Grantmaker, Animal Welfare Fund

Centre for Effective Altruism

📍 Remote (Global) 🕔 Full Time
💰£54,159—£79,402 /year equiv. ⏳ 18/02/2026

This role puts you at the center of decisions that could transform the lives of billions of animals. As part of AWF allocating tens of millions of dollars, in the role of a Program Officer, you'll evaluate grant opportunities, shape funding strategy, and direct resources toward interventions with the greatest potential for impact – from ending cage confinement for hens globally to establishing humane slaughter standards for farmed shrimp to protecting wild and invertebrate animals at scale.

This is a high-impact opportunity to directly shape how resources flow in the animal welfare space. Recent AWF grantees have banned caged hen production in an European country, secured welfare commitments affecting billions of shrimp, grown a cage-free supply and demand in Africa and seeded pioneering organizations working on invertebrate welfare. Your decisions will help determine which innovative projects get funded next, which proven interventions scale up, and which critical gaps in the ecosystem get filled. You will work alongside intellectually curious, experienced program officers who have deep expertise across different intervention types, and who share a profound drive to make the biggest difference they can for animals. As AWF scales from $10M to potentially $50M+, team members will have outsized opportunities to grow their responsibilities, develop new skills, and shape the fund's direction.

Key Responsibilities

We're hiring 1-3 Program Officers and are open to hiring at multiple levels with increasing responsibility at each: Senior Program Associate (level 1, junior), Associate Program Officer (level 2, mid seniority), and Program Officer (level 3, senior). The core evaluation and decision-making responsibilities apply to all levels, with additional strategic and management responsibilities at higher levels.

• Core Responsibilities (All Levels)

  Core responsibilities apply to all levels and represent the core function of the Senior Program Associate (junior level). Additional responsibilities for higher levels are described below.

  • Grant Evaluation & Decision-Making

    • Investigate, evaluate and recommend grant opportunities, assessing projects for the strength of their theory of change, scale of counterfactual impact, cost-effectiveness, strengths of the team and their plans, and more

    • Review and engage critically with other program officers' grant recommendations

    • Contribute your perspective and expertise to collective decision-making

  • Monitoring & Evaluation

    • Conduct monitoring and evaluation (M&E) on your grants to inform future grant decisions

  • Active Grantmaking

    • Source high-quality grant applications based on your strategic insights and the fund's priorities

    • Network strategically within the animal welfare space to discover promising interventions and organizations

  • Grantee Relationships

    • Build relationships with potential grantees and help them develop fundable proposals

    • Manage relationships with grantees, offer support and guidance to increase the impact of their work

• Associate Program Officer-level Additional Responsibilities

  Beyond the core responsibilities, the Associate Program Officer (mid seniority level) version of this role includes:

  • Strategic Portfolio Management

    • Manage a portfolio of grants within your focus areas, ensuring they collectively advance key objectives and complement each other strategically

    • Proactively identify funding gaps in your focus areas and create new opportunities to address them

  • Enhanced M&E

    • Draw learnings from the M&E process to inform grantmaking priorities in your focus area

  • People Management

    • Possibly manages (Senior) Program Associates

• Program Officer-level Additional Responsibilities

  Beyond all previous responsibilities, Program Officer (senior level) version of this role includes:

  • Strategic Leadership

    • Shapes strategy and priorities for major grantmaking portfolio area(s) with AWF

    • Represent your portfolio area(s) in strategic planning discussions and contribute to EA funds-level decision-making

    • Occasionally represent AWF in external fora and fundraising efforts

    • Additional AWF-wide responsibilities based on needs and interest (for example, M&E, active grantmaking, evaluation and other processes)

  • People Management

    • Over time, manage a team of (Senior) Program Associate(s) and/or Associate Program Officer(s)

Beyond the responsibilities at each level, you'll also have opportunities to shape AWF's direction and contribute to the broader ecosystem – whether that's providing input on new evaluation methodologies, helping build partnerships with other funders, representing AWF at conferences, or sharing your thinking through grant reports and EA Forum posts.

What We're Looking For

We are interested in a wide range of backgrounds: experienced grantmakers, animal advocacy professionals (such as campaign managers, policy experts, corporate outreach specialists, or program coordinators), researchers, and junior applicants eager to build experience in grantmaking. What matters most is your analytical rigor, strategic thinking, and commitment to helping animals.

Core Qualifications (All Levels)

You might be a great fit for this role if you are:

• Analytically rigorous, with strong experience assessing others' work and making evidence-based decisions

• An effective communicator who can articulate reasoning clearly and with strong reasoning transparency

• Highly organized and reliable, and able to manage multiple work streams and deadlines simultaneously

• Eager to learn new methods to improve your evaluation skills and judgment

• Well-networked in the animal welfare space, with connections to identify promising opportunities

Level-Specific Qualifications

• Senior Program Associate

  • Knowledge: Developing knowledge of effective animal advocacy, with curiosity and capacity to learn quickly across focus areas

  • Strategic thinking: Able to think critically about theories of change and what constitutes effective work

  • Experience: Some relevant experience in animal advocacy, research, or adjacent fields; junior applicants looking to build grantmaking experience welcome

• Associate Program Officer

  • Knowledge: Deep expertise in one or more specific focus areas (e.g., chicken welfare, invertebrate welfare, wild animal welfare)

  • Strategic thinking: Able to develop strategic frameworks within your focus areas and identify the most promising intervention opportunities

  • Experience: Track record of success in your focus area(s), whether in grantmaking, running campaigns, research, or other relevant work

• Program Officer

  • Knowledge: Broad and deep knowledge across AWF's focus areas, with strong understanding of key priorities, opportunities, and challenges in each

  • Strategic thinking: Strong strategic thinker who can set direction across the fund's portfolio, manage competing priorities, and make judgment calls about where AWF can have the greatest impact

  • Experience: Significant experience in grantmaking or senior roles in animal advocacy, with demonstrated ability to oversee complex portfolios and manage others

Other Information

• This is a full-time, remote position. We prefer applicants who are able to work in time zones between US Pacific Time and CET.

• Start date: As soon as possible

• Reports to:

  • Senior Program Associate and Associate Program Officer reports to Neil Dullaghan, Program Officer, Animal Welfare Fund

  • Program Officer reports to Karolina Sarek, Chair, Animal Welfare Fund

• Compensation

  • Senior Program Associate (junior level)

    • US: total compensation package of $90,026, comprising a base salary of $81,842, and a 10% unconditional 401k contribution.

    • UK: total compensation package of £54,159, comprising a base salary of £49,235, and a 10% pension contribution.

  • Associate Program Officer (mid seniority level)

    • US: total compensation package of $109,867, comprising a base salary of $99,879, and a 10% unconditional 401k contribution.

    • UK: total compensation package of £66,095, comprising a base salary of £60,087 and a 10% pension contribution.

  • Program Officer (senior level)

    • US: total compensation package of $131,988 comprising a base salary of $119,989 and a 10% unconditional 401k contribution.

    • UK: total compensation package of £79,402, comprising a base salary of £72,184 and a 10% pension contribution.

  • Other locations: For candidates outside the US and UK, we base compensation on our UK salary structure and adjust for the cost of employment and fixed local benefit costs to create an equivalent package

  • Benefits in the US/UK include private insurance, flexible work hours, a $6,000 / £5,000 annual professional development allowance, a $6,000 / £5,000 mental health support allowance, extended parental leave, ergonomic equipment, 25 days of paid vacation, and more.

• This role will involve travel. Depending on the location, there are likely 4–6 trips annually, including several international trips to attend team retreats and events worldwide.

We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from self-identified women and people of colour who are excited about contributing to our mission. The Centre for Effective Altruism is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have questions about applying, please contact jobs@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.

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If you're uncertain whether to apply, we encourage you to submit an application. You don't need to have it all figured out, including which level might be right for you. We'd rather help a great candidate find their fit than have them self-select out.

Interview Plan

We expect the interview process to include the following steps, subject to minor changes:

• Application

• Test task 1

• Short interview

• Test task 2 (for Associate Program Officer and Program Officer level positions only)

• Final interviews (3-4)

• Reference checks