Senior Product Manager, Targeting

About GiveDirectly

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.

Priority application deadline: Oct 17, 2025 or until we reach a critical mass of applications

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.

Travel Requirement: 10–20% (~1 week every 2 months)

Role Overview

GiveDirectly is seeking a Senior Product Manager, Targeting to design and scale the systems that allow us to rapidly and equitably identify who to serve in moments of crisis. This individual will serve as the strategic and technical lead for targeting within the International Rapid Response (IRR) Product team and build the infrastructure that ensures 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.

A core part of this role is applying humanitarian needs analysis frameworks to ensure that our crisis response is data-driven, inclusive, and contextually grounded. The ideal candidate will combine humanitarian analysis experience with strong product management skills—you will drive continuous discovery to define our products for targeting, working in tight collaboration with engineers, data scientists, and operations partners to run rapid experiments, validate assumptions, and scale solutions across contexts.

Reports to: Senior Product Director, International Rapid Response

What You’ll Do

Lead Humanitarian Needs Analysis for Targeting

• Design and 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.
• Translate complex needs analysis into clear eligibility criteria and operational plans as a service to other teams.

Detect and Prioritize Crisis Events

• Develop systems and frameworks to monitor global crises and determine when GD should mobilize.
• Partner with humanitarian agencies, data providers, and crisis monitoring organizations to integrate reliable event and needs assessment signals into GD’s workflow.

Identify Relevant Subpopulations

• Define methodologies and establish systems for determining which groups within a crisis are most relevant for GD’s programs, using vulnerability analysis and humanitarian standards.

Generate Recipient Lists

• Establish the tool kit for producing accurate, actionable lists of individuals to be enrolled in GD IRR programs.

Technical Product Management

• Lead and steward the roadmap for targeting capabilities, including capability prioritization
• Lead end-to-end product development from problem discovery and user requirements gathering to launch and iteration, hand-in-hand with engineering, data science, and operations
• Pair strong technical expertise with deep understanding of users and humanitarian realities to design reusable, leveraged systems
• 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 products
• Direct engineering and data science and partner with operations teams to ensure outputs are timely, relevant, and usable in the field.

Drive Efficiency and Learning

• Continuously evaluate and improve targeting approaches for speed, accuracy, and inclusivity, while maintaining humanitarian principles.
• Stay abreast of technology and industry developments to ensure GD is leveraging cutting-edge approaches to targeting.
• Document learnings and build playbooks to scale best practices across different contexts.

What You’ll Bring

• Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.
• Proven experience conducting humanitarian needs analysis — assessing vulnerabilities, interpreting crisis data, and applying frameworks such as the IPC, MIRA, or sectoral needs assessments.
• 5+ years of product management experience, with a track record of shipping data-intensive or humanitarian-focused products and collaborating closely with engineers and data teams.
• High technical fluency across data engineering, 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 partners.
• Proven ability to thrive in fast-changing, high-stakes environments.
• Ability to adapt to change and navigate ambiguity and a curiosity-driven mindset.
• Strong product sense and ability to balance speed and rigor in high uncertainty.
• Demonstrated ability to design reusable systems, processes, and technology that scale across multiple contexts.
• Supervisory and team leadership skills, including setting direction for analysts, data scientists and data engineers. Proven ability to set priorities, provide mentorship, and build collaborative cross-functional teams.

Nice to Have

• 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 monitoring.
• Experience using generative AI for decision support.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s 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.

• The United States base salary for this role is $129,000.
• The Kenya base salary for this role is $101,221.

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. 

Why work at GiveDirectly?

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

• A positive and supportive team with opportunities for advancement 
• A demonstrated commitment to helping all staff develop and grow
• A competitive salary, including bonus
• A robust health benefits plan (exact details will vary by country)
• Flexible paid time off
• Allowances for desk set-up and learning and development

 #LI-REMOTE

 

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Flagging for US applicants: We invite you to "Know Your Rights" as an applicant.

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization serving some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients, staff, and partners seriously. To that end, GiveDirectly is a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, and will systematically check with previous employers about any sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment issues relating to potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect children, vulnerable adults, and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we serve, and prevent harm to our recipients.

 

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!