Open Philanthropy’s “Day in the Life” series showcases the wide-ranging work of our staff, spotlighting individual team members as they navigate a typical workday. We hope these posts provide an inside look into what working at Open Phil is really like. If you’re interested in joining our team, we encourage you to check out our open roles.
Kiana Snekcim-Shields is a People Operations Coordinator at Open Philanthropy, where she specializes in business immigration and global workforce support. She has a B.A. in International Studies, a B.A. in Spanish Language, and a Certificate of Translation and Interpretation from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Day in the Life
In my role, no two days are the same. Navigating the complexities of business immigration and supporting a global workforce is both challenging and fulfilling. Part of Open Phil’s rationale for hiring a global workforce is that the best and brightest are not solely in the US, where we are based. I love that my job allows me to meet people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures on a regular basis.
My day begins with reviewing emails and messages from colleagues, incoming staff, and candidates from around the world. This usually involves responding to ad hoc inquiries about visa statuses or Employer of Record (EOR) processes. Questions are usually about where to find documents and information in the EOR platform, payslips and taxes, benefits, and how to submit expenses or time-off requests. Today, I’m helping a new team member get reimbursed for relocation expenses.
Then I jump into my priority tasks, which fit into two broad categories:
- Employment-based visa and green card coordination
- Deel (our EOR platform for managing employees based abroad)
Given the ever-evolving US immigration system, visa and green card coordination logistics are often subject to change. For this reason, I often attend relevant webinars and read industry publications to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in immigration law and policy. On my agenda today is synthesizing my notes from an H-1B visa webinar I attended a few days ago.
Coordinating with external immigration counsel is also part of my daily workflow. This week, I’m coordinating with our lovely Business Operations team to post Notices of Filing at our workspaces in DC and Arlington, which will help a British staff member proceed with their US visa case. When counsel completes a visa or green card application, my Business Immigration colleagues and I will review it for accuracy and monitor case progress post-submission.
After a midday break (which never feels rushed, thanks to Open Phil’s flexible working policy!) I come back to work refreshed and ready to hunker down on vendor management tasks, EOR contracts, and larger projects. On my break today, I went for a walk, made myself lunch, and even did a bit of yoga!
When it comes to vendor management, I often identify workflow changes as well as keep an eye on vendor costs. For example: a recent change in Deel’s contract approval workflow significantly altered our internal workflow, so I wrote a proposal on how we could adjust to these changes.
Outside of answering ad hoc questions and managing the vendor relationship, my EOR work involves drafting, approving, and managing EOR team member contracts. Two incoming team members are joining us from different corners of the globe soon (the UK and Australia!), and it’s my job to make their onboarding processes clear and straightforward.
I’m also coordinating international travel logistics for our quarterly Togetherness Week, which is this month. We have folks coming from the UK, Canada, Germany, and Belgium, so I’m currently making sure everyone has valid entry documentation. Our support is always tailored to each team member, and helps to guide their (sometimes first) entry into the US!
Sometimes I’ll spend a whole day working on a large project; other days, I’ll also work on smaller tasks. This week, I’m project-managing a Deel team member’s transition to Open Phil’s US entity, which involves verifying key HR data, initiating a resignation in Deel, initiating their onboarding with our HR team, and then following up on any remaining visa items. With the last few hours of my day, I’ll often think through where we can make process improvements, and incorporate feedback from new staff members about our processes. Other times, I’ll meet with members of our amazing Finance and Legal teams and use their expertise to update our business immigration–related processes. My final meeting of the day is with the Finance team to discuss a pricing proposal for a service offered by Deel.
Working as a People Operations Coordinator encourages me to embrace a mindset of continuous improvement. It’s exciting to help my colleagues live and work from almost anywhere as they advance Open Phil’s mission of doing the most good we can.