Chief Technology Officer
GiveDirectly · Remote · Remote
About the job
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: Recipients first. Recipients’ preferences come before those of donors or ourselves. Team next. We optimize for organizational success, not individual success. Be proactively candid. We say what we believe and share information openly. Create positive energy. We aim to be a source of energy for colleagues, not a drain. Think rigorously; act quickly. We reason from first principles, then act rather than debate. Know yourself and grow. We own our imperfections and seek feedback to grow. Accept reality. Propose solutions. We focus on what can change and bring solutions, not just problems. 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 kee
Requirements
Technology