Targeting Analyst, Emergency Cash

GiveDirectly•New York, NY

1d•Remote

About The Position

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. GiveDirectly is seeking a Targeting Analyst to identify and prioritize communities and individuals to deliver cash to in moments of crisis. This person will serve as the analyst for targeting within the Emergency Cash (EC) Product team, using a variety of data sources and tools to ensure GD knows: When and where a crisis event has occurred that fits GD response criteria. Which subpopulations are most affected and relevant for our programs. The actionable lists of individuals to enroll for assistance. The analyst will apply humanitarian needs analysis frameworks to ensure that our emergency cash response is data-driven and contextually grounded. The ideal candidate will have a background in humanitarian data analysis, using both traditional and novel data sources, as well as experience delivering actionable data products to decision makers and operational teams. The analyst will give input to shape analysis product design, and work closely with engineers and data scientists to create them.

Requirements

Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.
3-5+ years experience conducting humanitarian needs analysis — assessing vulnerabilities, interpreting crisis data, and applying frameworks such as the IPC, MIRA, or sectoral needs assessments — to directly inform operational planning.
2+ years of experience producing data tools, with a track record of providing actionable, humanitarian information products to decision makers and operational teams.
Demonstrated ability to design and implement reusable analysis approaches that scale across multiple contexts.
High technical fluency across data analytics and data science – ability to ask the right questions, internalize technical tradeoffs between approaches, and shape complex data and technical challenges into operationally viable targeting strategies.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences, including humanitarian agencies and data providers.
Proven ability to thrive in fast-changing, high-stakes environments.
Ability to adapt to change and navigate ambiguity and a curiosity-driven mindset.
Ability to balance speed and rigor in high uncertainty.

Nice To Haves

Prior field experience in humanitarian response or international social protection programs in resource constrained contexts.
Familiarity with data security and privacy frameworks in sensitive contexts.
Comfort working in SQL, Python, or R for data manipulation and analysis; Experience working with a data visualization tool.
Experience in geospatial data analysis and knowledge of applications for GIS in humanitarian response.
Experience using generative AI for decision support.

Responsibilities

Implement approaches for systematically assessing needs in crisis-affected populations.
Incorporate humanitarian data sources (e.g., needs assessments, poverty statistics, vulnerability indices, displacement monitoring, etc) into GD’s targeting systems.
Surface, test, and use novel data sources, such as from geospatial imagery, call detail records, social media, crowd-sourcing, etc.
Provide clear targeting analysis with relevant subpopulations for emergency cash programs as a service to other teams, visualizing data on maps and dashboards.
Based on determined targeting criteria, general recipient lists of individuals to be enrolled in GD EC programs.
Provide targeting analysis services for both GD’s preparedness and response states – scoping and prioritizing relevant subpopulations based on pre-existing risks and delivering on-demand analysis during response deployments (remote).
Monitor global risks and crises, providing analysis for GD teams to make activation decisions.
Communicate with humanitarian agencies, data providers, and crisis monitoring organizations to integrate reliable event and needs assessment data into GD’s workflow.
Participate in product development from problem discovery and user requirements gathering to launch and iteration, working with engineering, data science, and operations.
Conduct agile iterative experiments and pilots to validate assumptions about crisis detection and targeting, using results to refine strategy.
Define and track success metrics for targeting tools, ensuring outputs are timely, relevant, and usable in the field.
Maintain internal data source documentation, including a qualitative assessment of accuracy, reliability, and limitations of sources and datasets.
Continuously evaluate and improve targeting approaches for speed, accuracy, and inclusivity, while maintaining humanitarian principles.
Stay abreast of emerging technology and new data sources to ensure GD is leveraging cutting-edge approaches to targeting.
Document learning to scale best practices across different contexts.