People Operations Associate - Immigration and Global Workforce

Open Philanthropy is looking for a seasoned business immigration professional who can help us advance our goals around business immigration and our globally distributed workforce. As our staff and grantmaking continue to expand, we see it becoming increasingly important to our mission to be able to hire and support staff based in different geographies.

About Open Philanthropy

Open Philanthropy is a grantmaker; our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. We stress openness to many possibilities and have chosen our focus areas based on importance, neglectedness and tractability. We’re particularly interested in high-risk, high-reward giving that may be too unconventional for other funders. Our current giving areas include global health and development, scientific research, South Asian air quality, farm animal welfare, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, and potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.

About the Role 

This role sits within a three-person team that focuses on supporting business immigration and our globally distributed workforce. You would report to Martin McDonald, who leads our immigration and global workforce function. Our long-term vision is to continually improve the infrastructure and capacity to support our staff while maintaining our high standards for customer service and innovating our systems. 

Your core responsibilities would include:

• Supporting the process of business immigration for current and future employees. This includes outlining the factors involved in visa cases for Open Phil staff and visa candidates, coordinating with staff and candidates to get the necessary information, working with our external immigration counsel to develop case strategies and coordinate case progress, and ensuring that visa cases move forward on time by troubleshooting any obstacles as they arise. 
• Owning a portion of Open Phil’s immigration processes, communicating and collaborating closely with managers and employees to ensure that the U.S. visa and green card process is smooth and efficient.
• Partnering with our immigration counsel to manage the visa initiation/renewal and green card process, ensuring a smooth and positive employee experience.
• Identifying and collaborating on process improvements in our immigration process, making sure all visa/green card documentation/policies are up to date, accessible, and easy to understand for Open Phil employees.
• Ensuring a smooth transition between recruitment and onboarding for employees requiring a visa.
• Providing assistance with immigration inquiries, such as questions related to employee travel.
• Taking on other special projects. We're always looking for ways to improve our systems and practices to better support Open Philanthropy's mission.

That said, it’s hard to predict everything that you might be doing — we’re a rapidly growing organization, and expect all staff to be flexible about what they work on and put contributing to our mission first. 

Who might be a good fit

We’re looking for someone who resonates with Open Philanthropy’s culture and values, and is excited to take ownership of providing excellent immigration support.

Our ideal candidate would also have significant prior experience supporting business immigration cases, especially experience with H-1B and green card cases, for example as a business immigration paralegal.

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

• A seasoned immigration professional. You have at least 2 years of technical business immigration experience, especially managing H-1B and green card cases, with strong knowledge of the PERM process (including coordinating recruitment), I-140 petitions, and adjustment of status applications.
• Able to work in a way that is consistent with our operating values of ownership, openness, calibration, and inclusiveness.
• A strong communicator, particularly in writing. You will need to manage a large volume of email correspondence, and explain complex issues to employees and hiring managers clearly and succinctly.
• Reliable, responsive, and able to prioritize effectively. Fielding time-sensitive and urgent questions and requests, as well as clearly communicating priorities to employees and hiring managers, will be key elements of the role.
• Organized and detail-oriented. The day-to-day work will involve managing time-sensitive and critical processes around immigration cases. We need someone who can keep on top of a large number of open items and next steps while making sure details don’t get dropped. 
• Familiar with and interested in the work Open Philanthropy is doing. Familiarity with our causes and fields in which relevant work is done — such as global health policy, biosecurity, and reducing risks from advanced AI — is a plus, but not required. 

The ideal candidate for this position will possess many of the skills and experiences described above. However, there is no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we would strongly encourage you to apply. Above all, we are looking for people motivated to contribute to our mission of helping others as much as we can with the resources available to us. Whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this role would make you excited to come to work every day.

Other details

• Compensation: This is a full-time, permanent position. The baseline compensation for this role is $112,719.22, which would be distributed as a base salary of $98,016.71 and an unconditional 401(k) grant of $14,702.51 for U.S. hires.
• These compensation figures assume a remote location; there would be geographic adjustments upwards for candidates based in the San Francisco Bay Area or Washington, D.C.
• Time zones and location: You can work remotely. While we are not able to sponsor visas for this role, we are open to hires outside the US able to consistently overlap with US business hours. 
• Start date: We would ideally like a candidate to begin as soon as possible after receiving an offer (likely in June), but we are willing to wait if the best candidate can only start later.
• Benefits:
• Our benefits package includes: 
• Excellent health insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any eligible dependents) and an employer-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangement for certain other personal health expenses.
• Dental, vision, and life insurance for you and your family.
• Four weeks of PTO recommended per year. 
• Four months of fully paid family leave.
• A generous and flexible expense policy — we encourage staff to expense the ergonomic equipment, software, and other services that they need to stay healthy and productive. 
• Support for remote work — we’ll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you need one, or connect you with an Open Phil coworking hub in your city.
• We can’t always provide every benefit we offer US staff to international hires, but we’re working on it (and will usually provide cash equivalents of any benefits we can’t offer in your country). 

We aim to employ people with many different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who share our passion for accomplishing as much good as we can. We are committed to creating an environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed, and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@openphilanthropy.org.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and we recommend applying early.

Please apply (latest) by 11.59 p.m. Pacific Time on 22 May 2024 to be considered.

Our benefits package includes: 

• Excellent health insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any eligible dependents) and an employer-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangement for certain other personal health expenses.
• Dental, vision, and life insurance for you and your family.
• Four weeks of PTO recommended per year. 
• Four months of fully paid family leave.
• A generous and flexible expense policy — we encourage staff to expense the ergonomic equipment, software, and other services that they need to stay healthy and productive. 
• Support for remote work — we’ll cover a remote workspace outside your home if you need one, or connect you with an Open Phil coworking hub in your city.
• We can’t always provide every benefit we offer US staff to international hires, but we’re working on it (and will usually provide cash equivalents of any benefits we can’t offer in your country).