GiveDirectly has delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2 million people living in poverty across 15 countries since 2011. We believe cash transfers are one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid, with the research to back it up. Our work has been covered by The Economist, NPR, TED, and The Washington Post. We are one of Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026. 

Our culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We support high ownership and real professional growth. Curious about what it's really like to work here? Read our values and hear from the people who do. If they resonate, this could be a great fit!

About this Role

We are currently planning for a significant increase in scale, and we are building the People function that can carry it.

This is a new role with two halves. First half: you will be the dedicated people partner to our Global Shared Services (GSS) teams [~200 employees], who do not have one today, working primarily with people leaders on structure, workforce planning, talent, and the people decisions that come with growth. You will partner with and coach senior leaders across GSS, up to VP level, including those who are strong operators still growing as people leaders. Second half: you will build how we handle behavior and performance concerns across the organization: the standards, the decision framework, and the enablement that lets people managers and our HR teams in the field handle them well.

The first year is weighted toward that build, with partnering also focused on performance and talent management as the most pressing needs. As the standards land, the balance shifts toward deeper partnering, while you continue to own the employee relations model.

The reason for this weight: the employee relations build is our most acute gap today, but should not be construed as a ceiling of the job. Over time, the partnering half opens up well beyond performance and conduct into org design, workforce planning, talent, career development, and the full range of people strategy for our global functions. We're hiring a broad, senior people partner who can build the ER model as their first major deliverable, not an employee relations specialist. If your instinct on reading this is that the ER work is the whole job, this role probably isn't the right fit, and the reverse is also true: if you're only interested in the strategic partnering and not the build, year one will frustrate you.

Job type: Full-time

Reports to: Head of People

Level: Director

Location: Remote, with a requirement to overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours, and meaningful overlap with US Eastern hours. We can only employ people in certain places at the moment, so it's worth checking our current list of eligible countries to see if yours is included. If you're based elsewhere, it's not an automatic no, but do flag it early with your recruiter. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

Travel: Approximately 3-4 trips per year, including at least one to a country of operation and one to a key in-person leadership moment, with occasional additional travel as sensitive or time-critical situations require.

What you'll do

1. Partner with our Global team: 
   • Act as the trusted advisor to GSS leaders (managers up to VPs) on anything involving their people: how their teams are structured, who they need, who is at risk, and what is not working. Some of this is work the Head of People holds today and will hand over as you establish credibility.
   • Lead org design and workforce planning for global functions as we scale: structure, role definition, levels, sizing and sequencing, in partnership with function leads, Finance and Talent Acquisition.
   • Own talent and succession