Chief Technology Officer

About GiveDirectly 

What if the most effective way to fight poverty was also the simplest: give people money and trust them to decide what they need?

Since 2011, GiveDirectly has proven that idea at scale. We’ve delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty and crisis across 15 countries, and rigorous research shows the results: healthier kids, stronger businesses, sturdier homes, and more resilient families and local economies. Cash is now widely recognized as one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid.

Our ambition goes beyond our own programs. We want cash to become the benchmark for aid, much as the index fund became the benchmark for investing, so that every aid dollar is held to one question: is this doing more good than giving the money directly to people living in poverty?

We’re growing fast, and this is a rare and important moment to join.

We expect to hit $1B in revenue in 2026 with significant growth forecast for 2027. At the same time we are building a new technology stack and operating model designed for a roughly 10x change in scale, and we are actively pursuing partnerships with major funders to move even more money in bigger ways, to people who need it. We are known for our extensive integration of technology into field processes; our quantitative approach to performance measurement; and our commitment to rigorous, independent, experimental evaluation of our impact, with multiple Randomized Control Trials completed and others in progress.

How we work

Our team spans 20+ countries and 69 languages. Our culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We expect high ownership and give people real responsibility early. Our values are central to how we hire, work, and grow, and they are deliberately opinionated:

1. Recipients first. Recipients’ preferences come before those of donors or ourselves.
2. Team next. We optimize for organizational success, not individual success.
3. Be proactively candid. We say what we believe and share information openly.
4. Create positive energy. We aim to be a source of energy for colleagues, not a drain.
5. Think rigorously; act quickly. We reason from first principles, then act rather than debate.
6. Know yourself and grow. We own our imperfections and seek feedback to grow.
7. Accept reality. Propose solutions. We focus on what can change and bring solutions, not just problems.
8. Be productively ambitious. We take risks for step-change impact, not incremental progress.

If they describe how you like to work and they energize you, this could be a great fit.

Want to learn more? Read and listen:

We are one of Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026, and our work has been covered by The Economist, NPR, TED, and The Washington Post. We're now preparing to deliver billions of dollars a year to people in extreme poverty, if funding allows. Read our CEO's essay on what that will take.

Priority application deadline: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Early applications are heavily encouraged.

We’re growing at incredible speed, and expect to hit $1B in revenue in 2026 with significant growth forecast for 2027. We’re hiring a Chief Technology Officer to lead the building and rebuilding of the technology, systems and ways of working that will enable a sustained $5B+ p/a operation.

You will build software that safely and securely moves billions of dollars to millions of vulnerable people in some of the poorest and highest need parts of the world. This will require applying excellent engineering, team building and organizational judgment to complex, high-stakes operations: identity and fraud management, machine learning on large but imperfect datasets (cell phone data, satellite imagery, government registries), mobile money integrations, low-connectivity environments, rapidly evolving requirements all in diverse regulatory environments and country contexts. You’ll need to keep our legacy technology stack stable and performant, while in parallel building new systems from the ground up for our next level of scale.

 

You will lead engineering, data, security and enterprise technology – with a small, mighty and rapidly growing engineering team of ~15, and the expectation that this can at least double to ~30 in the next 12 months if you want it to. You’ll report to a CEO with deep experience running technology companies, and partner with our VP Product.

 

This role is remote, with working hours between US Eastern Time and East African Time, and some preference for candidates in our office hubs of New York, London, or Nairobi.

 

What we’re looking for:

• An exceptional hirer, manager and organizer of technical talent. Proven record identifying, hiring, developing and retaining excellent engineers and engineering leaders, and creating team processes that consistently deliver software with quality and velocity.
• Deep technical judgment, applied close to the work. You can evaluate major designs, pressure-test architecture and build-vs-buy decisions, and recognize when a team is heading the wrong way, without becoming the primary implementer. Low-ego: you’ll investigate a problem yourself when that’s what the situation requires.
• Business judgment and decisiveness under ambiguity. You’re not just a technical leader, you’re also a business executive. You understand the business, are a strong cross-functional partner, and have a history of good judgment when navigating tradeoffs of long vs. short term, speed, reliability, security, flexibility, cost, technical quality, and user impact.
• AI first. You have a point of view on where AI meaningfully changes engineering productivity and organizational capability, and you’ve moved a team from experimentation to real, measured use. You can set the tools, culture, goals, and guardrails that leverage the opportunities and mitigate the risks of an AI first engineering culture.
• Embody and set an example for GD values. We take our values incredibly seriously, and expect our leaders to embody, nurture, and promote them in the way they work and the teams they build.
• Advantages, not requirements. Experience in an operationally complex or regulated domain (fintech, payments, humanitarian response, global development); systems involving financial controls, fraud risk, identity, or sensitive recipient data; operating across multiple countries, particularly lower-income or infrastructure-constrained ones; leading both modern product engineering and enterprise technology.

What you’ll do

• Define our technology vision and target stack. Own the technical strategy for technology-first delivery at $5B+/year: architecture, platforms, build-vs-buy, and what we retire. Work with executive, product, finance, risk, and data leaders to turn program and product strategy into a sequenced, credible portfolio of technical investments.
• Balance a demanding portfolio. You'll manage six workstreams that all matter and won't all move at once: (1) building our new cash delivery stack (remote-first verification, fraud prevention, massive volume) (2) stabilizing our legacy stack until switchover, then managing the migration; (3) donor-facing fundraising products; (4) our global emergency cash system (and eventual white-labelling of that product); (5) enterprise technology; (6) internal tooling, platform, and cybersecurity. Deciding sequencing and staffing across these (and saying "not yet" credibly) is the job.
• Build and grow an exceptional technology organization. Recruit outstanding engineering and technology talent, design the org GiveDirectly needs at its next stage of scale (engineering, product, data, security, infrastructure, enterprise systems), and create the accountability, decision rights, and career paths to sustain high talent density. Grow the engineering team from 15 to ~30 with a lean but durable management structure.
• Own the technical direction and quality bar. Guide consequential decisions on integrations, data, security, reliability, and technical debt. Ensure our systems can safely support a major increase in transaction volume, geographic reach, and organizational dependence on technology. Set a pragmatic quality bar appropriate to high-stakes financial delivery while preserving speed.
• Lead across organizational boundaries. Serve as a member of GiveDirectly’s executive team, reporting to the CEO and bringing technology into major strategic and operating decisions. Help non-technical leaders understand technical constraints and costs, build credibility with country and functional leaders by understanding their realities, and force clarity when priorities, ownership, or tradeoffs are ambiguous.
• Travel. Approximately 4–6 trips per year, including visits to GiveDirectly countries of operation.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy so pay is consistent across comparable roles.

Total Compensation (US) of $366,000 – $518,000 comprised of:

• Base Salary: $300,000 – $375,000
• Bonus: $45,000-$112,000 (bonus is % based and decided based on org-wide performance, we will share full methodology during the hiring process)
• Annual Benefits Stipend: ~$21,000

Total Compensation (UK) of £225,000 – £317,000 comprised of:

• Base Salary: £193,400 – £241,700
• Bonus: £29,000 – £72,500 (bonus is % based and decided based on org-wide performance, we will share full methodology during the hiring process)
• Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760

Total Compensation (Kenya) of $333,000 – $467,000 comprised of:

• Base Salary: $282,500 – $353,100
• Bonus: $42,000 – $106,000 (bonus is % based and decided based on org-wide performance, we will share full methodology during the hiring process)
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453

If you are not based in one of the countries listed above, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.

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!

Referrals

Know the right person for this role? Please consider referring them. We offer a reward of $3,000 for a Senior Manager or above role, and $500 for a Manager role, paid if we end up hiring your referral. Thank you for sending great people our way!