GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving – and millions of lives – by providing cash grants directly to the world’s poorest. The Brookings Institution estimates that $70B 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 $1B since launching Requirements: Design and build scalable, reliable systems that power our core operations—whether that’s donor platforms, systems that deliver payments directly to recipients, or crisis response tools reaching hundreds of thousands of people globally. Own end-to-end development of new features and services, from architecture through deployment and monitoring. Improve our developer workflows by strengthening CI/CD pipelines, reducing manual steps, and increasing test coverage. Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, ops, data) to understand real-world needs and ship tools that directly support program delivery in the field. Debug and resolve production issues across our stack, with a focus on root cause analysis and long-term fixes. Advocate for sustainable engineering practices, including testing, documentation, and monitoring Help shape our tech roadmap with an eye toward scale, maintainability, and recipient experience
