Senior New Areas Researcher

GiveWell

7d • Remote

About The Position

GiveWell is seeking a Senior New Areas Researcher to help direct tens of millions of dollars annually to the most cost-effective interventions. This role involves creating and leading ambitious research agendas, answering complex questions to inform grantmaking decisions, and combining rigorous evidence review, cost-effectiveness modeling, and thoughtful judgment. The New Areas team focuses on core cause areas, emerging cause areas, and incubators for future interventions. The researcher will shape a research agenda, communicate externally, and mentor other researchers. Responsibilities include tackling research questions in existing portfolios, designing and overseeing learning grants, building evidence bases in new programmatic areas, and providing research support to grantmakers. The role offers significant latitude to propose new areas of work and involves owning grant investigations end-to-end.

Requirements

• A quantitatively oriented advanced degree (e.g., in epidemiology, public health, economics, or a related field).
• Substantial professional experience in global health, or an adjacent field (broadly defined).
• Experience with program design, monitoring, or evaluation; epidemiology; cost-effectiveness modelling of health interventions; or work in program implementation or funding at a bilateral, multilateral, or NGO.
• Ability to get up to speed quickly on new topics.
• Comfort with task-switching.
• Curiosity and willingness to interrogate others' work.
• Ability to not be defensive when research comes under scrutiny.
• Ability to routinely think about and surface value judgments, background knowledge, and strategic commitments.
• Understanding of the potential effects of mistaken mental models.
• Careful and legible communication about confidence levels.
• Appreciation for the value of an excellent reputation and strong relationships.
• Ability to moderate directness and intensity when communicating with external folks.
• Ability to figure out the most important questions to answer.
• Ability to go deep on details where they matter and move on where they don't.
• Ability to reassess mental models based on learning.
• Ability to constantly assess whether you and the team are working on the most important things.

Nice To Haves

• Enjoy being generalists.

Responsibilities

• Create and lead ambitious research agendas related to portfolios of work.
• Answer complex questions that will inform GiveWell's grantmaking decisions.
• Combine rigorous evidence review, cost-effectiveness modeling, and thoughtful judgment.
• Sift through research questions and hone in on those that matter most.
• Communicate externally about your work.
• Mentor and advise other researchers on the team.
• Shape a research agenda that brings rigor and creativity to the thorniest questions.
• Tackle thorny research questions in existing portfolios.
• Design and oversee learning grants, including impact evaluations.
• Supervise researchers executing impact evaluations.
• Build evidence bases in new programmatic areas, including synthesizing research, commissioning reviews, and funding primary data collection.
• Provide research support to grantmakers, ensuring cost-effectiveness models reflect current understanding.
• Stress-test assumptions, incorporate new data, and flag areas of high uncertainty in cost-effectiveness models.
• Own grant investigations end-to-end, from research question through grant recommendation.
• Represent GiveWell to external counterparts.
• Propose new areas of work.

Benefits

• Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance (100% of premiums covered for employee and dependents in the US).
• Four weeks of paid time off per year.
• One week organization-wide summer break.
• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• Ergonomic home workstations or coworking space memberships.
• Automatic contribution equal to 5% of gross salary into 403(b) retirement plan (for US-based staff).
• Relocation expenses covered for candidates wishing to move to office locations (Oakland, CA; Brooklyn, NYC; or London, UK).
• Visa sponsorship for those needing a work visa in the US (with relocation expenses covered up to 100% on a case-by-case basis).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior