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GiveDirectly · 1 month ago

Head of People

New York, NY

Full-time

Onsite

Director/Executive

$154K/yr - $200K/yr

GiveDirectly is a non-profit organization aimed at reshaping international giving through direct cash transfers to the world's poorest. The Head of People will design and run the human systems that connect talent to organizational performance in a global context, overseeing areas such as talent acquisition, performance management, and employee relations.

CharityFinancial ServicesMobile PaymentsNon ProfitPaymentsService Industry

Comp. & Benefits

Responsibilities

Make talent a competitive advantage: Raise the hiring bar; build a repeatable 'hiring machine' (calibration, principles/values assessment, structured loops, quality-at-30/90 days). Build a proactive network and bench for executive and scarce roles

Design performance + rewards: Implement a lightweight, high-signal performance system tied to development and consequences; refresh compensation and total rewards to attract and retain top talent in our markets while preserving our lean model and staying economically efficient as an organization

Be the steady employee relations advisor: Lead on sensitive personnel matters with discretion and fairness; support investigations, safeguarding, crisis response, and change communications

Coach and level up leadership: Partner with the CEO/COO and executives on org design, succession, and leadership effectiveness; intervene early to raise or replace when needed

Build scalable global people ops: Improve HRIS/workforce tools; standardize core processes; ensure compliant, efficient operations across countries (subsidiaries, contractors, EOR/PEO) in close partnership with Finance and Legal

Strengthen culture and engagement: Ensure our values are felt and lived across the organization; that staff are supported to be at their best thanks to inclusive practices that build growth, trust, belonging, creativity, and execution speed

Own people analytics: Ship leadership dashboards (headcount, hiring velocity/quality, retention, eNPS/voice, performance distribution) to inform decisions and accountability

Operate with leverage: Keep the People team small, senior, and high-output; set SLAs, clarify ownership, and continuously remove friction for program and fundraising teams

Qualification

Business acumenTalent acquisitionEmployee relationsPerformance managementHRIS proficiencyLeadership developmentAnalytical thinkingCultural sensitivityTeam managementProblem solving

Required

Strong business acumen with a track record of treating the People function as a driver of company/organizational outcomes (talent density, speed, quality, and reliability)—not just a compliance, people support, or admin team

Demonstrated success building simple, scalable systems (hiring, performance, rewards, workforce models, HRIS) across multiple countries and regulatory contexts—with high judgment on tradeoffs under tight constraints

Depth in sensitive employee relations, risk management, and safeguarding across very diverse contexts and cultural settings; calm, discreet, and principled

Recruits, calibrates, and develops senior talent; sets a high bar; builds a small, high-leverage team and operating cadence that scales

Structured, analytical thinker who disaggregates problems, designs from first principles, iterates quickly, and measures results

Comfort moving between private sector and NGO settings and between different org sizes; able to bring best-of-both to GD's model

Must be able to travel ~3-4 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits

This role is remote with a strong preference for East Africa Time (EAT) working hours and/or candidates based in countries where we operate; if outside EAT, at least 3 hours of overlap with EAT is required