Senior Software Engineer (Fundraising) — Remote

About GiveDirectly

What if the most effective way to fight poverty was also the simplest: give people money and trust them to decide what they need?

Since 2011, GiveDirectly has proven that idea at scale. We’ve delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty and crisis across 15 countries, and rigorous research shows the results: healthier kids, stronger businesses, sturdier homes, and more resilient families and local economies. Cash is now widely recognized as one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid.

Our ambition goes beyond our own programs. We want cash to become the benchmark for aid, much as the index fund became the benchmark for investing, so that every aid dollar is held to one question: is this doing more good than giving the money directly to people living in poverty?

We’re growing fast, and this is a rare and important moment to join.

We expect to hit $1B in revenue in 2026 with significant growth forecast for 2027. At the same time we are building a new technology stack and operating model designed for a roughly 10x change in scale, and we are actively pursuing partnerships with major funders to move even more money in bigger ways, to people who need it. We are known for our extensive integration of technology into field processes; our quantitative approach to performance measurement; and our commitment to rigorous, independent, experimental evaluation of our impact, with multiple Randomized Control Trials completed and others in progress.

How we work

Our team spans 20+ countries and 69 languages. Our culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We expect high ownership and give people real responsibility early. Our values are central to how we hire, work, and grow, and they are deliberately opinionated:

• Recipients first. Recipients’ preferences come before those of donors or ourselves.

• Team next. We optimize for organizational success, not individual success.

• Be proactively candid. We say what we believe and share information openly.

• Create positive energy. We aim to be a source of energy for colleagues, not a drain.

• Think rigorously; act quickly. We reason from first principles, then act rather than debate.

• Know yourself and grow. We own our imperfections and seek feedback to grow.

• Accept reality. Propose solutions. We focus on what can change and bring solutions, not just problems.

• Be productively ambitious. We take risks for step-change impact, not incremental progress.

If they describe how you like to work and they energize you, this could be a great fit.

Want to learn more? Read and listen:

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 now preparing to deliver billions of dollars a year to people in extreme poverty, if funding allows. Read our CEO's essay on what that will take.

About this role:

Are you an experienced engineer at the stage of your career where, above all, you want to do good?

This role is about using engineering to support fundraising: delighting our donors; helping our fundraisers; getting donations recorded and safely started on their journey to our recipients; telling donors and the public about what happens to their gifts. A bit of website development. A lot of plumbing.

The good news about this position:

• You will make a difference to people in extreme poverty

• You will work independently, with few constraints

• You will work directly with lovely people from across our fundraising teams

The trade-offs:

• There is only one other fundraising engineer and mostly you will be working on your own

• Our technology is a mixture of boring (Laravel, PHP, plain JS, HTML and CSS) and legacy (Salesforce, Wordpress, wrangling CSV files sent by our partners)

• We're growing, but this is a role for someone who values depth and impact over a fast title ladder.

The maybe good maybe bad news about the role depending on who you are:

• We are all in on AI where it allows us to get more $ to people in extreme poverty

If you want a role where you will be part of a bigger engineering team, working in Python or working on more complex tasks, then please take a look at our other engineering roles.

This role is right for you if:

• You care about our mission

• You agree with our values

• You have the right to work in one of the countries we're able to hire from (you can check the current list here).

• You're happy working remotely, and taking meetings across East Africa Time and US Eastern Time.

• You are happy to travel to meet your colleagues in the US, Europe and Africa a few weeks a year

• You are fluent in English

• You have 4+ years of engineering experience

• You're happy working autonomously: defining what needs doing, doing it, getting it tested and launched, fixing the bugs, and hustling to make progress every day.

• You're comfortable being on-call on peak donation days (Giving Tuesday and the last weeks of the year), including owning an incident: working out what matters, communicating with fundraisers, and debugging on legacy and others' code, sometimes when no other engineers are available.

• You are happy with our boring and legacy technologies (Laravel, PHP, plain JS, HTML, CSS, Salesforce, Wordpress, SQL, wrangling csv files etc). You don’t have to be experienced in all of them, but you do have to be genuinely happy to use them (many engineers are not…).

• You are happy and skilled at working directly with non-engineers on messy, poorly defined, rapidly changing, sometimes boring tasks

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.

United States

• Base Salary: $181,130

• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$27,170, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization's current performance multiplier, this amount would be ~$31,789 in 2025)

• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $208,300+

• Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393

United Kingdom

• Base Salary: £124,370

• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~£18,656, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization's current performance multiplier, this amount would be ~£21,827 in 2025)

• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: £143,026+

• Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760

Kenya

• Base Salary: $112,350

• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$16,853, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization's current performance multiplier, this amount would be ~$19,717 in 2025)

• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $129,203+

• Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453

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

About this specific hiring process

• Take-home coding assignment

• Live Coding (60 mins)

• Systems Design (60 mins)

• Project Deep Dive + Behavioral (60 mins)

*It’s possible that there will be adjustments to this interview process. Any changes will be communicated to you during the process.

#LI-REMOTE

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 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.

Flagging for US applicants: We invite you to "Know Your Rights" as an applicant.

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty, GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients, staff, and partners seriously. To that end, GiveDirectly is a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, and will systematically check with previous employers about any abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with, and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance when it comes to preventing, reporting, or responding to any form of abuse or exploitation.” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of the role, please email us at [email protected] with the email subject “Accommodation Needed”. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!

Referrals

Know the right person for this role? Please consider referring them. We offer a reward of $3,000 for a Senior Manager or above role, and $500 for a Manager role, paid if we end up hiring your referral. Thank you for sending great people our way!