The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is hiring a Director of Operations / Chief Operating Officer to serve as a senior leader responsible for the portfolio of operational functions critical to our organization’s effectiveness. Reporting to the CEO, you will collaborate closely with programs across CEA’s portfolio and partners throughout the effective altruism ecosystem. We’re working to build a flourishing future by applying evidence, reason, and compassion to challenges like global poverty, animal suffering, and existential risks.
What You'll Do
- Lead, support, and build a multi-functional operations team of 16+ staff.
- Ensure CEA's core operational functions are reliable and fit for purpose as the organization scales.
- Drive continuous improvement across functional areas to improve execution, reliability, and scale.
- Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO and leadership team, translating strategic priorities into operational plans.
- Act as an outward-facing spokesperson and build relationships with other organizations.
What We're Looking For
- Experience successfully managing and developing a team.
- Strong operational judgment and ability to execute in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
- High standards for reliability, integrity, and follow-through.
- Strong value alignment with CEA’s mission.
Nice to Have
- Experience leading multi-disciplinary operational functions (e.g., finance, grants operations, legal/risk, people ops, business systems).
- Experience overseeing budgeting, forecasting, and cash/runway management to support leadership decision-making.
- Experience scaling people operations and recruiting in a growing organization.
- Experience building systems of record and operational workflows that are fast, accurate, compliant, and audit-ready.
- Experience navigating legal and reputational risk tradeoffs effectively and in partnership with counsel.
- Experience driving cross-functional process improvement and 'connective tissue' work across teams.
- Experience operating in a startup or other entrepreneurial environment without an established playbook.
- Experience communicating clearly with diverse stakeholders and building trust in high-stakes situations.
- For COO role: A strong track record of senior leadership in a complex organization, including setting direction and translating strategy into execution.
- For COO role: An established track record of building and leading high-performing teams, including hiring and developing managers.
- For COO role: Demonstrated ability to build scalable systems and processes that improve organizational throughput and reliability.
- For COO role: Excellent judgment around risk, compliance, and trust, with a track record of moving quickly while maintaining strong governance.
Team & Environment
You will lead the operations team, which is CEA's largest team, and report directly to the CEO, Zachary Robinson.
Work Mode
This is a global position.
