Senior Manager, Business Operations

About the role

GiveDirectly is seeking a highly analytical, structured, and execution-oriented Senior Manager, Business Operations to drive cross-functional initiatives and make core operational functions run more effectively across GiveDirectly.

This role supports core operational functions including Finance, HR, Compliance, Legal/Risk, Internal Audit, Corporate Audit, Procurement, Safety/Security, Safeguarding, and IT. As GiveDirectly scales, improving how these functions prioritize, coordinate, and execute will be critical to sustaining impact and managing risk.

You will own a portfolio of high-priority operational workstreams and initiatives, often in ambiguous and high-stakes contexts, leading both analysis and execution to improve efficiency, strengthen systems, and support faster, clearer decisions. This role is designed to increase organizational leverage — ensuring leadership priorities translate into clear execution, and that teams operate with greater clarity, speed, and consistency.

This role reports to the Chief Operating Officer and is an individual contributor (IC) role with significant ownership and autonomy — designed for a high-performing individual ready to take on a broad set of challenges early in their career, with opportunity to expand scope and leadership over time.

Location: Flexible (proximity to a GD office preferred: New York, Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, London). We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

Travel: ~2–3 trips annually

What we’re looking for

• A structured problem-solver with 5–7 years experience in consulting, strategy or operations in business or social impact contexts; you turn ambiguity into clear, actionable plans.
• Highly analytical — you use data to diagnose issues, generate insights, and drive decisions (not just report on them).
• A builder and operator — you’ve led complex, cross-functional work end-to-end and delivered measurable improvements in performance or efficiency.
• Systems-minded — you spot inefficiencies quickly and design processes, tools, or workflows that make teams run better at scale.
• A clear, direct communicator — you cut through complexity