Manager Legal, Risk & Compliance

Manager Legal, Risk & Compliance

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving and millions of lives by providing cash grants directly to the worlds 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. Weve 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 GDs 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 its 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 This Role

The Manager, Legal, Risk & Compliance will play a foundational role in strengthening GiveDirectlys governance systems as we scale. In this role, you will stand up GiveDirectlys enterprise risk and controls function, designing the frameworks, tools, and reporting structures that allow the organization to identify, assess, and mitigate risk consistently across teams and geographies.

This is a builder role in its first phase focused on developing the enterprise risk management (ERM) framework, risk register, and control documentation in partnership with Legal, Internal Audit, and operational teams. Youll establish the systems that make risk management clear, coordinated, and actionable across the organization.

Once these systems are embedded, the role will transition into a broader Legal & Compliance capacity, supporting ongoing work in policy management, regulatory compliance, and governance reporting. Over time, this position will serve as a bridge between legal advice, risk management, and compliance operations helping GiveDirectly maintain the structures that protect recipient trust and organizational integrity.

Youll report to the Director, Legal & Compliance and collaborate closely with the Internal Audit and other functional leads to ensure risks are managed, controls are effective, and GiveDirectlys operations remain legally sound and accountable.

Location : This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

What Youll Do

Strengthen and formalize GiveDirectlys enterprise risk and controls framework

• Build on prior Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) efforts to create a consistent, ERM organization-wide framework, refining existing tools and approaches into a cohesive system.
• Develop and maintain an organizational risk register that consolidates risks across functions, assigns clear owners, and tracks mitigation progress.
• Create and document a controls library in collaboration with IA, Legal, Compliance, Finance, and Operations mapping key controls to risks and owners.
• Coordinate quarterly risk review cycles with leadership, surfacing key trends, mitigation updates, and emerging priorities.
• Partner with Internal Audit to align on control documentation, audit planning, and remediation tracking.

Integrate risk management into GiveDirectlys legal and compliance systems

Support ongoing Legal, Risk, and Compliance operations

Strengthen governance and cross-functional alignment

What Youll Bring

Qualifications

Language preference : French or Portuguese (preferred).

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staffs 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. Read more about our compensation philosophy here.