Director - Effective Thesis
Are you a visionary leader looking for a chance to make a large impact? We're seeking a director to lead our nonprofit organisation into a new era of strategic and operational excellence
Become Effective Thesis’ Director!
Effective Thesis seeks a visionary Director to lead our nonprofit organization into a new era of strategic and operational excellence. You have an opportunity to rethink our theory of change, take what we have built and use your skills and experience to orient it towards highest impact potential. You’ll start with a 1-year runway for you and a small team of 1-2 other people, supported by our existing legal structures and a board of directors. You will also benefit from our existing brand awareness, our network of more than 130 researchers/experts we collaborate with and demonstrated growth potential of 1196 unique applicants for our services in the past 8 months. If you’re passionate about significantly improving the world via building research infrastructures and meta-organisations and have the leadership skills to transform our organization, we want to hear from you!
Key information
Hours: Since you’ll be the main driver of the organisation, we would like you to commit fully (40h/week), but we might consider lower capacity in some cases
Work Location: Fully remote by default, but you can set up a physical space
Deadline: On a rolling basis, please apply asap if you want to be considered
Ideal Start Date: asap, but no hard deadlines (though candidates who are only available after 1st August will be given lower priority in our assessment)
Read on for more details about the role, why it’s impactful, and how to tell if you’re a good fit.
About Effective Thesis
Effective Thesis is a non-profit organisation. Our mission is to support university students to begin and progress in research careers that significantly improve the world. We do this primarily by helping students identify important problems where further research could have a big impact and advising them on their research topic selection (mostly in the context of a final thesis/dissertation/capstone project). Choosing a final thesis topic or a PhD topic is an important step that can influence the rest of a researcher’s career. We support students in this choice by providing introductions to various research directions and early-career research advice on our website and offering topic choice coaching. Additionally, we provide other types of support to address key bottlenecks in early stages of research careers, such as finding supervision, funding or useful opportunities.
Here is our 2022 report outlining our activities and impact. We are wrapping up the most recent impact report which we will share with candidates throughout the recruitment process. Since we concluded that our current trajectory is likely not the highest impact trajectory for the organisation, we are currently scaling back our activities to reorient towards higher impact with a smaller team under new leadership.
Role mission
This role is an exciting high-impact opportunity for the new Director to use their visionary spirit, entrepreneurial drive and strategic ability to shape Effective Thesis’ strategic direction and activities. We inhabit a unique niche in the research and coaching environment with large potential for impact. In the past 8 months we have supported almost 1200 people through our activities, our network of experts is 130 researchers large and we have a solid track record of impact. As a Director, you will have the opportunity to lead the way for Effective Thesis to reach its full potential and make a dent in helping to understand and solve the most pressing problems of our world.
Objectives of this role
Take the organisation to the next level of strategic and operational excellence
Improve our Theory of Change and organisational direction
Identify and prioritise the development of our highest impact activities
Find novel and innovative ways to increase our impact
Secure long-term funding
Carefully report our counterfactual impact
Responsibilities
This role includes taking full ownership of the organisation, which roughly breaks down into the following responsibilities.
Strategic leadership
High-level work on our Theory of Change
Identifying organisational priorities and creating long-term and short-term plans
Deciding which activities Effective Thesis should run
Operational leadership
Planning and allocating organisational capacities
Executing plans
Networking
Attending relevant conferences and events, making personal connections with relevant people in our stakeholder environment, e.g. those running similar organisations, academic & non-academic researchers, funders, etc..
Consulting with a board of directors
Having quarterly (online) meetings with our board of directors
Informing the board of our strategic direction and other relevant metrics
Seeking and implementing the board’s advice
Impact Evaluation
Creating regular impact assessments bi-annually (every 6 months)
Deciding which information the reports should include
Fundraising
Writing grant proposals and communicating with funders
Ensuring sustainability of Effective Thesis through securing long-term funding
Team management & hiring
Legal & financial operations
Handling funding and making sure all expenses are covered
Communication with accountant
Arranging working contracts, nonprofit status, and other legal documentation
We expect the following characteristics in a successful candidate
A visionary leader with a track record of successfully owning projects, leading teams or organisations
Proactive mindset with strong strategic and operational skills to take the organisation to the next level of excellence
Ability to identify and prioritise highest impact activities and find innovative ways to increase impact
Experience or ability to fundraise and secure long-term funding for the organisation
Strong networking skills to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders, including funders, researchers, and similar organisations
Strong communication and interpersonal skills to work collaboratively with team members, board of directors, and external stakeholders
Demonstrated ability to think critically and creatively, and to make strategic decisions
Fulfilling these additional criteria would be beneficial
Proven experience in impact evaluation and ability to report counterfactual impact
Experience in university environment or research work
Strong network and involvement in the effective altruism community (specifically the movement building space and the causes prioritised by the community)
Experience working in small (1-10 people) remote organisations
Experience with legal and financial operations
We highly encourage you to still apply if you feel like you do not fulfil all of these characteristics.
We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, black people and people of colour who are excited about contributing to our mission.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact silvana.hultsch@effectivethesis.org.
Compensation
The Director is preferably a full-time 40 hours/week role with a rate of 80,000 – 90,000 USD/year but we will consider capacity as low as 30h/week or higher salary expectations for exceptional candidates. The role is fully remote and open to candidates from all countries.
What the hiring process will look like
We consider applications on a rolling basis and aim to hire as soon as possible.
Stage 1: Please fill out our application form, which should take up to 30 minutes.
Stage 2: Initial interview (30min)
Stage 3: Take-home work task (2h)
Stage 4: In-depth interview (1h)
Stage 5: 1 day work trial (compensated) + Reference checks (we will ask you for up to 2 references)
The hiring team consists of Silvana Hultsch (current Managing Director), Diwangna Kathuria (current Outreach and Communications Director) and David Janku (current Executive Director). To ensure high quality decision-making, the final hiring decision will be supported and approved by Effective Thesis’ board of directors.
Feel free to reach out to silvana.hultsch@effectivethesis.org if you have any questions.
