Special Projects Lead
Consultants for Impact (CFI) is a nonprofit dedicated to helping consultants channel their skills and careers toward meaningful social impact. We’re hiring a Special Projects Lead to help run and develop high-priority organizational projects and programs.
You’ll join our energetic five-person team at an exciting moment in CFI’s growth. In this role, you’ll take ownership of a diverse portfolio of high-priority work: helping design and scale programs capable of serving thousands of consultants per year through social impact career transitions; running and improving established programs and initiatives such as conference events, strategic partner events, and coworking weeks; and directly advising consultants navigating high-impact career decisions. You’ll work closely with leadership and be trusted to take ownership of projects from start to finish.
We’re looking for someone with a consulting background, strong alignment with our mission, and strong project management, communication, and stakeholder relations skills. The ideal candidate will thrive in a role that evolves frequently, involves both autonomous and collaborative work, and demands consistent, high-quality results in a remote environment.
This role is central to helping CFI scale, serve many more consultants, and run increasingly high-quality programs as the organization grows. We’re looking for someone who finds that prospect genuinely exciting.
[Application Deadline: [TBD], at the end of the day (23:59) Anywhere on Earth (UTC-12:00). ]
About Consultants for Impact
Consultants for Impact is a global organization that supports more than 2,500 consultants in their pursuit of social impact through evidence-based approaches
- We offer programs that support consultants in their career transitions. These include tailored career advising, talent referrals, and retreats designed to help members explore and pursue high-impact opportunities.
- We equip consultants with the tools, context, and relationships needed to reflect on their values and integrate them into their career decisions.
- We support workplace groups at major consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.) in fostering community and driving high-impact initiatives.
- We develop and share digital resources to foster an online community through blogs, newsletters, social media platforms, our website, and tools such as the Career Theory of Change Worksheet and Career Check-In Templates.
Consultants we’ve worked with have gone on to launch start-ups, shape international policy, and take on key roles at organizations such as Mercy for Animals, the World Bank, Anthropic, The Humane League, GiveWell, and the RAND Corporation.
To learn more about Consultants for Impact, check out our website, our 2025 Impact Report, and delve into our organizational values and culture.
Consultants for Impact is fiscally sponsored by Rethink Priorities.
What you'll do
Run and improve special projects and established programs (40-50%)
- Take ownership of well-established organizational initiatives, including coworking weeks, strategic partner events, conference events, and others.
- Collaborate with leadership to take on new special projects that advance our strategic priorities.
- Manage projects from start to finish, ensuring timely delivery, quality output, and continuous improvement.
Build new, large-scale programs (30–40%)
- Help design and develop programs capable of supporting thousands of consultants per year through high-impact career transitions.
- Research program options and develop roadmaps, prototypes, and test runs.
- Manage relationships with key stakeholders, including program participants, partner organizations, and advisors.
Career advising (10–30%)
- Advise and support consultants through social impact career transitions, including career strategy, network introductions, and resource recommendations.
- Apply knowledge of consulting career paths and high-impact social good organizations (related to Effective Altruism and others) to provide relevant, personalized guidance.
- Contribute to the development of scalable career advising resources and tools.
What success looks like
Within 3 months: You’ve completed onboarding, developed a clear understanding of CFI’s programs and strategic priorities, taken ownership of at least one established program, and begun contributing to scalable programs development.
Within 6–12 months: You’re running several existing programs independently, contributing meaningfully to the design and build-out of scalable programs, and actively advising consultants through career transitions.
Beyond: You’ve helped CFI build and run programs that serve thousands of consultants per year, served as an impactful advisor to hundreds of consultants, and become a trusted partner in CFI’s high-impact ecosystem.
Practical details
- This is a full-time role, reporting to the Managing Director (Joe Maddens).
- This is a remote-first role, and we prefer candidates who can guarantee at least 5 hours of working overlap with U.S. Eastern Time.
- We can legally hire in many countries, but not everywhere.
- Candidates should be comfortable traveling regularly for in-person conferences, retreats, and coworking sessions (approximately 1–2 weeks every 3 months).
We are aiming for a start in August 2026, but we can be flexible for the right candidate.
Who we are looking for
Skills and experience:
- Project management: Experience clearly setting, communicating, delegating, and managing workstream goals, roles, and tasks. Experience with meeting facilitation, and ideally project-level budgeting, reporting, and risk mitigation.
- Communication: Ability to communicate complex reasoning and difficult topics in a clear, direct, and structured manner. Ability to adapt tone and level of detail in real-time for different audiences.
- Consulting background: Consulting or consulting internship experience at a major consulting firm. Understanding of different consultant skills, role types, and career paths, and how these transfer to high-impact roles.
- Stakeholder management: Experience identifying critical stakeholders and their needs, building and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels, and generating buy-in and understanding.
- Self-discipline and time management: Habit of clearly and proactively aligning goals, roles, and tasks with collaborators. Ability to work both autonomously and collaboratively in a remote environment, and recognize when and how to best get live versus async input.
Mindsets and behaviors:
- Pursuit of truth: Habit of continuously searching for, listening to, and reflecting on alternate perspectives, approaches, and evidence before coming to conclusions. Openness to being wrong, a strong understanding of personal development needs and biases, and a habit of transparently communicating reasoning and uncertainties.
- High impact focus and principles: Familiarity with Effective Altruism principles and habit of considering counterfactual impact, tradeoffs, and evidence in decision-making.
- Continuous improvement: Habit of continuous learning and growth, embracing development needs, and taking ownership and responsibility for tasks, outcomes, successes, and areas for improvement.
- Entrepreneurial drive: Experience creating impactful solutions from scratch, getting things done, and persisting and adapting through setbacks in small organizations.
- A strong commitment to positive social impact and our values.
Some excellent candidates may lack some of the above qualifications but have other skills or experiences that make them well-qualified for the role. We encourage you to apply even if you don't fulfill every requirement, and we invite you to mention anything you think is relevant for consideration in your application!
We are committed to building a diverse applicant pool and do not want the application process to dissuade potential candidates. Some evidence suggests that individuals from underrepresented groups tend to underestimate their abilities, and we encourage you to apply even if you are unsure whether you qualify. We also strongly encourage interested candidates to apply regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, physical ability, educational background, socioeconomic status, or any other background they may identify with.
What we offer
Compensation:
- Annual salary of USD 90,000 pre-tax.
- To maintain equity and consistency across the organization, Consultants for Impact uses a standardized compensation approach and does not negotiate salaries.
- Compensation is not restricted to USD. Payments may be made in different currencies and at different intervals, depending on location and legal requirements.
Other Benefits:
- Comprehensive global benefits, including high-quality medical coverage and life insurance (while benefits vary by country, we make every effort to ensure that our benefits package is equitable and high-quality for all).
- Fully remote work environment and team, and flexible working hours.
- Generous self-managed time off policy with a minimum of 30 days off annually, including holidays.
- Opportunities to grow/advance your career and engage through professional development, with a professional development budget of USD 3000 every year.
- A technology stipend of USD 2000 or equivalent every 3 years that can be used to cover the costs of purchasing work and office equipment.
- The chance to shape an exciting early-stage nonprofit working at the intersection of the consulting industry and social impact.
- High-autonomy work culture with significant ownership of your priorities.
- A caring and mission-aligned team that values well-being and a healthy work culture.
Hiring process
Below is a rough estimate of the hiring process for this role. Note that this is an approximation; the actual process will likely be adjusted based on the number and experience of applicants.
- Written application
- First round interview
- Paid work test and presentation
- Second round interviews
- Reference checks
We will only reach out to references at the final stage. You don’t need to submit them earlier in the process. - Offers
We aim to make offers in early August 2026.
Note before applying
We are committed to building a diverse applicant pool. There is some evidence suggesting that individuals from underrepresented groups tend to underestimate their abilities. Consultants for Impact does not want the application process to dissuade potential candidates. We strongly encourage interested candidates to apply regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, physical ability, educational background, socioeconomic status, or any other background they may identify with.
We use Pinpoint platform for our recruitment and hiring processes, and all email correspondence is conducted via Pinpoint. We encourage you to add the Pinpoint domain (@pinpoint.email) to your trusted contacts and/or check your 'spam,' 'promotions,' and ‘updates folders if you don’t hear from us within the expected timeframe.
In the interest of equitably evaluating your candidacy, we ask that you please do not include a cover letter, headshot of yourself, or any personal information that is not relevant to the role (including marital status, age, identity traits, etc.).
Additionally, please do not ask anyone on our team to meet with you – to ensure fairness, requests for meetings during the hiring process will be declined.
