We’re advancing practical, scalable solutions for animal welfare
Careers at Innovate Animal Ag
Our mission is to leverage technology to build an agriculture system that’s humane, sustainable, and also compatible with the food abundance that industrialization has made possible. We are bringing together the pioneers, ideas, and resources to make this new system a reality.
But when it comes to accelerating technological innovation, there’s no one-size-fits all approach. Each technology brings its own mix of biological, economic, regulatory, and operational challenges, so interventions must be tailor-made. Sometimes it’s new research to answer a crucial question; sometimes it’s spinning out a company; sometimes it’s securing financing to de-risk scale-up.
Our team, culture, and organizational structure are built around this unique set of challenges. We are strongly influenced by DARPA, the US defence innovation program, where each program area (like GPS or self-driving cars) is owned by a dedicated leader with deep expertise, individual accountability, and strategic autonomy. We apply the same model to animal health and welfare technologies: identify high-potential projects, run disciplined experiments, and move resources quickly from what isn’t working to what is.
Therefore, instead of coming up with ideas of things to do and then hiring people with experience doing them, we look for exceptional people who can rise to whatever new challenge they may face. If you’re an entrepreneurial generalist who learns fast, reasons from first principles, and executes without hand-holding, you’ll do well here. We value people who deeply engage deeply with how innovation actually moves the real world, who are comfortable making decisions under uncertainty, and failing fast.
Within Innovate Animal Ag, there’s no typical day. One day, you might conduct a deep literature review to understand the biology of a particular welfare challenge. The next day you might negotiate the details of a partnership with a large corporation. The next day, you might create a financial model to decide whether an academic research proposal is worth funding. You don’t have to have done all this before, but you have to be able to jump in if that’s what needs to be done.
If you’re someone with exceptional ability and agency, who feels like Innovate Animal ag is the organization you’ve always been searching for, we want to hear from you. Especially if you see an opportunity that we’re missing, if you can bring a perspective to the table that we lack, or if you’re the best in the world at whatever you do, we want to hear from you.
“I believe that animal welfare as a social and political cause is massively underperforming its potential because practical, scalable solutions are not yet at the center of discussion. We focus so much on telling people what they shouldn’t eat, and telling businesses what they shouldn’t do. The climate movement achieved success by centering technologies like renewable energy and electric vehicles, then mobilizing massive social and political capital towards their adoption. Animal welfare is structurally similar, ultimately being about mitigating negative externalities of industrialization. The broadest ambition of Innovate Animal Ag is to bring a techno-optimist revolution to animal welfare, advancing technological solutions to major challenges and seeking to reward innovative and disruptive companies that are doing things better.”
— Robert Yaman, CEO
Open Roles
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In this role, you'll own a major piece of IAA's core program—identifying promising technologies, understanding what's standing in the way of their development and adoption, and then building the relationships and executing the interventions needed to move them forward. Think of it as a DARPA program manager model applied to animal welfare: you'll have significant autonomy to shape your portfolio, place bets on promising technologies, and drive them toward real-world impact.
About the role
Full-time
US applicants only
Remote
Key responsibilities
Build and maintain relationships with key players in your focus area—researchers, companies, investors, industry groups, and other stakeholders—to stay close to the frontier and identify opportunities for impact.
Conduct deep research into a key animal health or welfare technology area, identifying gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities. Leverage AI tools to accelerate and deepen this work.
Develop and execute interventions to fill gaps or accelerate progress—such as research grants, competitions, investments, market shaping initiatives, or other approaches you identify as high-impact.
Directly support grantees and partners, helping them collaborate and progress toward key technological milestones.
Identify and cultivate new partnerships, funding opportunities, and industry collaborations that can amplify IAA's programmatic work.
About you
You are deeply aligned with our mission to improve animal health and welfare through technology.
You understand and buy into our unique theory of change, and are excited by the opportunity to push it forward.
You are a creative problem solver.
You can quickly and critically absorb new information about a novel field.
You have a track record of stellar achievement in any field, especially with a research or entrepreneurial focus.
You are excited to work in an early-stage startup nonprofit environment. This means:
You have an entrepreneurial drive, are ambitious and anti-complacent.
You’re comfortable navigating ambiguity and creating structure from scratch.
You’re eager to jump into whatever task is needed—even if it’s tedious, unglamorous, or outside your job description.
You are comfortable with repeatedly failing, learning, and adjusting (then failing again).
Innovate Animal Ag is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply—if you're excited about this role but aren't sure you meet every qualification, we'd still love to hear from you.