Head of People (Remote) Full Time NEW

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 and delivered cash to more than 2 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, span 21 different countries and 69 languages. From software engineers to seasoned humanitarian workers, 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 high ownership, flexibility, take care of each other, have fun, and create professional growth opportunities.

Location: this role is remote, but with a very strong preference for candidates located in the EAT timezone and/or in any of GiveDirectly’s countries of operation. If not located in an EAT timezone, the selected candidate will need to overlap at least 3 hours with EAT.

About The Role

GiveDirectly is seeking an experienced, business-oriented Head of People to design and run the human systems that power our mission. You’ll connect talent to organizational performance in a global, distributed, and exceptionally lean context—serving as both architect and hands-on operator across talent acquisition, org design, leadership development, performance, rewards, HR operations, and employee relations.

This role is remote with a strong preference for East Africa Time (EAT) working hours and/or candidates based in countries where we operate; if outside EAT, at least 3 hours of overlap with EAT is required.

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Travel Requirement: Must be able to travel ~3-4 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits

Level: We are open to considering exceptional candidates at both the Senior Director and Vice President levels, depending on experience and fit.

What We’re Looking For

• People-as-performance operator: Strong business acumen with a track record of treating the People function as a driver of company/organizational outcomes (talent density, speed, quality, and reliability)—not just a compliance, people support, or admin team.
• A builder in lean, distributed environments: Demonstrated success building simple, scalable systems (hiring, performance, rewards, workforce models, HRIS) across multiple countries and regulatory contexts—with high judgment on tradeoffs under tight constraints.
• Trusted pair of hands for complex employee relations: Depth in sensitive employee relations, risk management, and safeguarding across very diverse contexts and cultural settings; calm, discreet, and principled.
• Exceptional leader and manager: Recruits, calibrates, and develops senior talent; sets a high bar; builds a small, high-leverage team and operating cadence that scales.
• First-principles, outcome oriented problem solver: Structured, analytical thinker who disaggregates problems, designs from first principles, iterates quickly, and measures results.
• Varied context experience: Comfort moving between private sector and NGO settings and between different org sizes; able to bring best-of-both to GD’s model.

What You’ll Do

• Make talent a competitive advantage: Raise the hiring bar; build a repeatable “hiring machine” (calibration, principles/values assessment, structured loops, quality-at-30/90 days). Build a proactive network and bench for executive and scarce roles.
• Design performance + rewards: Implement a lightweight, high-signal performance system tied to development and consequences; refresh compensation and total rewards to attract and retain top talent in our markets while preserving our lean model and staying economically efficient as an organization.
• Be the steady employee relations advisor: Lead on sensitive personnel matters with discretion and fairness; support investigations, safeguarding, crisis response, and change communications.
• Coach and level up leadership: Partner with the CEO/COO and executives on org design, succession, and leadership effectiveness; intervene early to raise or replace when needed.
• Build scalable global people ops: Improve HRIS/workforce tools; standardize core processes; ensure compliant, efficient operations across countries (subsidiaries, contractors, EOR/PEO) in close partnership with Finance and Legal.
• Strengthen culture and engagement: Ensure our values are felt and lived across the organization; that staff are supported to be at their best thanks to inclusive practices that build growth, trust, belonging, creativity, and execution speed.
• Own people analytics: Ship leadership dashboards (headcount, hiring velocity/quality, retention, eNPS/voice, performance distribution) to inform decisions and accountability.
• Operate with leverage: Keep the People team small, senior, and high-output; set SLAs, clarify ownership, and continuously remove friction for program and fundraising teams.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophy here.

Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.

We are open to considering exceptional candidates at both the Senior Director and Vice President levels, depending on experience and fit.

United States

• Base Salary: $154,500 – $200,000
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$23,175 – $30,000, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $27,113 – $35,100 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $177,675 – $230,000+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393

United Kingdom

• Base Salary: £106,374 – £127,761
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~£15,956 – £19,164, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be £18,668 – £22,413 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: £122,330 – £146,925+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760

Kenya

• Base Salary: $120,000 – $145,000
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$18,000 – $21,750, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $21,060 – $25,448 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $138,000 – $166,750+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453

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

Why work at GiveDirectly?

Role

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

• A supportive team that works hard and cares hard
• A robust health benefits plan (exact details will vary by country)
• Flexible paid time off that staff is encouraged to take
• Allowances for desk set-up and learning and development

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 working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty, 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 abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with, and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance when it comes to preventing, reporting, or responding to any form of abuse or exploitation.” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

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!