Senior Manager, Data - Nairobi, Kenya

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 spen ...

Job description

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 in 2011 and delivered cash to more than 2 million people in 15 different countries. We've also supported large-scale, experimental research that indicates strong recipient impact of our programs. 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.

Our culture is candid, analytical, agile, and non-hierarchical. Our global team of ~150, and country operations teams of ~650, span 21 different countries and 69 languages. From software engineers to seasoned humanitarian workers, management consultants to public servants, researchers to field operations -- it's an incredible group of people.

Our values are central and deliberately opinionated. We genuinely center the people we serve in our decision-making, and strive to build an ambitious, dynamic and high-performing environment. We strongly encourage you to read through our values carefully, if they reflect how you like to work and energize you, this could be a great fit.

We work hard to create an environment in which all our team members can thrive, succeed, and grow. We support high ownership, flexibility, take care of each other, have fun, and create professional growth opportunities.

Location: This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

Priority Application Deadline: March 4, 2026 or until we receive a critical mass of applications

About this Role

GiveDirectly's Fundraising team is responsible for unlocking significant, sustained funding to scale direct cash transfers globally. As we scale, our fundraising systems must become increasingly rigorous, automated, and compounding. Today, many of our core fundraising metrics and analyses require manual effort; this role will help transform that reality.

We are hiring a Senior Manager, Data (Fundraising & Marketing) to serve as the primary strategic data partner to our fundraising and marketing teams. You will combine deep fundraising context with strong technical expertise to define the right questions, establish durable source-of-truth metrics, and build leveraged data products that reduce ad hoc work over time. You will function as a senior individual contributor with significant scope and autonomy.

You will directly own significant data modeling and transformation work within the data lakehouse. You will be responsible for building the curated data models that power reporting, forecasting, and decision-making. Our data infrastructure is built on AWS and Databricks, with dashboards and visualizations in Tableau. You will primarily use SQL to query data and contribute to data pipelines, and Python notebooks for deeper analysis.

This is a full-time, globally remote position with travel 2–3 times per year for team retreats or planning sessions.

Core Responsibilities

Data Product and Metrics Ownership

• Set vision and priorities for how data supports fundraising and marketing strategy, based on a deep understanding of GiveDirectly's fundraising model, donor lifecycle, and growth strategy, across revenue streams
• Define, standardize, and document core fundraising and marketing KPIs (e.g., retention, LTV, revenue forecasting metrics) to drive fundraising goals
• Design and build robust data models in the warehouse that serve as the source of truth for fundraising reporting - weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually
• Establish clear, trusted source-of-truth datasets and metric logic used consistently across Fundraising, Finance, and Leadership, continually folding learnings in to update the metrics and definitions
• Identify recurring analytical needs and convert them into scalable, automated data products
• Scope and prioritize fundraising data products in partnership with Fundraising and Marketing Data stakeholders
• Partner with data engineering on upstream data quality and pipeline improvements, while owning the downstream analytical layer
• Continuously reduce ad hoc reporting by investing in durable systems that compound in value over time

Strategic Fundraising and Marketing Analytics

• Serve as the primary data partner to fundraising and marketing leadership, informing strategy across acquisition, retention, and revenue expansion
• Build and maintain revenue forecasts and donor cohort models to guide annual planning and budget allocation
• Support channel investment decisions with clear ROI frameworks, experiment design, and performance analysis
• Proactively surface decision-relevant insights, even when questions are not fully formed

Donor & Revenue Insights

• Conduct deep-dive analyses into donor cohorts, retention drivers, churn patterns, and cost per dollar raised to drive continuous improvement on fundraising performance
• Evaluate marketing and fundraising initiatives using appropriate analytical methods (including experimentation where feasible, though not all channels support large-scale testing)
• Translate complex analyses into clear recommendations for non-technical stakeholders that drive fundraising improvements
• Surface high-leverage opportunities to improve conversion, retention, and revenue durability

Data Infrastructure & Platform Contribution

• Collaborate with data engineers and analytics peers to improve data quality, access, and trust
• Partner with the Salesforce Lead to ensure CRM data structure and integrity support accurate reporting and scalable downstream modeling
• Contribute to the long-term roadmap for fundraising data architecture, ensuring systems are designed for scalability and compounding insight generation over time
• Contribute to improvements in GiveDirectly's data capabilities such as adopting conversational analytics
• Maintain high standards of analytical rigor, documentation, and reproducibility

Qualifications

We recognize that strong candidates may not meet every requirement listed below. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply.

Required

• 8+ years of experience in analytics, data science, or quantitative strategy roles, including a track record of driving marketing, growth, or fundraising performance through analytics
• Strong experience setting vision and priorities for data products from significant ambiguity
• Strong systems thinking and experience designing measurement systems that compound in value and reduce recurring friction
• Advanced SQL skills and demonstrated experience building production-grade data models in a data warehouse
• Strong Python proficiency
• Experience building forecasting models (e.g., revenue, LTV, retention)
• Experimentation and performance measurement experience (e.g., A/B testing, quasi-experimental methods, ROI evaluation)
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and independently shape how data informs organizational strategy

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophy here.

• The United States base salary for this role is $129,000, with an additional 10% bonus index.

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

Why work at GiveDirectly?

At GiveDirectly, we work to ensure that you have everything you need to excel in your role and on your team, including:

• 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)
• Flexible paid time off
• Allowances for desk set-up and learning and development

#LI-REMOTE

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 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.

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

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty, GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients, staff, and partners seriously. To that end, GiveDirectly is a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, and will systematically check with previous employers about any abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with, and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of "zero tolerance when it comes to preventing, reporting, or responding to any form of abuse or exploitation." and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of the role, please email us at with the email subject "Accommodation Needed". We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide