Location: Global
Rethink Priorities' Animal Welfare Department produces research and strategic advice to help organizations make well-informed decisions for animals. The Department is splitting into three teams: AI and Animals, Frontiers (neglected animals and emerging topics), and a new Animal Welfare Strategy Team. The Strategy Team will support and accelerate funders and organizations in ending low-welfare farming and reducing the suffering of animals on farms, with a focus on terrestrial vertebrates. Its work will mix consulting, in-house research and other activities, including running the annual Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum. Recent consulting work includes economic analysis of egg prices for a policy advocacy organization, prioritization of welfare-tech ideas for a venture studio, and research on alternative-protein regulation for a large grantmaker.
The Senior Research Manager will lead this new team. The role is a leadership position in a department that is growing and being restructured. It reports to Sam Hilton, Acting Director of the Animal Welfare Department. There are 1-2 economist staff ready to join the team.
Key responsibilities:
- Manage consulting intake: decide which requests from funders, advocacy organizations and entrepreneurs to take on, reshape or decline.
- Identify high-upside opportunities, set a research agenda, and decide whether to run programs such as regranting or talent programs.
- Oversee the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum.
- Set team strategy, including project prioritization, an impact framework and an intake system.
- Hire for needed skills (policy, M&E, animal science, movement experience) and manage the team, setting the quality bar and research processes.
- Deliver research that gets used, and follow up on whether clients acted on the findings.
- Represent RP, build networks, and fundraise with the Development Team.
Essential criteria: impact-first mindset and research integrity; decision-oriented research experience; good judgment under uncertainty; management or mentoring experience; strategy and process design; skill in reviewing qualitative and quantitative analysis; excellent written and oral communication; and a track record of delivery in a remote, asynchronous, international environment. Desirable: consulting experience, knowledge of the animal advocacy landscape, expertise in economics, policy, M&E or animal science, convening experience, talent development and grantmaking experience.
Fully remote, flexible employment type (full-time or part-time, at least 24 hours per week). Some availability is needed between 3pm and 5pm UK time on most weekdays. Salary is $98,500-$125,000 USD per year (also £76,590-£97,176 GBP or €89,459-€113,527 EUR). Benefits include unlimited vacation with a statutory minimum, parental leave, a professional development budget, a technology stipend and paid work trips. Ideal start date is 4 January 2027. Visa sponsorship to the US or UK may be possible in some cases.
Application Deadline October 19, 2026 Department Animal Welfare Employment Type Flexible Location Remote Workplace type Fully remote Compensation $98,500 - $125,000 / year
HOW TO APPLY:
Apply online through the Rethink Priorities careers page (Pinpoint) by end of day, Monday 19 October 2026 (anywhere on earth). Do not send a cover letter, and leave your name out of the longer application prompts, because initial assessment is anonymized. The process has 4 stages: application prompts, a paid ~5-hour skills assessment, interviews, and reference checks and offers. For questions about hiring or visa sponsorship in your country, contact careers@rethinkpriorities.org before applying.