Director, Strategic Initiatives

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +2 more countries.

📋 Description

• Develop and prioritize a portfolio of external options aimed at enhancing delivery capacity, assessing them based on scale, speed, feasibility, and cost.

• Perform primary due diligence through interactions with potential partners, regulators, and legal counsel, arriving at well-founded recommendations to either pursue or halt opportunities.

• Propel one or two key priorities from evaluation through to implementation and live pilot phases.

• Manage counterparty relationships and facilitate cross-functional collaboration within the organization.

• Define and execute competitive solicitations, including RFPs, selection criteria, and evaluations of responses.

• Lead negotiations and engagements with UN agencies, INGOs, mobile network operators, and governmental bodies, culminating in signed agreements.

• Generate analyses and written recommendations to assist the Executive team in making decisions regarding financial and capacity allocations.

• Report directly to the Chief of Staff while collaborating closely with the Executive team, Country Directors, and external stakeholders.

⛳️ Requirements

• Experience at the Director or Team Lead level in consulting, strategy, or operations, applicable to both business and social impact contexts.

• Proven ability to transform broad mandates into prioritized, rigorously evaluated options and recommendations.

• Experience in converting vague concepts into clear strategies with defined milestones and success metrics.

• Capability to work independently without a prescribed playbook or designated team.

• Experience in influencing critical strategic decisions.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to leverage data for insights and informed decision-making.

• Competence in developing comparable estimates for structurally diverse options and identifying necessary success conditions.

• Proficient negotiation skills, including the ability to assess institutional incentives and compliance requirements.

• Strong communication abilities to convey information clearly and directly to senior stakeholders, employing concise and structured thinking.

• Ability to embody and exemplify the values of GiveDirectly.

• Additional experience in areas such as humanitarian or institutional donors, UN agencies and INGO consortia, mobile money, telco or payments partnerships, grantmaking, organizational due diligence, cost-effectiveness assessments, challenge funds, competitive solicitations, data-sharing and data-protection agreements, and low-income or infrastructure-constrained markets is a plus, but not mandatory.

• Successful safeguarding and pre-hire screening may involve checks for previous employer misconduct, reference verification, criminal background checks, and sanctions screenings.

🏝️ Benefits

• United States benefits stipend: $21,393 per year.

• United Kingdom benefits stipend: £2,760.00.

• Kenya benefits stipend: $8,454.

• Bonus target: 15%.

• Referral reward of $3,000 for a Senior Manager or above role, and $500 for a Manager role, payable upon successful hiring of the referral.

• Opportunities for professional growth.

• Reasonable accommodations available during the application/interview process and for performing essential job functions.