Data Engineer

GiveDirectly (GD) provides cash grants directly to people living in extreme poverty. Since launching in 2011, GD has raised over $1B, delivered cash to more than 1.5 million recipients, launched operations in 15 countries, and continues to expand its reach across the Global South. GD has also grown the research base supporting unconditional cash with 20 randomized control trials from its programs, generating rigorous evidence across countries and contexts. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and agile. We work alongside 750+ individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. Team members at GiveDirectly attest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but a fundamental part of our culture and values. We actively seek to recruit individuals from the communities we serve, and use DEI as a lens in our hiring practices, programs, and initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a workplace where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel valued and respected for who they are. We strive to be inclusive of all cultures and experiences while upholding our values globally. In the spirit of our "Know Yourself and Grow" value, we recognize there is always room to improve our team's working experience. But day to day, we aim to "Create Positive Energy" - we take care of one another, have fun, aim to maximize flexibility and accessibility in roles, and pursue professional development opportunities to stay challenged & engaged in our work.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

Location: This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 4 hours. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

About This Role

The mission of the Central Data team is to empower GiveDirectly with a rigorous, data-driven culture to maximize our efficiency, effectiveness, and scale of delivering dollars to recipients. Access to accurate, timely, actionable financial data is key to this mission but currently a pain point for the organization. As the seventh member of Central Data, you will collaborate with the Finance team to build, maintain, and improve data pipelines, tools, and dashboards to address this need. Additionally, you will work closely with the Senior Data Architect to maintain and enhance our current infrastructure (AWS, Databricks, Tableau) to ensure data accessibility for data scientists and analysts.

Reports to: Graham Tyler (Director of Data)

Level: Manager

Travel Requirement: Must be able to travel ~1-2 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits

What You’ll Do

Success in this role is determined by meeting these key objectives:

• [30%] Build data pipelines and tools that reduce the time and risk associated with monthly financial reporting and other finance processes. Reconciling data across accounts and systems is currently a time consuming, mostly manual process. You will combine data from multiple sources in Databricks and automate reconciliation tasks.
• [20%] Build datasets and dashboards that make financial data more transparent, actionable, and accurate. Only top level financial metrics are currently available in dashboards. You will make detailed financial data easily accessible for decisions and analysis, as well as automate data quality tests to validate key financial metrics.
• [20%] Increase data available for analysis and ML models by ingesting new data sources. Our data lakehouse does not currently include data from all internal data sources, such as our HR system. You will build pipelines to make this data available and useful.
• [30%] Increase speed of development, reduce infrastructure failures and cost. On-call rotation duties: monitor pipeline jobs, review and test new pipeline PRs, track usage and cost. Add new data quality checks and alerting. Proactively identify and implement improvements to data infrastructure, as well as the tools used by data scientists and analysts to develop, deploy, and share their work. Leave our systems and processes better than you found them.

What You’ll Bring

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

Language Preferences: No additional language preferences

Critical thinking and analytical approach necessary to develop technical solutions that scale and are resilient to changes over time

Entrepreneurial mindset and stakeholder management skills required to identify, design, and execute technical solutions that solve important, ambiguous organizational problems

Python, SQL, and spark expertise, along with core competencies required to ship high quality data pipelines and data tools fast

Extensive experience with Databricks preferred; experience with Tableau is a plus

Intellectual humility, curiosity, and a commitment to being part of an exceptional team

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s total compensation package (base compensation + bonus) falls within the 75th percentile of similar roles, at similar organizations. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles.

The United States base salary for this role is $130,000.

The Kenya base salary for this role is $74,000.

This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in the US or Kenya, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.

Why work at GiveDirectly?

Role

• A positive and supportive team with opportunities for advancement
• A demonstrated commitment to helping all staff develop and grow
• A competitive salary, including bonus
• A robust health benefits plan (exact details will vary by country)
• Unlimited PTO (that we encourage staff to take!)
• Desk allowance and flexible work location

Read more about our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here and about our decision to move our central support teams to remote first here.

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values the strength diversity brings to the workplace. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

US applicants only: We invite you to "Know Your Rights" as an applicant.

About The Hiring Process

Format: The hiring process follows the same general outline for all open roles:

• First interview (30 mins)
• Take home skills assignment (~2 hours)
• Second interview (1 hour)*
• Third interview (1 hour)*
• Final interview (1 hour)
• Reference checks (30 mins each)

For some roles, second & third interviews are combined into a panel interview. If there are adjustments or variations on this process, those changes will be communicated during the first interview.

Venue: We conduct interviews over Google Meet with camera on (unless communicated otherwise).

Accessibility: Closed captioning is available during all Google Meet interviews, and interviewers will also post interview questions in the chat box throughout the call. If you need assistance accessing either of these features, please let your interviewer know at the start of your interview!

We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible application process for all of our open roles. If there are questions or concerns you have about the accessibility of our hiring process, we warmly invite you to reach out to careers@givedirectly.org. Please include the word "Accessibility" in the email title.

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect children, vulnerable adults, and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.