Senior Manager, Safety and Security

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving – and millions of lives – by providing cash grants directly to the poorest people in the world. The Brookings Institution estimates that $100B of cash transfers would be required to eliminate the poverty gap; the aid sector currently spends $135B each year, much of it on evidence-free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that, establishing cash transfers as a benchmark for foreign aid – as the index fund is a benchmark for the financial industry – and in the process accelerating the end of extreme poverty.

GD has raised over $800M since launching in 2011, delivered cash to more than 1 million people, and launched offices in 11 countries across North America, Africa, and the Middle East. We’ve also supported 19 large-scale, experimental research projects that indicate strong recipient impact of our programs – including the largest universal basic income experiment in history. We use concrete evidence to inform the design of our programs: from research results published in leading journals, to in-depth qualitative work. 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) have been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

We’re looking for exceptional talent to grow our collaborative, diverse team. Joining GiveDirectly provides the opportunity to work alongside individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. We’re actively working toward an equitable and inclusive environment for all team members, and seek candidates who will bring diverse perspectives and experiences to our organization. We recruit from organizations across all industries: our team has hailed from sectors including start-ups, government, consultancies, investment banks, and nonprofits.

Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and fast-paced. We value ability, adaptability, and willingness to learn. We offer competitive salary and benefits, as well as performance-based bonuses.

Location: This role is fully remote but must overlap with the East Africa timezone by at least 6 hours.

About this role

Our team, with an incredible dedication to being Recipients First, encounters a variety of challenges as they work to reach Recipients each day. We operate in 12 different countries in both development and humanitarian contexts, each with unique risks and complexities. In this role, you will ensure we’re upholding our Team Next value by crafting the nuanced policies, processes, and protocols that will keep our team safe. You’ll own training on and auditing of compliance with those safety and security measures. You’ll sit within the Global People team, and work with stakeholders from across the organization, including local safety and security officers, program operations leadership, and global leadership to assess the risks to our staff safety and security, propose the appropriate mitigation measures, policies and procedures and implement those measures. You’ll also be “on call” to lead incident and crisis response as needed.

Reports to: VP, People

Level: Senior Manager

What you’ll do:

• Work with senior leadership to identify and define our risk appetite, and develop a safety and security risk management framework to aid in quick assessment and mitigation in new contexts
• Develop and continuously improve policies and processes intended to keep our team safe, including crisis management plans, incident review processes, evacuation plans
• Regularly visit GD country offices to review and improve country security protocols, quality assure implementation, and provide technical oversight of local safety and security advisors
• Provide capacity building to in-country security managers and Country Directors- serve as thought partner and advisor
• Ensure all team members are properly trained for the potential risks they may encounter and feed into the global HR team ideas and suggestions that could help us improve in this
• Ensure we have the proper equipment and logistics required – including communications devices, personal protective gear, etc.
• Regularly audit adherence to safety and security policies, and develop accountability structures and escalation protocols for non-compliance
• Lead crisis/incident management teams with Country Directors, and support local security advisors to lead, and manage our reporting and response protocols.

What you’ll bring:

• 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.
• Exceptional critical thinking, operations, and project management skills
• Strong emotional intelligence and communication skills – ability to influence and motivate and work across multiple cultures and levels
• Skilled at building, coaching and mentoring teams and individuals
• Experience living and working in high-risk areas (i.e. conflict zones), with experience in multiple geographies/contexts, ideally within MENA and/or sub-saharan africa.
• Willingness to travel – we expect this role to be traveling at least 30% of the time, and especially to spend time in our more conflict-prone regions and country offices.
• (strongly preferred) Experience working with INGOs in conflict zones, understands the nuance of managing security in high-risk areas alongside humanitarian operations, and understands the importance and complexities of working with communities.

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 Kenya base salary for this role is $75,000 USD.
This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in Kenya, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.

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.

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 [email protected].

**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.**