What you’ll do:

Strengthen Country Operations

Partner with CDs to ensure offices are well-structured, compliant and able to deliver impact at scale

Provide operational support to  CDs across financial management, people/HR, compliance, procurement, administration, IT, security.

Support new country and project office setups, and responsible wind-downs. 

Facilitate evolution of country office organigrams and talent management systems to strengthen leadership and long-term sustainability.

Ensure Global Standards & Compliance

Partner with GSS departments and CDs to embed global standards, systems and policies in country operations, and adapt them for local context.

Coordinate with Legal & Compliance to keep country registrations and statutory requirements  up to date; support sourcing of legal counsel when needed.

Develop a compliance certification process for country offices, that clarifies  CD’s accountabilities and provides assurance, through period verification, that county offices are meeting core operational and compliance standards. 

Run periodic spot checks to identify risks early and support CDs in addressing them. 

Coordinate with Global Shared Services (GSS)

Serve as primary contact for GSS functions (People, Compliance, Procurement, Corporate Audit, Security, IT, Risk).

Define and refine responsibilities and R&R between GSS and country offices.

Facilitate cross-office information flow and best-practice sharing.

Lead Risk & Crisis Management

Oversee non-program-specific risk monitoring and mitigation across countries.

Partner with GSS on ensuring CDs are monitoring and managing country-specific risks and maintaining a global risk register.

Backstop, lead, or participate in crisis management 

Facilitate a culture of proactive risk management across all country offices.

Other Responsibilities

Join and represent Programs in regular GSS/country office coordination meetings.

Lead or contribute to org-wide initiatives to advance and evolve country office management.

Take on special initiatives and projects as assigned

Any other responsibilities as required

What you’ll bring:

Deep experience managing and maturing country offices, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa

Comfort in a fast paced and changing environment that lacks predefined playbooks and requires “figuring things out” where needed

Adept at financial and budget management. Bonus points for knowledge about financial modeling 

Strong risk management experience, including crisis management

Expertise in HR, compliance, procurement, corporate audit, risk, IT, and country registration processes

Strong cross-cultural communication, stakeholder management, and comfort with matrixed organizations

Proven ability to create clarity and structure within evolving systems that can work in diverse contexts

Demonstrated ability to make data-driven decisions 

Highly analytical and able to grip the details of country office management for ongoing rigorous systems building and cross country oversight. 

Ability to get things done with limited resources and implement scalable solutions

Experience and aptitude leveraging new technologies and AI to advance organizational and country office effectiveness. Comfort taking an agile and iterative approach

Familiarity with INGO standards, donor compliance, and internal controls

Exceptional 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. Additional Language Preferences: French, Portuguese, or Swahili