Manager Legal, Risk & Compliance

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.

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.

About this role

The Manager, Legal, Risk & Compliance will play a foundational role in strengthening GiveDirectly’s governance systems as we scale. In this role, you will stand up GiveDirectly’s 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. You’ll 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.

You’ll 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 GiveDirectly’s operations remain legally sound and accountable.

Reports to: Director, Legal & Compliance 

Level: Manager

Travel Requirement: Must be able to travel ~1-2 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits 

What you’ll do:

Strengthen and formalize GiveDirectly’s 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 GiveDirectly’s legal and compliance systems

• Embed risk thinking into policy lifecycle management, compliance training, and contract governance.
• Work closely with the Director and Associate Legal Counsel to ensure the ERM framework reflects relevant regulatory and contractual obligations.
• Collaborate with Compliance to ensure ethical, anti-fraud, and privacy-related risks are effectively managed and tracked.
• Contribute to the development and rollout of compliance reporting tools and templates for staff and leadership.

Support ongoing Legal, Risk, and Compliance operations

• Maintain the risk register and control documentation as living tools – updating quarterly and integrating with departmental workflows.
• Prepare risk and compliance summaries for senior leadership
• Provide project-based support to Legal and Compliance teams on initiatives such as policy rollouts, contracting, governance documentation, and vendor compliance.
• Promote a culture of learning and accountability – helping teams view risk management as an enabler of effective, ethical delivery rather than a compliance burden.

Strengthen governance and cross-functional alignment

• Serve as a point of coordination between Legal & Compliance, Internal Audit, and Operations on governance and control matters.
• Facilitate consistent communication on risk themes and findings across teams.
• Contribute to the ongoing evolution of Legal & Compliance systems that underpin organizational accountability, transparency, and recipient trust.

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. 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.
• Systems-thinking and pragmatism: You can design structures that bring clarity and consistency without adding unnecessary complexity – building systems people will actually use.
• Experience in risk, compliance, or legal operations: You’ve worked in environments where managing organizational risk and accountability mattered – ideally with exposure to enterprise risk, internal controls, legal compliance, or governance systems.
• Understanding of controls and assurance concepts: You know how risks link to controls, and how controls connect to organizational processes. You don’t need to test them (that’s Internal Audit’s role), but you can design and document them effectively.
• Cross-functional collaboration skills: You’re comfortable working with legal counsel, finance, operations, and internal audit – translating complex governance ideas into shared, actionable plans.
• Clear and concise communication: You can synthesize inputs from across the organization into structured risk summaries and governance reports for leadership.
• Judgment and discretion: You handle sensitive organizational and legal information with care, and know when to escalate or seek guidance.
• Follow-through and accountability: You turn frameworks into action – ensuring ideas become systems, and systems are maintained over time.

Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in Law, Public Policy, Business, or related field (JD, MPA, MBA, or equivalent) strongly preferred. Equivalent professional experience in legal, compliance, or risk governance will also be considered.
• Experience: 3–5 years of relevant work experience in risk management, internal controls, audit, compliance, or governance functions.
• Experience working in nonprofit, donor-funded, or international organizations strongly preferred.
• Strong project management, stakeholder engagement, and documentation skills.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, early-stage, or cross-functional environments.
• Experience with insurance tracking, internal audits, or policy control environments is a plus.
• Language requirement: English (required).

Language preference: French or Portuguese (preferred).

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.

• We’ll be updating this JD with the salary details over the next few days.

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 working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty, 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 abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with, and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance when it comes to preventing,  reporting, or responding to any form of abuse or  exploitation.” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

 

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of the role, please email us at careers@givedirectly.org with the email subject “Accommodation Needed”. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

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