Join the team in 2025 to drive our growth
As 2024 comes to a close, we’re excited about the opportunities 2025 will bring. At Open Lunar, we’ve streamlined our systems and are ready to scale our impact. To support this growth, we’re recruiting new team members. We hope you’ll review our open roles and share them with anyone in your network who might be the perfect fit.
Hi, I’m Rachel! 👋
If we haven’t connected yet, I’ve been leading the Open Lunar team since May 2024. I first joined Open Lunar as a project lead in 2022, moved into the role of VP of Innovation, and now have the privilege of steering the organization. Before this, I helped grow a commercial space launch company from zero to acquisition as COO, and I’ve spent my career at the intersection of technology and policy in new space, ethical AI, global affairs, and nonprofits.
We’re growing our team and looking for values-aligned collaborators who care deeply about our mission and bring excellence to their work. These roles will work closely with me, so let me share a bit about the opportunities and what I value in teammates.
Vision & Culture Fit:
We need people who are fully aligned with the power of our strategy and ready to dive in.
→ Open Lunar exists to build peaceful and cooperative lunar futures.
→ We pursue intentional precedent setting around issues such as resource management, shared infrastructure, transparency and access, and coordination protocols.
→ We are building an ecosystem of interlocking lunar infrastructure and utilities to advance responsible stewardship, inclusivity, and cooperation in lunar exploration and settlement.
→ We believe that if cooperative, open infrastructure systems—like information sharing, resource agreements, and coordination protocols—are implemented effectively on the Moon, they can inspire new solutions to some of Earth’s biggest challenges.
The amazing humans on our team thread this needle through the complexity of the sector, and the successful candidates will see the need and the opportunity we see.
Poised for Growth:
Open Lunar is turning seven, we’re looking for leaders who know how to contribute to an organization’s stability and strength rather than reinvent it.
Open Lunar was founded in 2018 by a group of respected new space executives, astronauts and scientists after four years of discussion and analysis. After conducting a plethora of activities and programs from 2018-2021, in 2022 the founding team retrofitted the organisation readying it for succession. They set up an innovation process styled off RnD/venture studio models. Today, Open Lunar’s project pipeline is a robust representation of the needs of the sector, chosen by the sector itself. Open Lunar has garnered a strong international reputation and is the leading nonprofit for lunar issues globally. With a rigorous and streamlined set of systems, and strong backing, these roles we’re hiring for will leverage the foundations we have today to help scale the organization 3X. Learn more about our impact by reading the 2024 Annual Report.
We are hiring for two key roles, but offering four job descriptions, here’s why:
We will select candidates who’s skills and characteristics are highly complementary and we all gel together. Hiring for two major roles simultaneously means we are not just hiring people but also looking at compatibility across the team. For this reason, we have outlined two major openings, with a couple of variations. This allows for customization, and also opens a dialogue whether seasoned leaders can tell us how they could best thrive in these roles.
Firstly, we are hiring an executive role which will either become the Executive Director, or the Co-Executive Director. In this role, you’ll cultivate industry relationships, oversee innovative R&D projects, and lead significant fundraising efforts. You must have significant fundraising experience to succeed in this role.
Co-Executive Director, VP of Industry Integration/Executive Dir.
Secondly, we are hiring for an operations lead who will either become the COO level ops leader, or an Ops manager role. The difference here will be determined by seniority of candidates, and by the balance of needs met across other team mates. Operating the Open Lunar Foundation requires 501c3 experience regarding finance, compliance and legal standing, as well as a passion for Asana ;) and running meetings.
Director of Operations, COO / Operations and Programs Manager
If you have any questions about these roles, feel free to send us an email at contact@openlunar.org. We look forward to seeing your applications, and appreciate your support to help us find the people that will take our impact to the next level.
Wishing you all a happy new year,
Rachel Williams
