About Knowledge Futures
What is Knowledge Futures?
Knowledge Futures is an independent nonprofit organisation that builds and supports tools, products and protocols to make knowledge open, useful and accessible. Founded in 2018 as a partnership between the MIT Press and the MIT Media Lab, it formally organised as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2019. The organisation is registered in Massachusetts.
What started as a small group of researchers developing publishing tools has grown into "an organization focused on addressing the structural challenges faced by libraries, presses, museums, researchers, advocacy groups, and others working in the public interest." Core products include PubPub and the newer PubPub Platform — open-source publishing infrastructure used by hundreds of organisations to share and steward knowledge — plus DocMaps and the Universal Genome Note Repository.
Note on company status: A June 2025 update from leadership disclosed that the organisation "had no choice but to immediately lay off many of our staff to ensure we have the funds to responsibly complete these transitions." The current core team is smaller than at peak headcount, and Travis Rich returned as Executive Director in April 2026. This profile preserves Knowledge Futures' historical 4-day work week policy as documented in their archived /jobs page (Dec 2023, still recoverable via Wayback).
Where will I work?
Knowledge Futures is fully remote across the US, with historical office addresses at 245 Main St, Floor 2, Cambridge MA 02142. The team is "thoughtfully distributed" — remote-first by design, with biannual in-person team retreats at locations across the US.
What is the Knowledge Futures team like?
The organisation operates by six published values: Accessibility ("just because knowledge is available doesn't mean it's truly accessible"), Conscientiousness (honesty and good-faith fulfilment of duties), Curiosity (an honest, experimental, problem-solving mindset), Egalitarianism (acknowledging that all people deserve equality and fairness regardless of life circumstances), Systemic Outlook (solutions that tackle problems systemically rather than at the margins), and Sustainability (long-term durable solutions over expedient ones).
The current Core Team includes Catherine Ahearn, Eric McDaniel, Gabe Stein, Greg Eow†, Jeff Pooley†, Reem Hassan, Thomas Jorna, Travis Rich† and Zach Verdin† († = board member). Funding comes from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Aphorism Foundation, Astera Institute, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and Siegel Family Endowment.
Work-Life Balance
From the archived Knowledge Futures /jobs page (Dec 2023, primary source): "Work 4 days per week with a thoughtfully distributed team: we were a remote team before it was a global necessity ... Last summer, we experimented with working 4 days per week (8 hours per day), and never looked back." Plus "unlimited PTO with a yearly minimum" and "your own computer of choice."
Perks and Benefits
- 4-day workweek — 4 days × 8 hours, since pre-pandemic experiment that "never looked back"
- Unlimited PTO with a yearly minimum (minimum 25 days per year)
- Fully remote — with biannual in-person team retreats
- Computer of choice — your own preferred work setup
- Remote office set-up support
- Mission-driven impact — open-source infrastructure for public-interest knowledge work