About this role
* Note: We updated the application page here on September 30, 2026, adding two new prompt questions and revising one existing question. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. If you started your application before this date, please review before submitting. About the role 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. The AI and Animals Team helps organisations navigate an AI-transforming world. The Frontiers Team advances the field of animal welfare, focusing on neglected animals (such as shrimp) and emerging topics (such as breeding for welfare). And a new Animal Welfare Strategy Team, described below. The Animal Welfare Strategy Team (working name) will focus on supporting and accelerating funders and organizations toward achieving their core goals of accelerating the end of low-welfare farming and reducing the suffering of animals on farms , with a focus on terrestrial vertebrates. This will involve a mix of consulting work, in-house research, and other activities. Recent consulting work has included 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 to guide a large grantmaker with a $10m+ portfolio. RP is independent: clients get the answers that the evidence supports, whether or not they are the ones they hoped for. In-house research might involve building data tools and resources to map where animals are suffering on farms, or strategic analysis to guide stakeholders' decisions. The team will also run the annual Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum, which brings together leaders from across the animal welfare landscape. Going forward, it may build capacity for other actions to enable the success for existing and new projects, such as regranting or talent programs. The department seeks to hire a Senior Research Manager to lead this new Animal Welfare Strategy Team . This is a leadership role in a Department that is growing and being restructured. You will need to work with the Director to set a strategy for this team covering how the team prioritizes projects, and how the team measures and maximizes impact for the animals. We are looking for someone excited to build these structures. You will also work on hiring, managing incoming consulting projects, designing research processes, and managing staff. We want to create a team with a mix of cross-cutting skills, such as economics, policy, animal welfare ecosystem knowledge, stakeholder management, M&E, and animal science. We have 1–2 economist staff ready to join this team. This role will report to Sam Hilton, Acting Director of the Animal Welfare Department. Ideal start date: Monday 4th January 2027 You are responsible for leading the team's areas of work. This includes: Manage consulting intake . Decide which requests from funders, advocacy organizations, and entrepreneurs RP takes on, reshapes, or declines. Identify opportunities and act on them . Bring forward ideas with outsized upside, research or otherwise. For research, set an agenda of priority projects. For other interventions, such as regranting or talent programs, decide whether RP should run them and launch what clears the bar. Oversee the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum . Ensure your team: sets the agenda, decides who is in the room, and turns the movement's annual leaders' gathering into decisions and impact. Your day-to-day responsibilities will include: Set strategy. Decide how this team prioritizes, how it measures impact and what work it takes on. There is no project prioritization process, impact framework or intake system yet – you will build them alongside the Director. Hire . Decide which skills the team needs next: policy, M&E, animal science, movement experience. Run the rounds, supported by RP's in-house recruitment specialist. Manage the team . Lead economists and specialists with deeper expertise than yours in their own fields. Set the quality bar. Put in place research processes, review standards and project tracking. Deliver research that gets used . Scope clients' decisions, manage staff to deliver on deadline, and follow up on whether clients acted on the findings. Represent RP . Build the networks and relationships that generate new projects. Attend conferences where you are able to travel. Fundraise . With the Development Team's support, raise additional funds as the team grows.