Humanitarian Manager at GiveDirectly

The Humanitarian Manager will play a key role in expanding GD’s humanitarian expertise and operations across the whole organization. Primary responsibilities will include supporting country teams to design and deliver innovative humanitarian initiatives, coordinating with internal stakeholders, providing surge project management capacity and ensuring overall operational excellence. The Humanitarian Manager will work closely within the team with Senior Managers and the Humanitarian Director, as well as cross-functionally with programs, partnerships, technology, innovation, and other teams. We are looking for candidates that are highly organized and solutions-oriented, can demonstrate experience operating in crisis contexts and navigating the humanitarian system, and who thrive in fast-paced, unstructured environments.

This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours.

What You’ll Do

Technical expertise and advice

• Play a key role in establishing the humanitarian team as a source of technical expertise on emergency response within GiveDirectly
• Support the Humanitarian Senior Manager to advise country offices on humanitarian standards, policies and structures, and on developing and leveraging relationships with key humanitarian stakeholders
• Support the Humanitarian Senior Manager in working with country teams to develop sector engagement strategies or crisis preparedness plans as needed
• Develop internal guidance, briefing notes and position papers on humanitarian issues as needed

Project Management

• Deliver core operations functions, leading aspects of project management as well as supporting Humanitarian Senior Managers and the Humanitarian Director on other tasks as required
• Support country teams to design innovative humanitarian operating models, including assessing trade-offs of different design decisions (e.g. targeting, payments, customer service)
• Become an expert in GiveDirectly’s tech systems and processes (Salesforce, Taroworks, Asana, etc.) to support project execution and excellence
• Serve along with other members of the Humanitarian Team on our internal surge capacity roster to respond quickly to emergencies. Should be able and willing to deploy on short notice.

New business development & partnerships management

• Collaborate with other GD teams to design and develop new project proposals
• Support partnership building and partner management by conducting due diligence and desk research for identified fundraising opportunities
• Conduct desk research & synthesis on humanitarian crises, financial payment systems, and funding opportunities in new countries of interest or emerging crises
• Coordinate with external stakeholders on discrete projects and tasks

What You’ll Bring

• 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.
• Language Requirement: English
• Language Preferences: French, Arabic or Portuguese
• 4+ years of work experience in roles that required problem-solving and project management
• Experience operating in fragile and crisis-affected contexts
• Demonstrated knowledge of humanitarian policy frameworks and coordination mechanisms; experience influencing stakeholders in these structures is a plus
• Exceptional communication, organizational, and analytical skills
• Ability to think strategically and understand how proposed solutions fit into the bigger picture of organizational or sectoral priorities
• Ability to manage day-to-day operations while contributing to longer-term objectives and system improvements
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly independent and self-directed manner, while effectively communicating upwardly about gaps and risks
• Enthusiasm for fast-paced environments, which may lack a pre-defined playbook for success and involve significant “learning by doing”