since launching in 2015, we’ve raised over $10 billion for the most impactful social causes. We offer the simplest path to impact for successful entrepreneurs, providing end-to-end giving infrastructure, pioneering research, and access to a worldwide network of experts. In other words, we help tech leaders become strategic philanthropists. Our 1700+ members include the people behind industry-leading companies such as Airbnb, UiPath, Dropbox, Skype, Spotify, and Uber.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We’re looking for an Applied/Senior Researcher to work on our Research team, which identifies and evaluates high-impact funding opportunities (HIFOs) to enable our members to give as effectively as possible. Our members are high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who use our HIFO recommendations (across a range of cause areas, including the long-term future of humanity, helping the current generation and animal welfare) to guide their giving.

Since 2017, we have rigorously evaluated climate change interventions and our work has been featured in the NYT, Vox, Volts, 80,000 Hours, and Prospect Magazine, among others. You can read a recent update on our work here and you can read more about our research here and the grantmaking direction you would contribute to here.

We’re now looking to further scale our research-based grantmaking program and the impact of our Climate Change Fund.

This is a fantastic opportunity to influence tens of millions of dollars in some of the most high-impact climate opportunities globally.

You’ll conduct:

• Intervention area and landscaping investigations: Investigations into particular strategies to address climate change (such as avoiding carbon lock-in via affecting climate finance) or into questions of relevance to prioritization (such as the shape of expected climate damage).

• Framework and tool-building: Building and maintaining quantitative tools to guide decision-making utilizing data from the scientific and scenario literatures (in tools like R, Python, Guesstimate, and Google Sheets, some flexibility - please don’t hesitate to apply).

• Funding opportunity investigations: Individual investigations into promising funding opportunities to see if they meet our bar for recommendation. You’ll make funding opportunity recommendations and write them up.

• Shallow investigations: Internal investigations of less than a week into a particular problem area or methodological question relevant to our research, such as policy dynamics in different countries, emissions trends in different sectors, the impact of global warming potential (GWP) metrics on prioritization choices, or the likely curvature of climate damage.

Some projects similar to those you might work on in your first few months, depending on your existing skills and those you want to build:

• Helping to get better traction on comparing different promising theories of change, such as innovation advocacy and avoiding carbon lock-in by reviewing scientific literature, talking to experts and building quantitative back-of-the-envelope models.

• Developing cost-effectiveness models of specific promising interventions, such as strengthening clean energy entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging economies or accelerating and de-risking the adoption of alternative proteins.

• Evaluating specific funding opportunities and forming views about the expected impact of additional funding.

• Investigating blindspots of current climate philanthropy and action by comparing global decarbonization priorities with existing efforts.

ABOUT YOU

Although we’re very open to a variety of professional backgrounds, you’ll have experience autonomously leading rigorous research projects and strong analytical skills. Prior experience in researching climate-relevant fields would also be an asset for this role.

You’re likely to have:

• A commitment to social impact with strong understanding of impact maximisation and the nuances of charity evaluation from multiple worldviews. 

• Excellent analytical skills: Comfort expressing views numerically and working with systematic quantitative frameworks; understanding of, and the ability to build, quantitative models.

• Good judgment: For example, the ability to decide how long to spend on a project, or what sections to include in a report.

• Intellectual curiosity and openness: A willingness to consider alternative points of view, to follow good arguments wherever they lead, and an openness to changing your mind.

• Good knowledge and/or a keen interest in climate research (with the opportunity to play a key role in our Climate Change Fund, depending on your experience). 

• Good calibration: Knowledge of the extent of your own knowledge, and a good sense of how confident you should be in your beliefs.

• Clear writing: The ability to express nuanced evidence and complex concepts in a clear way.

• Conscientiousness and prioritisation skills: A willingness to work hard and to focus time on top priorities.

• The ability to work well with others, to communicate honestly and directly, and to be open to feedback.

• Willingness to work in a high-growth, dynamic start-up environment and be comfortable with ambiguity.

• The experience or potential to lead your own research, working independently (but we are open to candidates of varying seniority).

We’re especially interested in candidates with specific expertise in the following areas (please note, these are a ‘nice to have’ and by no means essential):

• Innovation policy in OECD economies

• China

• Energy systems

• Experience as a grantmaker, interacting with charities etc.

• Applied programming and data analysis: Familiarity with R and/or Python and Monte Carlo simulations, in particular, are a plus.

WHY WORK WITH US?

You can find more about the benefits we offer here, but what makes us truly special is both our mission and our people. We’re a diverse team, from both charitable and commercial backgrounds, who believe that amazing things can happen when we tackle problems together. We offer a flat structure and an opportunity to help shape the future of philanthropy.

There's no expectation for you to attend an office on a regular basis. At the same time, if you think you’d benefit from a desk in a co-working space close to your home, this can be arranged. Otherwise, you just need a great home wifi connection and we’ll provide you with everything else you need to be successful in your role.

We bring the global team together once per year for a global offsite. This is a week of collaborative learning, ideas generation and socialising. In addition to this, each team has the opportunity to meet together at least once per year. 

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Founders Pledge. We seek people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds, who share our drive to understand and solve complex social challenges. 

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Finding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems requires different perspectives and unique ways of thinking and we are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone can do their best work.

Please note: All applications are checked against AI generated answers. Any applications suspected of relying on AI-generated content will be automatically disqualified.

Please note: When you apply to this role, you’ll be asked to complete an equal opportunities form. As this role is being advertised in multiple countries, you’ll be asked to complete a UK equal opportunities form, as this is where our HQ is based.