Senior Recruiter

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 research to back it up. Our work has been covered by The Economist, NPR, TED, and The Washington Post. We are one of Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026.
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 values and hear from the people who do. If they resonate, this could be a great fit!
About this role
GiveDirectly has delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty and crisis around the world since 2011, establishing cash transfers are one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid. We are one of Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026, and our work has been covered by The Economist, NPR, TED, and The Washington Post.
We're scaling significantly and building the People function to carry it, including evolving the recruitment function needed to drive that growth. Today we're a team of eight, primarily based in Nairobi, and we're adding a recruiter to own our most senior and niche searches across every function: programs, tech, product, G&A, and fundraising.
The core of the job is proactive sourcing in markets where the talent is real but not obvious. You will not wait for inbound. You'll map the market, build calibrated pipelines from scratch, and get strong candidates into process quickly. Building GiveDirectly's name with institutions and networks across the continent is part of the work.
This is a generalist role for someone who has recruited senior talent on the continent across a range of functions. Our most acute needs right now are programs leadership and tech, so that's where you'll start, but the desk isn't single-function: you'll pick up our hardest searches wherever they sit.
What you'll do
Own our hardest senior searches end to end
Own Senior Manager+ searches from launch through offer at a 6 to 8 week pace where the market allows, starting with programs leadership and tech and extending to our toughest searches across other functions.
Serve as the recruitment focal point for these roles: the person hiring managers come to, and the person who knows where this talent is.
Build and maintain regional talent pipelines and GiveDirectly's presence with strong institutions and networks across the continent.
Source proactively
Lead with outbound. Map talent pools, build boolean searches, and use LinkedIn Recruiter and our other tools to build small, strong, calibrated pipelines rather than working through inbound volume.
Translate a vague profile into a real search in a thin market, and recommend profile or approach changes when the market tells you something.
Build diverse slates as a matter of course rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Drive the process and partner with senior hiring managers
Run recruiter-led searches with senior hiring managers (up to c-suite): you drive, they don't. Lead launch calls and syncs, hold the timeline, challenge assumptions and hold lines on process quality when a search stalls.
Run clean pipelines: keep Greenhouse current, review your funnels regularly to catch where candidates are stalling, and use pipeline data to diagnose a stuck search and to push hiring managers on decisions rather than letting roles drift.
Own the candidate experience end to end: keep people warm and moving, sell GiveDirectly, run comp and logistics, and close the offer.
Contribute to the team
Peer-coach more junior recruiters on sourcing and search craft, and turn what you learn into shared practice.
Raise the bar for how our team recruits: build and roll out a consistent search process and outbound sourcing practice, model it in your own searches, and play a key role in coaching the team to adopt it - all while delivering an excellent candidate and hiring manager experience.
If you bring French and/or Portuguese, put it to work on searches the rest of the team can't reach today.
Feed what you're seeing in the market back to the Director, TA to sharpen overall strategy and take on select TA projects that improve how we hire.
What you'll bring
Required
5+ years of relevant experience recruiting for tech-forward INGOs, or in a mission-driven scale-up or startup. Traditional NGO experience alone isn't enough; we want someone who has hired in a fast-moving, tech-literate environment.
Deep proactive-sourcing experience for senior roles: you've built pipelines from scratch through outbound, in markets where the talent isn't obviously labeled, and can show what you sourced and closed.
Recruiting range across multiple functions: you've owned senior, end-to-end searches in more than one domain, ideally including both technical or professional roles (tech, product, G&A, fundraising) and programs or field leadership. This breadth is the core of the role.
Recent experience recruiting in sub-Saharan Africa, with a real feel for the markets and where strong candidates actually are.
A track record owning searches end to end and partnering strategically with hiring managers, including holding a line on process or profile when a search is stuck.
Strong process hygiene and a data-driven approach: you keep your pipelines clean and current, track conversion and time-in-stage, and use what the funnel tells you to make calls and move searches, rather than going on instinct.
Comfort operating in ambiguity: a vague brief, a thin market, no existing pipeline, and a hiring manager who wants someone yesterday.
Strong candidate-closing instincts: you can sell a mission-driven org and carry a candidate through to signature.
Strongly Preferred
Based on the African continent.
Professional French and/or Portuguese language skills.
Fluency with Greenhouse, LinkedIn Recruiter, and AI-assisted sourcing tools.
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. Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.
This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in Kenya, the US, or the UK, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.
Kenya
Base Salary: $83,820
Bonus at Target Performance: 10% (~$8,382, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $9,807 in 2025)
Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $92,202+
Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453
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