Response Manager

About this role

• GiveDirectly is scaling its emergency response operations to reach more people, faster, with cash in the wake of crises. As a Manager on the Humanitarian team, you will play a critical role in supporting the design and delivery of rapid cash responses globally. You’ll coordinate program implementation, manage day-to-day operations, and contribute to fundraising efforts by documenting field insights and preparing donor materials.

Managers are expected to:

• Execute high-quality program delivery in collaboration with cross-functional teams
• Manage projects and workstreams with a focus on operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Support internal and external relationships, including partners, vendors, and donors.

Travel Requirement:

•  Must be able to travel up to 50-60% of the time including ~2 times per year for team retreats. Must be able to deploy on short notice in response to an emergency. This role incurs travel to potentially insecure areas. 

What you’ll do:

Design and implement high-quality programming:

• Coordinate design, planning, and execution of emergency response operations, ensuring timelines and quality standards are met.
• Apply operational playbooks and deployment criteria to rapidly set up response programs across a growing number of countries.
• Conduct operational diligence, feasibility, and risk assessments for individual disaster responses, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and context realities.
• Track and report on program metrics to support learning and performance management.
• Liaise with partners, vendors, and subgrantees to ensure smooth execution.
• Become an expert in GiveDirectly’s tech systems and processes (Salesforce, CommCare, Jira, etc.) to support project execution and excellence

Project and team coordination

• Manage day-to-day activities of designated response, including field staff tasking and coordination with surge teams
• Provide coaching and mentorship to junior staff or surge team members during deployments
• Contribute to team goal-setting, impact tracking, and knowledge sharing

Strategic and external contributions

• May be asked to support new business development, donor reporting, or appeal materials, most often by translating field updates into compelling content. 
• Represent GiveDirectly in select internal and external forums (e.g. Cash Working Groups)
• Ad hoc strategy and/or capability investment projects that advance GiveDirectly’s global response capacity. 

Qualifications 

• Alignment with GiveDirectly Values: exceptional alignment with values and an active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. 
• 3-5+ years of experience in a role focused on problem solving, team management, and/or new business development, including prior humanitarian/emergency experience
• Analytical problem solving: looks at problems with an analytical and iterative mindset, with strong framework for prioritization and ability to put structure and process to ambiguous problems.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple workstreams, prioritize/explicitly deprioritize, and hold a high quality bar.
• Strong technical skills, including data analysis and ease with learning new third-party tech platforms and tools.
• Fundraising: Preference for candidates with a strong partnership and relationship management background.
• Strong communications skills: Skilled in speaking, writing, presenting, and negotiating across multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to orient in new context quickly, rapidly understanding unfamiliar environments, stakeholders, and processes, with a track record of setting up effective systems in dynamic situations.
• Enthusiasm for fast-paced environments, which may lack pre-defined playbook for success and involve significant “learning by doing.” Comfort with ambiguity and building systems from scratch.

Nice to have:

• Fluent in a language other than English, especially French, Portuguese, Arabic, or other languages.
• Prior experience with humanitarian cash-based programming

Compensation

• Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.

Kenya

• Base Salary: $61,900
• Bonus at Target Performance: 10% (~$6,190 with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $7,242)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $68,090