Open position: Head of Video

Why this role?

80,000 Hours provides free research and support to help people find careers tackling the world’s most pressing problems.

Users can engage with our research in many forms: as longform articles published on our site, as a paperback book received via our book giveaway, as a podcast, or in smaller chunks via our newsletter. But we have relatively little support available in video format.

Time spent on the internet is increasingly spent watching video, and for many people in our target audience, video is the main way that they both find entertainment and learn about topics that matter to them.

We think that one of the best ways we could increase our impact going forward is to have a mature and robust pipeline for producing videos on topics that will help our audience find more impactful careers.

Back in 2017, we started a podcast; today, our podcast episodes reach more than 100,000 listeners, and are commonly cited by listeners as one of the best ways they know of to learn about the world’s most pressing problems. Our hope is that a video programme could be similarly successful — or reach an even larger scale.

We’ve also produced two ten-minute videos already that we were pleased with and got mostly positive feedback on. Using targeted digital advertising, we found we could generate an hour of engagement with the videos for just $0.40, while maintaining an average watch percentage of nearly 60%.

Responsibilities

This is a senior hire. We’re looking for someone who will:

• Come up with a strategic vision and plan for producing videos at 80,000 Hours
• Hire, and then manage, a team executing on that vision
• Be responsible for getting feedback on and evaluating the impact of their videos

Exactly what these videos look like, and how they get made, would be up to you.

About you

We’re looking for someone who has:

• A strong interest in effective altruism, longtermism, and/or having a big, positive impact in the world — ideally with experience in applying EA principles in real-world decisions
• Good strategic judgement; the ability to write a vision for a product, programme, or team, weighing up multiple complex considerations even-handedly to come to conclusions, and then communicate them clearly to get others on board. Stakeholder management skills.
• Written communication that is easy to follow — in particular, the ability to write out and show your thinking / your uncertainties in decision making
• An interest in thinking carefully about what kind of video content will be appealing and useful to people who might make especially high-impact career changes
• An enthusiastic, dedicated approach to the role; you’re excited about 80,000 Hours’ mission and helping us expand into this new medium.
• Good “taste,” where that means you’re willing to think carefully about what kinds of video will perform well and why, and exercise that judgement
• An interest in management and team leadership (we don’t require experience, but you would need to be excited about becoming an excellent manager)
• Assuming you were hired and things were going well in the role, excitement about staying in this role over the medium-term, i.e. at least 2 years.

Ideally, you’d also have the following traits — but we encourage you to apply even if they don’t describe you!

• Experience in video, or other experience relevant for this role (for example, experience producing written or audio content; team leadership, hiring, and management experience; marketing experience; project management).
• An interest in YouTube and/or shortform video platforms; you regularly watch online videos for fun and have opinions about what makes for excellent vs mediocre video content.
• You’re excited about tackling “big” strategy questions, like: how to measure long-run programme impact, whether your programme should be shut down, or when to experiment vs double down.
• You are habitually data-driven in your work, wherever possible and appropriate.
• You really “get” our target audience (talented, ambitious, altruistic 18–30 year olds), or are excited to learn more about them and their interests.
• You’re willing to take an experimental approach, changing plans in response to what seems to resonate with the audience.

Role details

This is a full-time role. We would prefer for you to work in-person, based in London (we can support UK visa applications if needed). We are open to remote applications, though we’d prefer if remote candidates can spend some significant time in London.

Note that this role is not hiring for someone to help us run video interviews on our podcast — this will likely be handled by a separate team.

However, there will be ways that the head of video will need to coordinate with the podcast team, and the person in this role will probably be managed by Rob Wiblin (podcast host and head of research at 80,000 Hours).

The salary will vary based on your skills, fit, and experience, but to give you a sense, the starting salary for a promising Head of Video with 5 years of relevant prior experience would be £80,000 per year (though would be higher if they seemed like an exceptionally strong fit for the role).

Our benefits include:

• The option to use 10% of your time for self development
• 25 days of paid holiday, plus bank holidays
• Standard UK pension, with 3% contribution from employer
• Flexible work hours and location
• Private medical insurance
• Long-term disability insurance
• Up to 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave
• Childcare allowance for children under 5
• Coverage of work-related expenses like travel to conferences and office equipment
• £5,000 annual mental health support allowance
• £5,000 annual self-development budget
• Gym, shower facilities, and free food provided at our London office

We have a really awesome team and are excited for more people to join us in our mission to help people use their careers to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

Application process

To apply, please fill in this application form. If you have any problems submitting the form, please send your CV to [email protected]. Applications are due by 11:59pm on August 25, 2024.

The application process will vary a bit depending on the candidate, but is likely to include a written work sample, an interview, and a multi-day in-person trial. We offer payment for work samples and trials, conditional on your location and right to work in the UK.

We’re aware that factors like gender, race, and socioeconomic background can affect people’s willingness to apply for roles for which they meet many but not all the suggested attributes. We’d especially like to encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

If you’re feeling unsure whether you meet our criteria, I’d like to strongly encourage you to apply; or reach out to [email protected] if you’re still unsure.

Apply here