About the Position and Team

Rethink Priorities (RP) is seeking a highly analytical Researcher or Senior Researcher to investigate complex questions arising at the intersection of AI and animals — taking priority research projects from vague, important questions through to delivered, decision-useful output.

This position sits within RP's Animal Welfare Department, which advances and pioneers evidence-based, reason-driven change for animals. Within the department, the AI × Animals Program works to steer the animal movement through an AI-transformed future toward the best possible world for animals. We believe AI will significantly affect animal welfare and advocacy, and that far too little work is going into navigating that transition well for animals. We pair disciplined prioritisation research — mapping where AI matters for animals and which interventions are worth funding, incubating, or scaling — with an action arm that builds talent and coordination infrastructure.

To get a sense of the questions you would investigate, see the executive summaries of our reports on AI and aquaculture (Part 1, Part 2) and onAI and cultivated meat. Many projects are self-generated from questions we think deserve attention; others are commissioned by mission-aligned funders and advocacy organisations. A typical project means scoping a fuzzy question, choosing a proportionate method, and producing something a decision-maker can act on.

You will own research questions end to end and exercise real judgement about what to investigate and how. The level of autonomy scales with seniority:

At the Researcher level, you'll execute projects with regular guidance from your manager on methodology and prioritisation, while taking increasing ownership of day-to-day decisions.
At the Senior Researcher level, you'll scope and run projects with minimal oversight, take the initiative to learn methods you haven't used before, and be consulted by program leadership on strategic decisions such as which projects the program should take on.

Reporting and collaboration. The successful candidate will report to Kevin Xia (Senior Research Manager) and collaborate across the program and the wider Animal Welfare Department.

This role is open at two levels — Researcher and Senior Researcher — and you may indicate which you're applying for. We may make an offer at a level above or below the one you applied for if the hiring process suggests it's a better fit; the final level (and corresponding salary) is set using RP's title structure and salary algorithm based on demonstrated competencies and relevant experience.

Key Responsibilities

As a Researcher / Senior Researcher, your main responsibilities will include:

Scoping vague but important questions around AI x Animals — choosing the right depth, angle, and methodology for each, from literature reviews to modelling, data analysis, or expert interviews.
Conducting independent research on complex questions, addressing uncertainty and competing perspectives explicitly.
Engaging external stakeholders to understand their needs and shape deliverables to their specifications.
Producing decision-useful outputs from inception to delivery, in the best-fit format (report, model, dashboard), translated into practical recommendations for decision-makers.
Managing projects end to end — keeping them on track, reporting progress, and proactively identifying mitigations when barriers arise.

The balance of these responsibilities, and the autonomy you'll have, depends on the level you're hired at. At the Senior Researcher level, you will own these responsibilities at higher autonomy and help co-create the overall research strategy for the program. You will also build and steward more external relationships with funders, advocates, and field experts.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Skills and Competencies

Required for all applicants:

An abiding commitment to RP's mission for animals — you keep impact at the centre of project decisions and prioritise it over interestingness.
Strong applied-research judgement. You can take a vague, important question, scope it sensibly, choose sound methodology, and reach a defensible answer under time pressure.
Strong analytical and quantitative reasoning. Ability and willingness to use, build, and interpret models and quantitative concepts. (Deep statistical or programming expertise is not required — see "nice to have.")
Clear written communication. You explain a chain of reasoning and convey complex ideas to decision-makers, not just to peers, and organise writing for its intended audience.
Reasoning transparency. You give caveated, decision-useful answers under uncertainty — documenting key steps, stating uncertainties, and sourcing major claims — rather than waiting for certainty.
A steadfast commitment to truthseeking, intellectual openness to diverse viewpoints, and research ethics.
Resourcefulness and problem-solving. You find tractable ways into open-ended problems.
Self- and project management in a remote, distributed, asynchronous team — setting and meeting realistic goals and keeping work organised.
Collaboration and stakeholder engagement. You work effectively toward shared goals and interact professionally with colleagues and external partners.

Additionally expected at the Senior Researcher level:

Greater autonomy and ownership — you initiate, plan, and run projects with little oversight, and refine your approach so recurring problems don't recur.
Strategic and critical thinking at program scale — anticipating risks and opportunities and prioritizing between projects.
Proactive outreach — independently building and maintaining external relationships and representing RP credibly in professional settings.
Review and feedback — giving honest, constructive, timely feedback on others' work across clarity, rigor, and impact.

Nice to have (none required):

Skill with strategic decision-making tools (e.g. stakeholder mapping, scenario analysis).
Familiarity with AI/ML concepts or model evaluation.
A fluent, AI-native working style — you already use current AI tools effectively in your own research workflow.
Domain expertise in a relevant priority area (e.g. AI strategy, safety, or governance; farmed animal welfare; alternative proteins; or wild animal welfare).
Experience working or volunteering in the AI safety or animal advocacy space.
Familiarity with the ideas and methods used in high-impact, evidence-led philanthropy.
Proficiency with R or Python.

What We Offer

Compensation

We offer an annual salary between $80,000 – $135,000 USD pre-tax for a full-time position, prorated for part-time work.
The exact salary will be based on the candidate’s prior relevant experience and corresponding title level, and calculated using RP’s salary algorithm.
Compensation is not restricted to the currencies listed above.
To ensure fairness across the entire organization, RP does not negotiate salaries.

Other Benefits

Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, high-impact organization — our research is used by key decision-makers who influence the distribution of hundreds of millions of charitable dollars.
Remote-first environment, including flexible work hours and schedule.
Comprehensive global benefits program, including statutory benefits as required by local law, and supplemental benefits specific to each country (varies by location)
Generous paid time off (PTO) and unpaid leave, including:
- Unlimited vacation with a minimum number of required statutory days off
- "Mandated" 3 weeks total mid- and end-year organization-wide breaks
- Unlimited (within reason) personal and sick paid and unpaid leave
- Parental leave — at least 4 - 9 months of a combination of paid and unpaid leave, available prior to and/or during the first 2 years after a child's birth or adoption
- Other paid and unpaid leave (e.g., bereavement)
Technology stipend of $2,000 USD equivalent every 3 years for work and office equipment.
AI tools budget of $40 USD equivalent monthly.
Professional development budget amount subject to leadership approval that renews yearly.
Learning opportunities, including workshops/training sessions and 10% of work time dedicated to professional and personal development.
Paid work trips, including one annual all-staff Mega Team Retreat and relevant conferences.
Virtual co-working spaces, including a private Rethink Priorities Focusmate group
RP Peer Support Program for New Employees.
Other benefits at the discretion of RP Leadership.
A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance.
Opportunities to grow/advance your career and engage in professional development.
Low administrative bureaucracy.
We don’t provide snacks, but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want!

Our Hiring Process

There are 4 evaluation stages. Only candidates who meet the bar at a given stage proceed. We aim to complete each stage’s assessments within two weeks, so you can learn quickly whether you’ll proceed.

Stage 1 — Initial Screening. A short set of written prompts in the application aimed to be completed in around 60 minutes. We evaluate these rather than CV's.

We score anonymized responses for:

Alignment with our mission and motivation for the work
Ability to perform research tasks that are relevant for this role
Relevant knowledge and experience in the fields relevant to this role

Stage 2 — Paid Skills Assessment.

You will complete a standardized, time-boxed task that mimics the actual job (3–5 hours)
You’ll be paid $45 per hour for the test task

Stage 3 — Interview

We will ask you questions across the skills and experience the role requires
Most questions will be sent in advance; occasionally, we may tell you about the topic of a question in advance, but not the specific question
You will have a chance to ask questions about the role, the Animal Welfare Department and RP broadly

Stage 4 — Reference Checks. We ask two references about your work, probing independent execution on hard problems in particular.

We hope to hire for this role by end of September.

Additional Information

Role-Specific

Work Environment and Visa Sponsorship: This role is fully remote and we are able to legally hire in many countries. In certain cases, we may be able to provide visa sponsorship to the US or UK and help candidates relocate. If you have questions about whether we can hire or provide visa sponsorship in another country and if this will influence your decision about applying, please contact careers@rethinkpriorities.org before submitting your application.
Time Zones and Working Hours: While we welcome applicants from all time zones, you may be expected to attend meetings with at least a two-hour overlap with UTC+2 working hours.
Full and Part Time Position: Full-time preferred. We will also consider exceptional part-time candidates who are available to work at least 20 hours per week.
Travel: Travel is not an essential requirement for this position. However, a majority of our staff travel a few times per year for conferences, team and all-staff retreats, and other work-related purposes. In most cases, travel is not mandatory, but encouraged. If, for any reason, you would prefer not to travel for work, please do not be discouraged from applying. Depending on the event, we can likely make accommodations, such as allowing virtual participation when possible.
Language: Professional level of English language is required for all roles at Rethink Priorities.

Hiring Process-Specific

Extension requests: We will try to accommodate extension requests that are made before the deadline and are up to three (3) days. We generally cannot accommodate extension requests made after the application deadline, or are longer than 3 days, and cannot accept late submissions to ensure fairness to other applicants.
Application materials: All application materials must be submitted in English language; otherwise, we will not be able to evaluate your candidacy.
Inclusivity and fairness: RP is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. Please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neurodiversity or any other background. We provide reasonable accommodations and benefits, including, for example, flexible work schedules and locations, mental health coverage through medical benefits (as available), as well as technology budgets and professional development time that can be used, for example, to purchase assistive technology or engage in job coaching.
Accessibility: We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible hiring process. We warmly invite you to reach out to careers@rethinkpriorities.org with any questions or accessibility requests such as chat box use during interviews. Note there is an all-staff mid year break from 6-10 July so our team will be unavailable to answer questions over that date.
Hiring Software: We use Pinpoint for our recruitment and hiring processes and all of the email correspondence is done via Pinpoint. We encourage you to add Pinpoint domain (@pinpoint.email) to your trusted contacts and/or check your 'spam', 'promotions' and ‘updates’ folders, if you don’t hear from us within the expected timeframe.
Other: Visit our Career webpage if you’d like to know more about our hiring process, culture, and what working at RP is like.
Note Before Applying: We invite anyone who is interested in this role to apply, and will assess applications primarily based on anonymized initial question answers, so please ensure they represent your fit for the position well. We will advance candidates to the next stages based on their quality of responses during our hiring process. Please do not include a cover letter, photograph, or headshot of yourself, or any personal information that is not relevant to the role for which you’re applying (including marital status, age, identity traits, etc.). Additionally, please do not ask our staff members involved in the hiring process to meet with you – to ensure fairness, we try to minimize these interactions, and requests for meetings with the hiring committee members during the process will be declined.

About Rethink Priorities

Founded in 2018, Rethink Priorities (RP) is a think-and-do tank. Through research and action, the organization improves the lives of humans and animals—both now and in the future.

We work to identify solutions, mobilize resources, and empower our team and others to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. Our team conducts rigorous research across animal welfare, climate change, global health, international development, and other important and neglected areas. Our operations experts help high-impact organizations to improve efficiency and achieve meaningful results.

RP works as all of the following:

A consultancy doing commissioned work in response to demands from organizations doing high-impact work.
A research institute driven by research agendas we set according to our own priorities.
A think tank aiming to inform public policy to improve the world.
An accelerator, incubator, and base for priority projects.

Accomplishments include:

Bringing attention to neglected issues, such as lead exposure, fungal diseases, and shrimp welfare.
Increasing the collective impact of advocates across each field in which we work through strategic coordination.
Investigating potential interventions and identifying the most cost-effective options. In 2025, our research influenced tens of millions of dollars in foundation grants.
Creating practical tools for philanthropists to compare resource allocations across different species and cause areas and to build giving portfolios despite uncertainties.
Providing organizations with data to inform their decisions. For example, we have conducted surveys on perceptions of existential risks, AI, effective giving, and other topics.
Providing fiscal sponsorship and operational support to ensure that high-impact initiatives in areas like AI safety and animal welfare can launch and grow effectively.
Donor Compass - Cross Cause Fund Tool to guide philanthropic giving.

We welcome you to review our research database and our latest annual report.

Originally posted on Himalayas

(Senior) Researcher AI x Animals

Job Description