Expression of Interest: Community Liaison
This is an expression of interest, rather than a role we've formally opened. We will assess applications on a rolling basis, using the process described here. Because we aren't actively focused on hiring for this role, we will tend to have a higher bar for inviting you to the next stage of the process.
Nonetheless, we want to make the first step easy, and we recommend that you apply even if you aren't sure you're a good fit.
The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is seeking a community liaison to strengthen the effective altruism community.
We’re building a community of students and professionals acting on EA principles, by nurturing high-quality discussion spaces. We hope that this will help lead to a world where effective and impartial service to others is a core commitment of global leaders, thinkers, and philanthropists.
About the role
This role aims to strengthen the EA community by providing support to individuals, organizers, and projects facing difficult situations.
All communities experience conflicts, harmful behavior, and personal struggles. If unaddressed, these can cause avoidable strife, reduce people’s ability to focus on important work, and cause engaged community members to leave.
You will address these issues by advising individuals and organizations on issues they face, and by designing proactive interventions, like workshops or written guides. Your work will help to maintain EA as a collaborative environment where community members are well-supported to learn and work together.
You can read more about the work done by the current community liaisons, Julia Wise and Sky Mayhew, in this post. You would be joining them and working as part of the community health team.
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Responsibilities
- Serve as one of the contact people in effective altruism, receiving information from community members about concerns or problems and deciding how to respond.
- Example: giving feedback to a community member about how their behavior has caused a problem.
- Advise other teams at CEA to improve how our projects serve community members.
- Example: giving input on projects run by the events and groups teams.
- Advise EA group organizers, moderators of online spaces, and members of other EA projects or organizations on conflicts or difficult situations.
- Serve as a contact person at in-person events like EA Global and be available to attendees experiencing personal or interpersonal problems (for example, a panic attack, or a conflict with another attendee).
- Recognize risks or recurring problems in the community and design interventions to address them. Examples: trainings for group organizers, workshops and talks for conferences, and written guides. Past topics include burnout, when to use mediation for disputes, and best practices for working with high school students.
Required skills
- Good judgement, especially about risks and indirect consequences of decisions you make
- Emotional resilience to handling charged situations, including mediating conflict
- Empathy and sensitivity
- Ability to keep information shared by others confidential
- Ability to set limits fairly but firmly with others (for example, with a community member who has harmed someone else)
- Desire to understand different people’s viewpoints and build trust with people from different fields and backgrounds
- Strong communication skills
Desired experience
A successful candidate needn't have every type of experience listed here; these are just examples of backgrounds that could be helpful.
- Deep familiarity with the EA community
- Experience working in a professional environment where confidentiality is required (e.g. healthcare, law, or clergy)
- Personal and/or professional experience with marginalized populations or populations underrepresented in EA (e.g. racial or ethnic minority communities, the LGBT+ community, countries where EA is not yet well-established)
- Mediation experience
- Experience in mental health work
- Management experience
For someone with management experience or the skills to become a good manager, this position could lead to managing the community health team in the future.
You can find more information about our application process, benefits, location preferences, and compensation on our careers page.