Head of People

Head of People

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly 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.

GiveDirectly has raised more than $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, GiveDirectly has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GiveDirectly'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.

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 contextserving 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 contextswith 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

Compensation

At GiveDirectly we aim to pay generously and equitably. We benchmark total compensation (base + bonus) to the ~75th percentile for comparable roles and maintain a no-negotiation policy to promote equity across staff. The base salary will be benchmarked to the candidate's location; we will share the relevant salary benchmark during the hiring process.

The United States base salary range for this role is $154,500 - $200,000 depending on level, with an additional 15% bonus. The Kenya base salary for this role is $120,000 - $145,000 depending on level, with an additional 15% bonus. This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in the US or Kenya, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.

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