Otis works to identify new cause areas where Open Philanthropy could have high impact, particularly in policy and global development. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy in 2021, Otis was a political donor advisor, and worked at BlueLabs, a campaign analytics firm, managing their Campaign Modeling team. Before graduate school, he also spent a year at McKinsey & Company.

Otis has a PhD in economics from MIT, where he studied the political economy of development, working primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. He also holds a BA in economics and public policy from Stanford.