Director, Global Talent Acquisition

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving – and millions of lives – by allowing donors to provide capital 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 which is allocated to evidence-free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that, establishing a benchmark, and in the process accelerate the end of extreme poverty. GiveDirectly has raised over $400M in revenue (>$150M in 2020 alone), while being recognized as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company. The growing movement toward cash transfers and GD’s role in that movement have also been featured in This American Life, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, and Business Insider.

About this role

• Talent is a board-level priority, and this role exists to lead that build.
• The Director, Global Talent Acquisition will manage a team of managers and IC recruiters and coordinators based primarily in East Africa.
• This is a builder’s role: you’ll be accountable for the team’s results and for developing the people delivering them, with your primary focus on building the machinery, including a proactive sourcing engine, workforce planning capabilities, hiring manager enablement, and the systems and data foundation the org needs to scale.
• GiveDirectly operates across more than 10 countries, with the majority of our staff based in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Recruiting effectively into and across a globally-distributed, Africa-centered workforce is the core of this role, not a secondary consideration.
• We need someone who has built and scaled global recruiting functions, cultivated global talent networks, and understands what it takes to attract exceptional candidates into a remote-first, mission-driven organization operating across multiple continents.
• Candidates with experience exclusively in US-based recruiting contexts are unlikely to be a strong fit.

What you’ll do

Team Leadership and Development:

• Manage and coach the team (currently two managers, five ICs) to develop as true business partners
• Build a team culture of accountability, proactive ownership, and continuous improvement
• Create clarity on roles, workload, and capacity across the team
• Manage the transition of external contractor support as internal team capacity grows

Recruiting Operations and Quality:

• Personally advise, as needed, on the most complex, senior, and high-stakes searches (Director+, technical, or time-sensitive roles)
• Own Greenhouse: configuration, data quality, reporting, and AI tooling — and lead the team’s thoughtful integration of AI tools to improve speed and quality without compromising candidate experience
• Establish recruiting metrics that matter [time-to-fill, pipeline conversion, source effectiveness, hiring manager satisfaction] and use them to drive decisions
• Standardize and simplify processes across the full hiring lifecycle, from JD creation through offer
• Develop and embed structured interview frameworks and calibration practices that reduce bias and improve hiring quality
• Build hiring manager capability: role kick-off rigor, interview training, feedback calibration, and shared accountability for outcomes

Building a Global Sourcing Function:

• Build GiveDirectly’s outbound sourcing capability from the ground up [this largely does not exist today]
• Develop sourcing strategies for the talent markets that matter most: global development, tech for good, field operations, and senior functional roles across Africa, Europe, and North America
• Build and maintain relationships with Africa-based recruiting networks for senior and hard-to-fill roles where standard channels fall short
• Create and maintain warm pipelines for critical role families, including passive candidates for Senior Manager+ positions
• Update and sharpen GiveDirectly’s careers page and employer brand presence to attract the right talent across global markets

Strategic Partnership and Workforce Planning:

• Partner with hiring managers and senior leaders to shift TA’s role from reactive fulfillment to proactive planning
• Lead role criticality assessments, helping the business distinguish between backfills, growth hires, and strategic bets, and sequence recruiting resources accordingly
• Build and own headcount planning and management processes in partnership with Finance and People Ops, including scenario planning for significant potential growth
• Translate growth scenarios into staffing models, sourcing lead times, and capacity plans
• Advise on workforce planning, including succession gaps, role design, and organizational readiness for scale
• Contribute to building the data infrastructure that connects recruiting activity to org-level talent strategy

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.
• 7+ years of talent acquisition experience, with at least 3 in a leadership role, including meaningful experience recruiting across Sub-Saharan Africa and other global markets
• Demonstrated experience scaling a TA function through hypergrowth or significant organizational change, and building sourcing capabilities from the ground up
• Experience leading global workforce planning: headcount planning, role criticality assessments, scenario planning, and partnering with Finance and senior leadership on talent decisions
• Strong command of recruiting operations: ATS management (Greenhouse a plus), data and metrics, and process design
• Experience enabling hiring managers through structured interviewing, calibration, and role kick-off discipline
• Excellent stakeholder management
• Experience in a global non-profit, international development organization, or mission-driven company with Africa presence preferred
• Familiarity with EOR/contractor recruiting models across multiple countries preferred
• Comfort with AI-assisted recruiting tools preferred.

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 to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles.
• Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should click here to apply online