Talent Acquisition Roles

About this role

We're scaling significantly and building the People function to carry it, including evolving the recruitment function that drives that growth. We're a small team, primarily based in Nairobi, and we're hiring several experienced recruiters at once. We need strong individual contributors who can own our most senior and niche searches across programs, tech, product, G&A, and fundraising, and we're also looking for at least one senior leader with experience managing a recruiting team. We're running these searches together out of one pipeline, and we'll use the interview process to understand your experience, what you're looking for, and where you'd do your best work.

The core of the work, at any level, 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. On the IC side, this is a generalist desk for someone who has recruited senior talent on the continent. Our most acute needs right now are programs leadership and tech, so that's where you'll start, but you'll pick up our hardest searches wherever they sit.

How These Roles Work

Level sets the scope of searches you own and your pay. Track sets whether you lead a team.

• Level: Manager level (Recruiter II or Recruitment Manager) or Senior Manager level (Senior Recruiter or Senior Recruitment Manager).
• Track: Individual contributor (IC) or people manager.
• Pay depends on level and location, not track.
• Placement: we place you based on the qualifications and experience you show us in the process. We'll tell you which level and track we're considering before your final interview. Tell us which you prefer early, and why. We want to hear it.

What you'll do

Everyone, at any level and track

• Own searches end to end. Run searches from launch through offer at a 6 to 8 week pace where the market allows, and serve as the recruitment focal point for your roles: the person hiring managers come to, and the person who knows where this talent is.
• 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.
• Drive the process. Run recruiter-led searches: you drive, hiring managers don't. Lead launch calls and syncs, hold the timeline, and challenge assumptions when a search stalls. Keep Greenhouse current, review your funnels to catch where candidates are stalling, and push hiring managers on decisions rather than letting roles drift.
• Own the candidate experience. Keep people warm and moving, sell GiveDirectly, run comp and logistics, and close the offer.
• Build the pipeline for the long term. Build GiveDirectly's presence with strong institutions and networks across the continent, and feed what you see in the market back to the Director, Global TA.
• Use languages where you have them. If you bring French and/or Portuguese, put it to work on searches the rest of the team can't reach today.

What changes by level

• Manager level: you own searches up to Manager and Senior Manager, and you grow into more complex and senior searches over time.
• Senior Manager level: you own Senior Manager and above searches, up to VP, across functions. You hold lines with senior hiring managers, set the standard for how searches are run, and take on the toughest ones. You feed what you're seeing in the market back to the Director, TA to sharpen overall TA strategy.

What changes by track

• IC track: you peer-coach more junior recruiters on sourcing and search craft, and turn what you learn into shared practice. You do not have direct reports.
• Manager track: you manage recruiters. That means setting priorities, coaching and giving feedback, managing performance, owning capacity and quality across your team's searches, and raising the process bar. You also still source and close as needed given the shape and the size of the current team, though this may evolve over time. 

Who we're looking for

Required for every path

• Deep proactive-sourcing experience: 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.
• 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 rather than going on instinct.
• Recent experience recruiting in sub-Saharan Africa, with a real feel for the markets and where strong candidates actually are.
• 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.
• Experience recruiting for tech-forward INGOs, or in a mission-driven scale-up or startup. Traditional NGO experience alone isn't enough; we want people  who have hired in a fast-moving, tech-literate environments.

By Level 

• Level D: At least 4 years of relevant recruiting experience, with depth in at least one domain (for example programs or field leadership, or technical or professional roles) and a clear record of owning mid-to-senior-level or niche searches.
• Level E: At least 6 years of relevant experience, with range across more than one function. Ideally you've owned senior, end-to-end searches in both technical or professional roles (tech, product, G&A, fundraising) and programs or field leadership. This breadth is the core of the Senior Manager level.

Additional for the manager track

• You have managed recruiters. For Recruitment Manager, you have led recruiters and carried your own searches while doing it. For Senior Recruitment Manager, you have managed managers or led a recruiting function.
• You have coached someone up and managed someone out, and can talk about both.
• You can balance your own searches with the needs of your team, and you know what you let go of.

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. Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income. If you are in a location other than those listed below, our recruiters will share compensation information during your initial screen. 

Level D - Recruiter II or Recruitment Manager

Kenya
Base Salary: $65,000
Bonus at Target Performance: 10%
Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453

United States
Base Salary: $99,440
Bonus at Target Performance: 10%
Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393

United Kingdom
Base Salary: £66,150

Bonus at Target Performance: 10%
Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760

Level E - Senior Recruiter or Senior Recruitment Manager

Kenya
Base Salary: $83,820
Bonus at Target Performance: 10%
Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453

United States
Base Salary: $114,660
Bonus at Target Performance: 10%
Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393

United Kingdom
Base Salary: £77,600
Bonus at Target Performance: 10%
Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760