GiveDirectly
- Senior Software Engineer, Fundraising
Senior Software Engineer, Fundraising
Engineering · London, United Kingdom
Job description
About GiveDirectly
GiveDirectly (GD) provides cash grants directly to people living in extreme poverty. Since launching in 2011, GD has raised over $1B, delivered cash to more than 1.5 million recipients, launched operations in 15 countries, and continues to expand its reach across the Global South. GD has also grown the research base supporting unconditional cash with 20 randomized control trials from its programs, generating rigorous evidence across countries and contexts. 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) has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.
Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and agile. We work alongside 750+ individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. Team members at GiveDirectly attest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but a fundamental part of our culture and values. We actively seek to recruit individuals from the communities we serve, and use DEI as a lens in our hiring practices, programs, and initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a workplace where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel valued and respected for who they are. We strive to be inclusive of all cultures and experiences while upholding our values globally. In the spirit of our "Know Yourself and Grow" value, we recognize there is always room to improve our team's working experience. But day to day, we aim to "Create Positive Energy" - we take care of one another, have fun, aim to maximize flexibility and accessibility in roles, and pursue professional development opportunities to stay challenged & engaged in our work.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by law.
Location: This role is fully remote but must be available to meet with East Africa time zone with at least 1-2 hours overlap. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.
About this role
Technology is a huge lever for driving donor conversion and retention at scale – ultimately getting more dollars in the hands of people experiencing extreme poverty. In 2023, our donation checkout processed over $18M in online donations — this year we expect to raise $1M+ more from checkout optimizations alone, and there’s still much more to do. We’re building the foundations of our Impact Dashboard to show donors the impact of their gifts, and our initial experiments show that showing donors unique recipient stories and transparency about where their money is going, makes the outcomes feel more tangible and drive retention.
We’re looking for someone product minded with high ownership – you’ll own everything from driving product architecture decisions to building test and deployment infrastructure.
We have a React front end and Laravel PHP back end for taking donations and other core products. We use Wordpress for the site’s static content, such as blogs, informational pages, etc. We also integrate with Salesforce, our donor CRM, to record information about donations.
Level: Senior Software Engineer
Travel Requirement: Ideally can travel ~1-2 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits.
What you’ll do:
- Architect, build, and test software systems for fundraising, including the core checkout flow for online donations and Impact Dashboard where donors can see the impact of their personal donations
- Improve and maintain CI/CD pipelines to streamline the software development lifecycle
- Collaborate with the product team to design and build a compelling and smooth donor experience
- Partner with product to balance feature development with addressing tech debt, infrastructure investments, and other efforts to improve velocity and drive compounding progress
- Partner with data to enable metrics collection and measurement, and provide information for website performance analysis
- Debug issues across multiple layers of our stack
- Own large projects end-to-end, including scoping, estimating costs, and design and architecture decisions
- Advocate for engineering-driven investments with a vision for keeping our systems flexible and maintainable to meet the evolving needs of our donors and team
What you’ll bring:
- Exceptional 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.
- Language Requirement: English
- 4+ years of industry experience creating production-caliber software and systems
- Full stack experience
- Strong proficiency in software development and coding in various languages such as Python, Go, Javascript, C#, Java, PHP, etc.
- Experience building infrastructure to deploy software
- High degree of ownership and autonomy - you proactively advocate for ways to improve systems and constantly leave our codebase in a better state than you found it
- Strong analytical skills and communication - able to break down complex problems, describe technical trade-offs, and collaborate with cross-functional partners (e.g. technical program managers, product managers)
- Strong knowledge of security best practices for web applications
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 United States annual base salary for this role is $157, 500
- The Kenya annual base salary for this role is $92 500 USD
- The UK annual base salary for this role is GBP 108 150
This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in the US, UK or Kenya, 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)
- Unlimited PTO (that we encourage staff to take!)
- Desk allowance and flexible work location
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.
GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values the strength diversity brings to the workplace. 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.
US applicants only: We invite you to "Know Your Rights" as an applicant.
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 careers@givedirectly.org. Please include the word "Accessibility" in the email title.
**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.**
Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!
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