Technical Program Associate

Givedirectly•New York, NY

6d•$45,000 - $88,000•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. We believe technology will play a critical role in enabling the next generation of cash delivery operations: from identifying recipients without needing to knock on doors to a modern payments infrastructure that gets dollars in recipients' hands faster and more scalably. We are seeking a Technical Program Associate responsible for implementing and managing the technology used across our programs - including systems for recipient data collection, verification, payments, and monitoring. In this role, you will own all technology-related aspects of new project launches: working with our operations team to define and implement program requirements, project managing the implementation across multiple stakeholders, and analyzing, structuring, and acting on program data. You are a systems thinker who is comfortable assessing tradeoffs and deriving and communicating data-driven insights. You enjoy learning about technology in a variety of business contexts. You naturally take ownership, can navigate unfamiliar settings, and enjoy both building and managing ops. You can excel at both 10,000 feet as well as in the weeds of complex problems.

Requirements

Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.
3+ years of professional experience; we welcome a wide range of relevant backgrounds (e.g. project management, product management, data analytics, international development, management consulting).
Strong data skills: able to leverage tools to extract, clean, manipulate, and analyze data to make operational decisions.
Strong project management experience: experience in managing timelines, stakeholders, and complex deliverables.
Deep comfort with Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets.
Intermediate experience using a programming or scripting language (most commonly Python at GD) to automate workflows, validate data, or implement business logic. Note: This is not an engineering or data science job.
Significant interest in technology, systems design and building.
High attention to detail and strong instincts for analysis and validating data creatively and rigorously.
Structured approach to problem-solving and a drive to uncover and fix root causes rather than surface-level issues.
Ability to collaborate inclusively with stakeholders across varied social, national, and cultural backgrounds, including communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Fluency in English.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with relational databases (e.g. SQL).

Responsibilities

Manage end-to-end technical delivery for program launches - leading scoping, requirements gathering, system configuration and implementation, QA and testing, troubleshooting, and closeout
Collaborate with Operations, Product, Research, Engineering, and Data teams to ensure systems are aligned with program objectives and work seamlessly in field conditions
Debug and resolve issues across multiple layers of our technology stack, including our recipient database and offline survey app
Scope and manage cross-cutting systems improvements to improve efficiency, scale, and/or recipient experience, with mentorship
Ensure all systems comply with GD's standards for data protection, privacy, and financial controls
Manage technical training and onboarding for operations staff and collaborators
Lead retrospectives on program launches and technical incidents to contribute to continued system improvements