Chief Technology Officer at Givedirectly — United States

About the role

<div class="content-intro">GiveDirectly has delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty across 15 countries since 2011. We believe cash transfers are one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid, with the <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/gdresearch/" target="_blank">research</a> to back it up. Our work has been covered by <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2024/01/10/givedirectly-does-what-it-says-on-the-tin" target="_blank">The Economist</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/12/07/1217478771/its-one-of-the-biggest-experiments-in-fighting-global-poverty-now-the-results-ar" target="_blank">NPR</a>, <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_stewart_to_end_extreme_poverty_give_cash_not_advice" target="_blank">TED</a>, and <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/washingtonpost-apr-2024/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. We are one of <a href="https://time.com/collection/time100-most-influential-companies/2026/givedirectly/" target="_blank">Time100’s</a> Most Influential Companies of 2026.<a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/washingtonpost-apr-2024/" target="_blank"> </a> Our culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We support high ownership and real professional growth. Curious about what it's really like to work here? Read our <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.givedirectly.org/givedirectly-values/">values</a> and <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdS9vB_XYg">hear from the people who do</a>. If they resonate, this could be a great fit!</div>Priority application deadline: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Early applications are heavily encouraged. We’re growing at incredible speed, and expect to hit $1B in revenue in 2026 with significant growth forecast for 2027. We’re hiring a Chief Technology Officer to lead the building and rebuilding of the technology, systems and ways of working that will enable a sustained $5B+ p/a operation. You will build software that safely and securely moves billions of dollars to millions of vulnerable people in some of the poorest and highest need parts of the world. This will require applying excellent engineering, team building and organizational judgment to complex, high-stakes operations: identity and fraud management, machine learning on large but imperfect datasets (cell phone data, satellite imagery, government registries), mobile money integrations, low-connectivity environments, rapidly evolving requirements all in diverse regulatory environments and country contexts. You’ll need to keep our legacy technology stack stable and performant, while in parallel building new systems from the ground up for our next level of scale. You will lead engineering, data, security and enterprise technology – with a small, mighty and rapidly growing engineering team of ~15, and the expectation that this can at least double to ~30 in the next 12 months if you want it to. You’ll report to a CEO with deep experience running technology companies, and partner with our VP Product. This role is remote, with working hours between US Eastern Time and East African Time, and some preference for candidates in our office hubs of New York, London, or Nairobi. What we’re looking for: <ul> <li>An exceptional hirer, manager and organizer of technical talent. Proven record identifying, hiring, developing and retaining excellent engineers and engineering leaders, and creating team processes that consistently deliver software with quality and velocity.</li> <li>Deep technical judgment, applied close to the work. You can evaluate major designs, pressure-test architecture and build-vs-buy decisions, and recognize when a team is heading the wrong way, without becoming the primary implementer. Low-ego: you’ll investigate a problem yourself when that’s what the situation requires.</li> <li>Business judgment and decisiveness under ambiguity. You’re not just a technical leader, you’re also a business executive. You understand the business, are a strong cross-functional partner, and have a history of good judgment when navigating tradeoffs of long vs. short term, speed, reliability, security, flexibility, cost, technical quality, and user impact.</li> <li>AI first. You have a point of view on where AI meaningfully changes engineering productivity and organizational capability, and you’ve moved a team from experimentation to real, measured use. You can set the tools, culture, goals, and guardrails that leverage the opportunities and mitigate the risks of an AI first engineering culture.</li> <li>Embody and set an example for GD values. We take <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/givedirectly-values/">our values</a> incredibly seriously, and expect our leaders to embody, nurture, and promote them in the way they work and the teams they build.</li> <li>Advantages, not requirements. Experience in an operationally complex or regulated domain (fintech, payments, humanitarian response, global development); systems involving financial controls, fraud risk, identity, or sensitive recipient data; operating across multiple countries, particularly lower-income or infrastructure-constrained ones; leading both modern product engineering and enterprise technology.</li> </ul> What you’ll do <ul> <li>Define our technology vision and targe

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