Paths to Open Philanthropy: Stories from Our Team

From driving pedicabs in Austin to conducting mathematics research in Sydney to practicing law at traditional firms, Open Philanthropy team members have followed diverse paths to their current roles. Some joined directly from work in global development or animal welfare, while others pivoted from careers in business, law, or technology. Our hiring process emphasizes identity-blind work tests rather than experience alone, allowing candidates to demonstrate their potential regardless of their professional backgrounds.

In this collection of stories, our colleagues reflect on their journeys to Open Phil, showing that there’s no single “common” path to working in effective philanthropy. We’re always eager to hear from talented people who share our commitment to doing the most good possible — check out our careers page to learn about current opportunities to join our team.

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Joseph Skonie, Finance Operations Associate 

I probably have one of the strangest paths to Open Phil: In 2014, I was working as a pedicab driver in Austin, Texas. I thought bikes were cool, and I wanted to do something different that vaguely promoted alternative forms of transportation. This evolved into me owning my own pedicab business, which involved a lot of traveling to work at big events and festivals.

When events disappeared in 2020, I realized I could aim higher in terms of the impact I was making and used the opportunity to pivot. Thanks to a connection I had — and based on my experience running a business and being spreadsheet-adept — I got some gigs contracting for various small grantmakers funding anti-plastic and Just Transition work.

A year later, a friend of mine got a job at GiveWell and started trying to recruit me to work there. In learning about them, I was led to Open Phil, and found it very aligned with my values and thinking. I had minimal prior exposure to effective altruism, though I was a sometimes-lurker on LessWrong. 

I applied for an opening on the Salesforce team in 2023, but was rejected. I kept my eyes on the job postings and tried again when I saw the Finance Coordinator position open up earlier this year. I knew pretty quickly into the interview process that I had found my new home.

Hazel Browne, Research Fellow (Global Catastrophic Risks)

My path to Open Phil began with Peter Singer. During my final year at the University of Sydney, a friend shared Singer’s TED Talk with me and convinced me to attend an EAGx conference. These experiences forced me to confront the immense global disparities in wealth and my moral obligations to those living in extreme poverty. 

When COVID-19 disrupted my plans to conduct pure mathematics research after graduation, I reached out to Effective Thesis for guidance. They outlined two potential paths for someone with my background: global priorities research through economics, or AI safety through computer science. Technical AI papers didn’t particularly resonate with me, but global priorities research did. So I pivoted to economics, completing my Masters at the London School of Economics before starting a PhD at MIT.

Following my first year at MIT, I served as an intern on Open Phil’s Global Health and Wellbeing team, tackling theoretical questions about how to account for second-order effects in our interventions.

After my internship, I was offered and accepted a full-time role at Open Phil. While I initially planned to return to academia after a few years, the collaborative nature of the work changed my mind. Unlike academia, where PhD students often work independently and engage with others’ research as an afterthought, at Open Phil we all work together to help others — and I’m so grateful to be part of that mission. In a fitting full circle, I now oversee the same internship program that brought me to Open Phil. 

Luke Willey, IT Lead

I found out about Open Phil via 80,000 Hours, which I found out about through a YouTube ad! At the time, I was working in private sector IT and wanted to find work that more deeply aligned with my values and desire to create meaningful impact. When I checked out the 80,000 Hours job board, Open Phil’s IT Lead position was literally the first listing, and it happened to align incredibly closely with my previous experience.

While exploring Open Phil’s website, I was blown away by its work, particularly its approach to AI safety. Coming from a staffing organization that was more conscientious than most, I had seen firsthand how companies sometimes rushed to implement AI tools without sufficient consideration of the long-term implications — much like the lack of caution some AI firms have shown in pushing to develop frontier AI capabilities without adequate safeguards.

Throughout my career, I’ve encouraged people to be objective and analytical, to hold opinions loosely, and to be comfortable discovering they were wrong. Finding an organization with a culture of open discourse that asks “Are we doing this as effectively as we could be?” felt like a perfect fit. I love that we’re all encouraged to think critically and bring our perspectives to the table.

Kayla Demarest, Operations Associate

My journey to Open Phil began while I was working in partnerships at IDinsight, a nonprofit that partners with decision-makers to use data and evidence to increase their impact. Through Open Phil’s continued support for IDinsight over the years, I became curious about its approach to philanthropy. When I learned more, I was drawn to OP’s transparent approach and clearly articulated theories of change.

I initially applied for a Grants Associate role, thinking my project management background would be a natural fit. Though I made it through multiple interview rounds and work tests, I ultimately wasn’t selected. I thanked the team for the lovely interview experience and assumed that was the end of my Open Phil story.

To my surprise, the recruiter (Tom Rowlands) reached out shortly after to ask if I’d consider a Business Operations Associate role instead. As I considered the opportunity, I discovered it aligned even better with my skills and interests than the grants position I originally applied for. Looking back, I’m grateful for our recruiting team’s insight — their understanding of organizational needs and my capabilities led to the best role fit possible, as it quickly became clear that Business Operations was the perfect landing spot for me.

Before Open Phil, I was set on implementation-focused work in global development, concerned that joining a grantmaking organization might represent choosing comfort over on-the-ground impact. However, my experience supporting Open Phil’s senior leadership has shifted this perspective entirely — I’ve come to appreciate how strategic philanthropy and direct implementation work can complement each other in addressing global challenges.

Dave Bernard, Research Fellow (Global Catastrophic Risks)

While pursuing my PhD in 2020, I began working part-time at Rethink Priorities, where Open Phil was my first client. In the penultimate year of my PhD, I presented my research at an Open Phil “roundtable” — an opportunity that arose from a Twitter exchange with Alexander Berger, Open Phil’s CEO. 

Over the next two years, I applied to three different Open Phil positions: EA (GHW) Senior Program Associate, Global Health and Wellbeing Lead Researcher, and Senior Program Associate in Forecasting. Despite making it to the final three candidates for the Forecasting role, I wasn’t selected for any of these positions. Two months before finishing my PhD, I rejoined Rethink Priorities on their new Worldview Investigations Team.

Soon after, Open Phil launched its Global Catastrophic Risks “omniround” – a major hiring initiative across the portfolio. I was a bit skeptical that I would be a good fit, but I reached out to Jason Schukraft, who had led the Forecasting hiring round, and he suggested I apply. My friend Jas Dhaliwal, then Open Phil’s Chief of Staff, reconnected me with Alexander, who pitched me on GCR cause prioritization being more neglected than GHW and thus potentially more impactful. 

Shortly after I submitted my application, Jason messaged me requesting a call for something “not particularly time-sensitive, but fairly important.” To my surprise, he offered me the position immediately since I’d already done the work tests and interviews for the Forecasting role a few months earlier.

I wrapped up my work at Rethink Priorities the following month, took six weeks off, then joined Open Phil in January 2024. It took three rejections and four applications, but I’m glad I persisted since it paid off in the end. 

Meiko Flynn-Do, People Operations Associate

After graduating, I was excited to work at the intersection of education and social justice. In pursuit of that, I joined a small nonprofit organization where I facilitated after-school programs focused on career exploration for low-income young women of color. I really enjoyed it, but started to feel like I needed more space to grow.

During a long conversation with a friend on a road trip, I realized I wanted to work somewhere I could receive mentorship and develop strong operational skills. Not long after, I spoke with my brother, who mentioned that Open Phil was hiring for a Business Operations Coordinator role. The application was due in just three days, but I figured I’d just apply, not expecting anything to come of it.

I was mistaken, though, because I ended up landing the job! I joined the Business Operations team in March 2022, and then transitioned to the People Operations team about eight months later.

Since then, I’ve led Open Phil’s internal events and culture-building initiatives, which help our staff stay connected to our mission and supported to do their best work. I love organizing our quarterly gatherings and annual retreats — these touchpoints allow our remote-first team to build genuine connections in person. 

Jeremy Klemin, Content Editor

My journey to Open Phil started with farm animal welfare activism in college; it was through volunteering that I learned about Peter Singer and through Singer that I learned about Open Phil and effective altruism more broadly.  

I applied to a Communications opening in 2019 and made it a few rounds in; I vaguely remember chatting about basketball with Mike Levine, OP’s former Communications Officer, during my interview. I continued to check the Careers page for new positions and applied to a Farm Animal Welfare Program Assistant role in 2021. I was simultaneously applying to graduate school and had resolved to attend unless I got the FAW position. After not receiving an offer, I thanked Anya Hunt, our former head of Recruiting, and told her I’d love to help in a freelance capacity should anything pop up. Four months later, she reached out asking if I’d like to help Recruiting assess work tests. That was the easiest decision of my life — I was doing an arts degree and had the extra time. 

While grading work tests, I learned a lot about Open Phil by osmosis: the “soft” skills common among OP people, namely good judgment and strong writing ability. I also began to help the Comms team with database work and miscellaneous tasks as needed. This experience helped me land a comms contracting role with the Centre for Long-Term Resilience, which in turn taught me about comms best practices. 

In a stroke of perfect timing, a Content Editor role opened up just weeks after I finished grad school. My path to a full-time position at Open Phil was circuitous, to say the least. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Ray Kennedy, Program Officer (Global Health R&D)

I think I had always wanted to pursue an “altruistic” career, but I hadn’t really heard of effective altruism before I joined Open Phil. I spent a number of years working in international development and global health, living in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and the DR Congo for a variety of NGOs and consultancies. I felt increasingly frustrated by the sector, partly because bureaucracy and poor donor practices were limiting the positive impact of our work. It also felt like implementing organizations lacked the confidence to discontinue projects that were less impactful than expected.

Around this time, I learned about GiveWell and started donating money to its recommended causes. Through GiveWell, I came across Open Phil’s Cause Exploration Prize contest, which invited people to write essays about new cause areas Open Phil should focus on. I was impressed by Open Phil’s openness to new ideas and submitted an essay recommending sickle cell disease as a topic of focus.

When a job opened up on the Global Health R&D team, I didn’t think I was well-qualified because I lacked a strong scientific background. An acquaintance who was more familiar with EA encouraged me to apply anyway — and after a few rounds of surprisingly enjoyable interviews/work tests, I received an offer. I’m so glad I followed the advice of my acquaintance. More than two years after submitting to the Cause Exploration Prize, I’ve just made a grant to support work on sickle cell disease! 

Sai Jahann, In-House Counsel

I discovered Open Phil through pure serendipity, by listening to then-CEO Holden Karnofsky on the Ezra Klein Show in 2021. On the podcast, they discussed worldview diversification, his journey from Bridgewater to GiveWell to Open Phil, and his blog Cold Takes. I remember thinking, “This man is super weird…I like it.”

I was approaching the end of my time at my previous job and considering taking a gap year when I saw an open attorney position at Open Phil reposted on Twitter, probably by someone in the YIMBY community. I applied on a whim, with only the podcast and a basic Google search as context.

Open Phil’s interview process was refreshingly nontraditional, particularly the emphasis on work tests, which made me feel more confident that I could do the job despite not having any experience in philanthropy. But what really drew me in were Open Phil’s operating values. During interviews, I pressed hard to understand whether these values were actually lived, and heard enough convincing evidence to accept the offer. 

Over my two and a half years at Open Phil, I’ve seen for myself that the values truly are real. Working across diverse programs requires an open mind — despite different worldviews and approaches, we remain united by a genuinely motivating mission. I’ve worked for a variety of companies, and in my experience, this level of cohesion is really rare. The level of excellence I’ve witnessed at Open Phil has been humbling in the best way possible. It’s reset my standard for what exceptional work looks like.