About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving – and millions of lives – by providing cash grants directly to the world’s poorest. The Brookings Institution estimates that $70B of cash transfers would be required to eliminate the poverty gap; the aid sector currently spends $135B each year, much of it on evidence-free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that, establishing cash transfers as a benchmark for foreign aid – as the index fund is a benchmark for the financial industry – and in the process accelerating the end of extreme poverty.

GD has raised over $1B since launching in 2011, delivered cash to more than 1.5 million people in 15 different countries. We’ve also supported large-scale, experimental research that indicates strong recipient impact of our programs. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) have been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

Our culture is candid, analytical, agile, and non-hierarchical. Our global team of ~150, and country operations teams of ~650, together come from 21 different countries speaking 69 different languages. From software engineers to seasoned humanitarian workers, former management consultants to public servants, researchers to field operations - it’s an incredible group of people.

Our values are central and deliberately opinionated. We genuinely center the people we serve in our decision making, and strive to build an ambitious, dynamic and high performing environment. We strongly encourage you to read through our values carefully, if they reflect how you like to work and energize you, this could be a great fit.

We work hard to create an environment in which all our team members can thrive, succeed and grow. We support flexibility, take care of each other, have fun, and create professional growth opportunities.

Location: This role is fully remote but requires at least 3 hours of overlap with East Africa time. As an example, 6PM East Africa Time is 11AM Eastern US time in the summer and 10AM in the winter. In practice, if you are in the Eastern US timezone, that means being available for some 8AM meetings and occasionally a 7AM one. We know people have commitments like school drop-offs, so you’re encouraged to set a schedule that works for you—as long as there’s sufficient overlap with the team.

We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

About this role

Tech encodes every aspect of GiveDirectly’s programs – from the way a field officer interacts with a potential recipient to collect enrollment data, to actually sending a recipient mobile money. We are making a big investment in our software for cash delivery, because we believe it can 8-10X how fast we can deliver our fastest programs, and improve quality and recipient experience throughout.

We are seeking a Product Lead, Cash Delivery Platform to define and lead this platform. You will design systems and abstractions that shape our cash delivery, owning the roadmap across capabilities like survey building, eligibility & verification, fraud detection, payments, and case management. You will work closely with engineers, field operations, and research teams to design, build, and scale a system that ensures cash gets to the right recipients faster, more efficiently, more securely, and with better recipient experience.

This is not an execution-focused feature-shipping role, or an iterative optimization role – this is a new role, and we’re looking for a leader who has had multiple repetitions defining products from the ground up, and a track record of creating clarity, scale, and reuse from messiness.

Reports To: VP, Technology

Travel: Must be willing to travel to program sites up to 1X per quarter for 1-2 weeks

Responsibilities:

Product Vision & Definition

Define the long-term product vision for GiveDirectly’s cash delivery platform, cutting away historical complexity while building for future flexibility where needed
Pair strong technical expertise with deep understanding of many users – including field officers, recipients, and technical program managers – to design the platform and its abstractions

Strategic Roadmap & Prioritization

Own the roadmap for platform capabilities like survey tooling, eligibility and KYC, fraud detection, payments, and case management
Make high-leverage prioritization decisions across multiple product lines and internal teams
Define and track success metrics for the platform

Detailed Product Design & Execution

Lead end-to-end product development from problem discovery and user requirements gathering to launch and iteration, hand-in-hand with engineering
Partner with engineers to define robust abstractions and platform boundaries – ask the right questions, internalize technical tradeoffs between approaches, and shape coherent, scalable product logic

Cross-functional Stakeholder Management

Align diverse technical and non-technical stakeholders with competing priorities
Collaborate with programs product leads, technical program managers, engineering, operations, and field teams to ensure that platform investments serve real, validated program requirements

Qualifications:

Exceptional alignment to GD values, passion for our mission, and commitment to recipient dignity and empowerment. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.
8+ years of technical software product management, including multiple full-lifecycle "zero-to-one" builds
High technical fluency — you should be able to engage deeply with engineers on architecture, APIs, and system design
High empathy for non-technical users and an eye for UX
Experience in a high ambiguity, low-structure environment — you create clarity, not wait for it
Ability to collaborate inclusively with stakeholders across varied social, national, and cultural backgrounds, including communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Analytical problem solver: looks at problems with analytical and iterative mindset, with strong framework for prioritization
Bonus: experience working with users experiencing poverty, with low digital literacy, and/or low or no network connectivity

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s total compensation package (base compensation + bonus) falls within the 75th percentile of similar roles, at similar organizations. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles.

The United States base salary for this role is $170,700 + 15% bonus tied to org performance.

This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in the US, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.

Why work at GiveDirectly?

At GiveDirectly, we work to ensure that you have everything you need to excel in your role and on your team, including:

A positive and supportive team with high opportunity for impact
A demonstrated commitment to helping all staff develop and grow
A competitive salary, including bonus
A robust health benefits plan (exact details will vary by country)
Flexible paid time off
Allowances for desk set-up and learning and development

#LI-REMOTE

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Flagging for US applicants: We invite you to "Know Your Rights" as an applicant.

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization serving some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients, staff, and partners seriously. To that end, GiveDirectly is a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, and will systematically check with previous employers about any sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment issues relating to potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect children, vulnerable adults, and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we serve, and prevent harm to our recipients.

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of the role, please email us at careers@givedirectly.org with the email subject “Accommodation Needed”. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!

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