Join the Open Lunar Team as Development Director
Hi, Rachel here. 👋
I wanted to share a bit more about what we’re looking for in our next Development Director and what working at Open Lunar actually looks like day to day.
Open Lunar is a special organization. Cultural fit matters just as much to us as technical skill. We care deeply about collaboration, transparency, empathy, and openness, not as aspirational language, but as how we actually show up to work every day. It’s important to us that the people on our team live the values we are trying to distil and help create on the Moon.
We’re a fully remote, global team. That means trust, clarity, and care really matter. This role works across time zones, cultures, and disciplines, and that’s something we lean into rather than work around.
Why now?
Over the past several years, we’ve built real traction with international institutions, industry leaders, and mission operators. We’ve earned trust, credibility, and a seat at tables that matter. At the same time, lunar activity is accelerating quickly. What was once a very small community is growing fast, and while we’ve had a head start, that gap is closing.
One of the reasons this work matters so much right now is simple: we’ve got a real chance to do this right. The rules, norms, and systems that shape lunar activity are being formed in real time. Decisions made now will echo for decades. Open Lunar exists to help ensure those foundations are cooperative, transparent, and built with shared benefit in mind, before patterns of exclusion or conflict take hold.
We’re deeply grateful for our core group of donors who believed in Open Lunar early and have supported us from the beginning. Their commitment has made our work possible. As activity on and around the Moon accelerates, our scope of work is expanding just as quickly. To meet this moment and ensure our impact keeps pace with reality, we need secure, sustained funding. Looking ahead, we’re aiming to bring in roughly $300,000 in new funding each year to support this next phase of growth.
This is where the Development Director comes in.
About the role
This role is about growing Open Lunar’s funding and partnerships in a thoughtful, values-aligned way. You won’t be starting from scratch. You’ll step into:
An existing donor base and strong reputation
A motivated, thoughtful, and deeply capable team
A board of directors that is genuinely engaged and supportive
A mission that people are excited to rally around
You’ll work closely with me as Executive Director. In regard to fundraising, I bring experience across individual donors, institutional and federal grants, events and networking, and capital raises. Our Director of Operations has also held senior development roles and is a sharp strategic partner. Across the team, we have deep fluency in industry, international policy, and geopolitics. We work hard, we’re honest, and we care deeply about what we’re building.
A key part of this role is helping translate our work beyond the space sector. Open Lunar is not only about the Moon. The systems, norms, and coordination we’re building matter for how humanity approaches shared domains more broadly. That means creativity, connection, pitching, and storytelling are essential. Being able to relate highly technical work to people who don’t come from the space industry is a real strength here.
What we need
What we don’t have is unlimited time, and that’s exactly why this role exists.
We’re looking for someone fully dedicated to strengthening and expanding our fundraising systems. Someone who is ready to jump in heads first, brings energy, creativity, rigor, and momentum to donor engagement and partnerships. A genuine love of fundraising and relationship-building, comfort working in remote teams, strong storytelling instincts, and the ability to translate complex information into clear, compelling narratives will all serve you well in this role.
We’re excited about this next addition to the team. If this sounds like something you’d want to be part of, or like someone you know, we’d love to hear from you. Please fill out the application form. We’ll be starting first-round reviews soon.
Let’s build something meaningful together.
PS - We also believe strongly in meeting people where they are. Everyone brings something different to the table, and there’s no single, perfect background we’re optimizing for. If parts of this role resonate with you, even if the full job description or compensation structure doesn’t feel like a perfect match, we still want to hear from you. If you think you could meaningfully help Open Lunar reach its goals, please reach out directly to rachel@openlunar.org with your ideas. I’m always open to a conversation about scope, structure, or how someone might contribute in a way that works for both sides.
