Work at Wild Animal Initiative

 
 

Applications closed

As of 14 August 2023, we are no longer accepting applications for this position.

This is an archived copy of the job description for your reference.

Basics

Posted: July 25, 2023

Job title: People Operations Coordinator

Department: Operations

Application deadline: 9 am ET Monday August 14 2023

Application materials:

Please submit an application using this form. 

Please note that we do not ask for a cover letter. Instead, we ask that you submit a resume and an application form. The form will ask you to provide answers to short answer and multiple choice questions regarding your qualifications. 

You are welcome to preview the questions before beginning. We estimate that completing the application form will take you no longer than 1 hour, but there is no time limit. 

If you’re interested, this academic paper provides an overview of the reasons to favor application forms that collect specific kinds of information over resumes and cover letters.  

Application process timeline:

  • Stage 1 - phone screen: late August 2023

  • Stage 2 - compensated skills assessment: early September 2023

  • Stage 3 - video interview: mid September 2023

  • Target start: October 2023

Terms of employment

Location:

  • Full-time remote; exempt position.

  • Limited to US applicants. Note: We are not able to sponsor work visas and are only considering applicants who are eligible to work in the US.

  • Must be able to meet with colleagues in Eastern Time (US) (GMT-4) and Mountain Time (US) (GMT-6) most days of the week and European time zones (GMT+1 & GMT+2) and Pacific Time (US) (GMT-7) a few times a week. Due to the global nature of our operations, some meetings may fall outside of local business hours.

COVID-19: 

  • Public health is a high priority of ours. We strongly encourage employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

  • We will consider requests for reasonable accommodation regarding vaccination based on medical or religious reasons, in accordance with our policy and applicable law.

Expected start date: 

  • October 2023

Expected Salary:

  • $58,781-$71,843, depending on the approximate cost of living in your area.

  • For a complete description of how we set and raise salaries, see our salary algorithm.

Benefits:

  • Comprehensive health and dental insurance. Vision insurance is available.

  • Generous paid time off and leave policies. Four weeks of paid vacation time, 13 paid holidays, and an additional paid two-week organization-wide break at the end of December.

  • Two weeks of paid sick leave, which may also be used for caring for human or non-human family members.

  • A remote environment that allows you to balance work and family requirements and a technology stipend to cover associated costs.

  • A friendly, open work culture that encourages feedback, collaboration, experimentation, and evidence-based innovation.

  • Opportunities for advancement as our team and programs continue their growth trajectory.

  • Leadership and colleagues committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, including a dedicated internal JEDI committee, annual staff and manager trainings to combat our biases at work, and support for employees with visible and invisible disabilities.

  • Reimbursement for books you buy and read for professional development.

Reports to:

  • Operations Director Jason Orlando (he/him)

Travel:

  • Ability to independently self-book travel to the United States and Europe for staff retreats (one to three per year), conferences, and other in-person events (zero to five per year), including driving or taking flights for extended durations. Staff are responsible for booking their own reservations within specified dates and meeting times. Work-related travel expenses will be reimbursed.

  • Must be able to obtain legal permission to make such trips (e.g., by having a valid passport and obtaining any necessary visas for travel).

Responsibilities

Position mission statement:

As our People Operations Coordinator, you will work closely with our Operations Director and the Finance Operations Coordinator to ensure the smooth operation of Wild Animal Initiative to enable our staff to focus on the research, services, and programs needed to advance our mission of understanding and improving the lives of free-ranging animals in the wild.

You will plan our annual in-person all-staff retreats, work with the Operations Director to ensure our legal and lawful operational compliance, and keep our policies and procedures documents updated and current. You will interact with our staff in a human resources, people, and culture capacity regarding their needs and questions, acting as a first line of contact and proactively looking for ways to improve employee experience and organizational operation.

Supervisory responsibilities:

None currently, but if you are interested and able, we are open to your duties evolving to include managing other staff as opportunities arise.

Core responsibilities:

Employee experience — You will act as the primary point of contact with the Operations team for staff questions and requests.

  • Ensure smooth operation: Partner with the Operations Director to complete tasks and projects and identify opportunities or issues that could impact the organization's ability to successfully, safely, and effectively achieve our objectives.

  • Interact with staff: Build and maintain relationships with all staff in order to monitor needs, anticipate and proactively address requests and questions, and take necessary actions to ensure satisfaction and improve team efficiencies.

  • Maintain personnel data integrity: Maintain data integrity in Justworks (our current US Employer of Record), Safeguard (our current International Employer of Record), and any other personnel systems for new hires, employee changes, and terminations, conducting regular audits.

  • Maintain and update policies and procedures: Become an expert in our Operations policies, documents, and forms, such as the Employee Handbook, our Onboarding process, etc., and update in line with legislative changes in partnership with employment counsel and the Operations Director.

  • Coordinate employee performance reviews: Own, provide guidance for, and facilitate the employee performance review cycle.

Operational compliance — We are a remote and dispersed team with employees in various US states and several European countries. Regulations vary by location, and you will work with our third-party partners and the Operations Director to ensure Wild Animal Initiative adheres to all applicable laws and regulations.

  • Communicate professionally with third parties: Work with third parties such as Justworks, Safeguard, and Harbor Compliance (our US state licensing compliance platform) to proactively know the different laws and regulations applicable in various states and countries for our employees.

  • Coordinate with staff to ensure compliance: Work with the Operations Director, Strategy Director, and others to pull together information, complete forms, and submit documents to appropriate channels to maintain compliance.

  • Grow your compliance knowledge: Work with our third-party partners and conduct research to know and monitor changes in all applicable state, federal, and international labor regulations.

Retreat planning — We plan to hold an in-person all-staff retreat at least once and up to three times each year. Our staff is dispersed, and we vary locations for these events in Europe and the US, primarily. You will own this annual project from planning to execution and post-event evaluation and work with the Operations Director to support a number of smaller “team” meetings each year.

  • Plan equitable, inclusive, and diverse retreats: Plan retreats in a way that fosters belonging in all attendees, where their health, safety, security, and unique perspectives are valued.

  • Establish event parameters: Work with staff and leadership to identify intentions and requirements for each retreat, incorporating learnings from past events.

  • Manage project tracking and event budget: Perform regular audits, review all invoices for accuracy, review expenses according to policy, and ensure timely payments to vendors. Record and track key project milestones, deadlines, and progress in our program management tool (Asana).

  • Communicate event details: Provide regular updates, convey pertinent information about arrangements, and gather feedback.

  • Coordinate with vendors: Work with external vendors such as hotels, airlines, restaurants, or caterers to communicate needs, request proposals, select venues, confirm arrangements, and perform other activities necessary to ensure a smooth retreat operation.

  • Acquire or arrange necessary equipment: Make arrangements for any items such as audio/visual cables, name tags, projection screens, parking or transit services, accessibility tools, or accommodations to ensure staff can focus on participating.

  • Execute seamless in-person events: Assist with running the retreat, acting as the main point of contact for any external vendors and for our staff. Facilitate event setup, work closely with presenters, ensure outcomes are captured, and other tasks as needed.

Other duties: As a young nonprofit, our organization's needs are still evolving, necessitating flexibility and openness to new duties as they may be assigned on short notice. We're seeking someone adaptable and responsive to changing requirements.

Qualifications

Note that we do not require any specific academic credentials or prior work experience for you to be considered for this position.

This role will require you to have the following qualifications:

  • A welcoming, composed, and community-minded attitude and desire to help and stand behind others, even in tight deadlines or complex interpersonal situations.

  • Demonstrated ability to reliably complete work tasks in a timely manner and with attention to detail and integrity.

  • Strong proven ability to coordinate with others to accomplish tasks, manage systems, or complete projects.

  • Dedication to and knowledge of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice and a passion for putting these concepts into practice.

  • Demonstrated strong ability to clearly and effectively communicate in English both orally and in writing, primarily in a remote environment.

  • Working knowledge of common US business and employment laws, regulations, and resources with the ability to foresee issues and research solutions. Preferred — previous familiarity with employer of record services for international contractors.

  • Familiarity with, or ability to become familiar with, common administrative and remote office procedures with openness and desire to find more efficient or effective ways to operate.

  • Demonstrated ability to give full attention to what others are saying, take time to acknowledge them, and ability to observe and recognize their reactions to collaboratively solve problems.

  • Ability to proactively anticipate and identify potential problems in systems or processes with an eye for efficiency or misinterpretations.

  • Ability to proactively evaluate strengths and weaknesses of possible solutions to recommend the most effective solution.

  • Able and willing to learn new software and platforms such as Google Drive, Airtable, Salesforce, and Asana.

This role might also benefit from you having some of the following qualifications. You should still apply even if you don’t have any of these qualifications. 

  • Working knowledge of Salesforce, Asana, Airtable, and Google Suite and ability to explore new potentially helpful platforms and tools.

  • Ability to compose concise and clear written procedural documents and present procedural information orally, such as in an all-staff meeting.

  • Demonstrated ability to incorporate new information or others' actions into current thinking. 

About our mission

Wild Animal Initiative is a remote 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to understanding and improving the lives of wild animals. Our work funds cutting-edge science, supports researchers, and contributes to original research.

We are looking to work with people that approach our mission as an inherently inclusive endeavor and celebrate the differences of others. We strongly encourage Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, and people of other historically marginalized communities to apply and welcome applicants of any religion, age, origin, class, citizenship, parental status, disability status, genetics, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender. We view diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and ways of understanding the world and wild animals as an asset which can improve the performance, collective intelligence, innovation, and quality of science at Wild Animal Initiative, while also addressing the exclusionary aspects of the spaces we operate in. We integrate these values into all aspects of our work and seek to constantly improve our implementation of them. We seek to benefit and share power with everyone at Wild Animal Initiative. 

Please note that we are unable to sponsor work visas at this time. Candidates must be eligible to work in their respective jurisdictions.

If you have any questions about our hiring process or open positions, or if you would like to recommend excellent candidates, please reach out to us at hiring@wildanimalinitiative.org.

To express your interest in working with us in a capacity not currently open, please submit your information via our Job Interest Form. By doing so, you will be added to our talent database, which we consult for new roles and when recommending candidates to other mission-aligned organizations.

Thank you for considering Wild Animal Initiative as the next part of your vocational journey. We hope to hear from you!

Requests for accommodation: If you are a qualified individual with a disability, we welcome requests for reasonable accommodations if you are unable or limited in your ability to apply for this job as a result of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by contacting Hiring Manager Emily Sharp at emily.sharp@wildanimalinitiative.org.