GiveWell is accepting applications for two major remote grantmaking positions: Program Officer and Senior Program Officer. Both opportunities are open to candidates in the United States and international locations, offering professionals the chance to influence how hundreds of millions of dollars are allocated to high-impact global health and poverty-reduction programs.

These GiveWell remote jobs are particularly important because the successful candidates will not simply administer existing grants. They will investigate possible funding opportunities, examine evidence, build cost-effectiveness models, manage relationships with organizations receiving funding, and help determine which programs can save or improve the greatest number of lives.

GiveWell directed more than $400 million in 2025 and expects to direct over $500 million in 2026. The organization is expanding its research and grantmaking capacity so that it can identify and finance more highly cost-effective opportunities in global health and development. Both the Program Officer and Senior Program Officer will contribute directly to this expansion.

Overview of the Two GiveWell Remote Jobs

The two available positions are:

Program Officer
Senior Program Officer

Both positions are part of GiveWell’s research and grantmaking department. They involve evidence-based decision-making, grant investigation, cost-effectiveness analysis, stakeholder engagement, portfolio management, and transparent communication about funding decisions.

However, the scope and seniority of the two jobs are different.

The Program Officer position focuses on investigating individual grant opportunities, recommending how grants should be structured, monitoring funded programs, and helping manage a portfolio of grants.

The Senior Program Officer position carries greater strategic responsibility. Senior Program Officers lead major grantmaking portfolios, establish portfolio direction, make complex funding decisions, advise team members, communicate externally, and determine where GiveWell should expand or create new funding opportunities.

About GiveWell

GiveWell is a research and grantmaking organization dedicated to finding highly cost-effective ways to save and improve lives. Its work primarily focuses on global health, human well-being, and poverty alleviation.

The organization researches programs, evaluates evidence, estimates cost-effectiveness, publishes its reasoning, and directs donor funding toward programs it considers especially impactful.

GiveWell has grown substantially over the years:

It directed approximately $1.5 million in 2010.
It directed more than $400 million in 2025.
It expects to direct more than $500 million in 2026.
Since 2007, more than 150,000 donors have given over $2.6 billion through GiveWell.
GiveWell estimates that the programs identified through its research will save more than 340,000 lives.

Although GiveWell is widely known for recommending charities working on malaria prevention, vaccination incentives, insecticide-treated nets, and vitamin A supplementation, much of its grantmaking also supports opportunities beyond its best-known programs.

GiveWell-supported initiatives have included:

Malaria prevention and treatment programs
Vitamin A supplementation
Vaccine demand generation
HIV and syphilis screening and treatment
Malnutrition treatment
Tuberculosis prevention
Clubfoot treatment
Water chlorination research
Disease-burden estimation
Livelihood and income-improvement programs
Monitoring and evaluation of health interventions
Development of promising programs that do not yet have established implementers

GiveWell emphasizes transparency and publishes its research, assumptions, uncertainties, mistakes, and reasons for making funding decisions. Team members are expected to revise their conclusions when stronger evidence becomes available.

GiveWell Program Officer Position

The GiveWell Program Officer will join a small grantmaking team and take ownership of grant investigations from the initial assessment stage through the final funding recommendation.

The Program Officer will help GiveWell identify the strongest opportunities among the many organizations and programs seeking funding. Where a promising intervention does not yet have a capable implementing organization, the officer may help explore how such an organization or program could be developed.

The decisions made by Program Officers contribute to the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars across multiple grantees and global programs.

Main Responsibilities of the Program Officer

1. Investigating and Recommending Grants

Program Officers will investigate funding proposals and other grant opportunities on an ongoing basis. Each investigation may involve:

Reviewing the proposed program and its objectives
Communicating directly with the potential grantee
Examining the organization’s plans and operating model
Determining whether the organization is likely to achieve its goals
Estimating the possible cost-effectiveness of the grant
Forecasting the likelihood that the program will succeed
Identifying important risks and uncertainties
Recommending whether GiveWell should provide funding
Advising how the grant should be structured

A funding recommendation may include conditions, milestones, performance requirements, reporting expectations, or decision gates that must be satisfied before additional funding is released.

Program Officers may also consult academics, government representatives, technical specialists, other funders, and subject-matter experts when evaluating an opportunity.

2. Managing a Grant Portfolio

After a grant has been approved, the Program Officer will continue monitoring its implementation.

Portfolio management includes determining:

Whether the grant is progressing according to plan
Whether activities are reaching the intended population
Whether implementation quality is acceptable
Whether reported results accurately represent actual program delivery
Whether the program follows evidence-based practices
Whether new risks or operational problems have appeared
Whether the grant needs to be modified
Whether GiveWell should continue, increase, reduce, or discontinue funding

The officer may examine monitoring data, participate in site visits, consult field staff, review organizational reports, and communicate with program leaders.

3. Analyzing Global Health and Development Interventions

Program Officers will analyze interventions at different levels of depth to determine whether GiveWell should prioritize them.

Examples include:

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention
Vitamin A supplementation
Vaccine demand generation
Malnutrition treatment
Water-related health interventions
Other emerging global health and poverty-alleviation programs

The analysis may involve reviewing empirical research, examining impact evaluations, consulting experts, comparing implementation contexts, and determining whether additional investigation is justified.

4. Building Cost-Effectiveness Models

Cost-effectiveness modeling is a central part of the Program Officer position.

The officer may estimate the costs and expected benefits of an intervention while considering:

The strength of the available evidence
The estimated size of the intervention’s impact
Differences between the research setting and the implementation setting
Possible negative or offsetting effects
Uncertainty in the available data
The organization’s ability to deliver the intervention
The influence of local and national governments
The behavior of other donors and funding institutions
Whether GiveWell’s funding could replace funding from another source
Whether the intervention can be expanded effectively

These models help GiveWell compare different funding opportunities and identify those expected to produce the greatest benefit for the available resources.

5. Building External Relationships

Program Officers will maintain professional relationships with:

Current grantees
Potential grantees
Non-governmental organizations
Researchers and academics
Government officials
Program implementation teams
Other philanthropic funders
Global health specialists
Monitoring and evaluation professionals

Strong relationships help GiveWell obtain accurate information, identify new opportunities, understand implementation conditions, and resolve problems during the life of a grant.

6. Publishing Research and Grantmaking Findings

Because transparency is one of GiveWell’s central values, Program Officers will help prepare reports and blog posts explaining:

What GiveWell investigated
What evidence was reviewed
How cost-effectiveness was estimated
What uncertainties remained
Why a grant was recommended or rejected
How GiveWell expects the grant to create an impact

Published materials should communicate complicated evidence and reasoning directly and clearly.

Career Development for Program Officers

Program Officers may progress into Senior Program Officer positions after developing deeper expertise, expanding their professional networks, demonstrating sound judgment, and successfully managing important grant portfolios.

Senior Program Officers may continue growing as individual contributors with increasingly large portfolios, take on management responsibilities, or move into a research-focused career path.

A research-focused role would place greater emphasis on establishing research priorities and addressing open-ended analytical questions, while the Program Officer career path remains centered on grant and portfolio decisions.

GiveWell Senior Program Officer Position

Senior Program Officers are senior leaders within GiveWell’s grantmaking work. They assume primary responsibility for significant portfolios and establish the strategic direction of those portfolios.

The Senior Program Officer must decide which funding opportunities deserve the greatest attention, how GiveWell should balance immediate and long-term priorities, and when the organization should help create a new program rather than finance an existing one.

These decisions may influence the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars among dozens of grantees. Senior Program Officers also mentor colleagues, advise team members, represent GiveWell externally, and combine research findings with strategic judgment.

Main Responsibilities of the Senior Program Officer

1. Leading a Major Grantmaking Portfolio

The Senior Program Officer will develop and lead a grantmaking portfolio focused on a specific global health, development, or poverty-alleviation area.

Portfolio leadership includes:

Establishing the overall grantmaking strategy
Identifying high-impact funding opportunities
Deciding which programs and organizations deserve priority
Determining how resources should be distributed
Evaluating the performance of existing grants
Exploring ways to improve portfolio cost-effectiveness
Identifying areas where GiveWell should expand
Deciding when an existing program should be scaled
Determining when a new program or implementer should be created
Balancing near-term impact with longer-term research and program development

2. Addressing Difficult Funding Questions

Senior Program Officers will work on complex questions for which there may not be a simple or immediately verifiable answer.

Examples include:

How should GiveWell balance smaller experimental opportunities against established programs that can use substantial funding immediately?
When should GiveWell help design or establish a new intervention?
Which programs and grantees should receive priority within a portfolio?
Where can a portfolio expand without weakening its cost-effectiveness?
How should empirical findings be compared with expert judgment?
How much uncertainty should GiveWell accept before approving a grant?
Which unanswered questions must be investigated before a funding decision is made?
What research could improve GiveWell’s grantmaking decisions several years in the future?
Do reported program outputs represent genuine coverage and high-quality implementation?

3. Combining Research With Strategic Judgment

Senior Program Officers must combine multiple forms of evidence rather than relying on a single research result.

Their decisions may draw on:

Empirical research
Randomized controlled trials
Impact evaluations
Cost-effectiveness models
Expert consultations
Organizational performance records
Implementation data
Site visits
Government policies
Local operating conditions
Grantee relationships
Broader economic and social conditions
Professional judgment under uncertainty

Senior Program Officers work closely with Senior Researchers. Senior Researchers generally establish research agendas and address the most difficult analytical questions, while Senior Program Officers use that research to decide what GiveWell should fund, why it should be funded, and how the grant should be structured.

4. Creating Opportunities That Do Not Yet Exist

In some cases, the strongest potential intervention may not have an established organization capable of delivering it.

The Senior Program Officer may respond by:

Co-designing a program
Identifying and supporting a possible implementer
Seeding a new organization or initiative
Developing a new funding mechanism
Helping an existing organization expand into a new area
Structuring incentives that encourage other organizations to participate
Financing preliminary research or program development
Testing a small-scale model before recommending expansion

5. Mentoring and External Communication

The Senior Program Officer will advise and mentor other members of GiveWell’s research and grantmaking team.

The position may also involve communicating with:

Major donors
Grantees
Government representatives
Research organizations
Non-governmental organizations
Multilateral institutions
Other philanthropic funders
Subject-matter experts
Members of the public

The officer must be able to explain GiveWell’s conclusions, confidence levels, uncertainties, and strategic choices clearly.

GiveWell Research Department Structure

The GiveWell research department is organized into eight teams:

Water
Livelihoods
Nutrition
Malaria
Vaccines
New Areas
Cross-Cutting
Commons

Five teams focus on specific grantmaking areas: Water, Livelihoods, Nutrition, Malaria, and Vaccines.

The New Areas team investigates interventions in fields that are relatively new to GiveWell.

The Cross-Cutting team addresses research methods, research quality, and major questions affecting several grantmaking areas.

The Commons team provides general research assistance, including landscape reviews, opportunity vetting, and publication support.

Some candidates may receive offers for a specific team. Others may complete rotations across several teams before receiving a permanent placement.

Salary for the GiveWell Program Officer

The Program Officer salary is based on the employee’s location:

New York City or San Francisco Bay Area: $220,000 per year
Other United States locations: $200,000 per year
International locations: Compensation similar to the rate for other United States locations, calculated using historical exchange rates and paid in local currency

Salary for the GiveWell Senior Program Officer

The Senior Program Officer salary is also location-based:

New York City or San Francisco Bay Area: $308,000 per year
Other United States locations: $280,000 per year
International locations: Compensation similar to the rate for other United States locations, adjusted using historical exchange rates and paid in local currency

The exact international compensation package may depend on the candidate’s location and local employment arrangements.

Employee Benefits

GiveWell provides a substantial employee benefits package. Benefits may vary according to location and local employment requirements.

Listed benefits include:

Fully funded health insurance for United States employees and dependents
Fully funded dental insurance
Fully funded vision insurance
Life insurance
Four weeks of paid time off each year
Sixteen weeks of fully paid parental leave
Ergonomic home-office equipment
Support for coworking-space membership
Flexible working hours
Remote-work arrangements
A GiveWell contribution equal to 5% of gross salary to the 403(b) retirement plan for eligible United States employees
Relocation assistance for candidates moving to an official office location
Comparable locally appropriate benefits for international employees

The broader GiveWell benefits package may also include professional-development support, wellness assistance, paid holidays, paid sick leave, and resources designed to support remote employees.

Remote Work and Office Locations

Both positions are eligible for fully remote work in the United States and selected international locations.

GiveWell also maintains offices in:

Oakland, California
Brooklyn, New York City
London, United Kingdom

Employees are welcome to use these offices but are not required to relocate to them. GiveWell may cover relocation expenses for successful candidates who choose to move to one of its office locations.

International employment is considered on a case-by-case basis. International employees must be able to maintain sufficient working-hour overlap with colleagues working in American time zones. More senior positions may require greater overlap with United States working hours.

Visa Sponsorship and Relocation

Candidates who want to work in the United States and require an employment visa may request sponsorship.

GiveWell states that it will make its best effort to sponsor eligible candidates, although the final decision on any visa remains with the relevant government authorities.

Visa and relocation support may include:

Assistance with an eligible employment visa
Legal support during the sponsorship process
Relocation support
Coverage of up to 100% of relocation expenses in some cases

Candidates applying from outside the United States should clearly indicate their preferred working location and whether they currently have authorization to work in that location.

Travel Requirements

Members of GiveWell’s research team may occasionally travel for:

International site visits
Conferences
Department retreats
Organization-wide working weeks
Meetings with grantees
Program monitoring
In-person team collaboration

Research staff generally complete approximately one or two international site visits or conferences each year, although employees interested in additional travel may have more opportunities.

GiveWell also encourages attendance at annual department retreats and twice-yearly organization-wide visit weeks. Travel arrangements and personal obligations can be discussed during the later stages of recruitment.

Start Date

GiveWell would like selected candidates to start as soon as reasonably possible after accepting an offer.

However, the organization may allow a moderate delay when a candidate’s personal or professional circumstances prevent an immediate start.

Applicants should state the earliest date on which they could begin working when completing the application form.

Application Deadline

There is currently no fixed application deadline for either the Program Officer or Senior Program Officer position.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. This means GiveWell may assess candidates as applications arrive and could fill the positions without announcing a distant closing date.

Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as early as possible. If GiveWell introduces a deadline later, it will update the official job advertisement.

Application Process

Candidates will complete an online application form and upload a résumé or curriculum vitae.

A cover letter is not required. GiveWell primarily evaluates applicants through their résumé, answers to the application questions, practical exercises, work trials, and interviews.

The application requests information such as:

Name and contact details
Current city and country
Résumé or curriculum vitae
Education history
Interest in working for GiveWell
Other positions being considered
Practical experience using empirical tools
The area of GiveWell’s work that is most interesting to the applicant
LinkedIn profile, where available
Personal or professional website, where available
Preferred working location
Current work authorization
Possible need for United States visa sponsorship
Earliest available start date
How the applicant learned about the vacancy

Candidates are also asked to identify one of the grantmaking questions listed in the advertisement that interests them most and explain their choice in no more than three sentences.

Program Officer Recruitment Process

After the initial application review, the Program Officer process may include:

A short application exercise
Two compensated work trials
Several short interviews
Possible professional reference checks
A final employment decision

Senior Program Officer Recruitment Process

The Senior Program Officer process may include:

Initial application review
A short application exercise
Up to 15 hours of compensated work trials
Interviews with relevant GiveWell team members
Possible reference checks
A final employment decision

Candidates interested in both roles should submit one application and indicate that they would like to be considered for the other position.

Applicants who have applied for closely related GiveWell Researcher or Senior Researcher roles within the previous year may be advised not to submit another application unless GiveWell contacts them directly.

Equal Employment and Accessibility

GiveWell describes itself as an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and states that it aims to maintain a workplace free from harassment and discrimination.

The organization evaluates the full background and potential of every applicant. It also encourages people to apply even when they meet many, but not every one, of the preferred criteria.

Applicants who need assistance or reasonable accommodation because of a disability may contact GiveWell at careers@givewell.org.

The demographic, veteran-status, and disability questions appearing in the application are voluntary and are intended for reporting and equal-employment monitoring. Responses are maintained separately and are not intended to influence hiring decisions.

GiveWell also states that it will consider qualified candidates with arrest or conviction records.

Apply for the GiveWell Program Officer position

Apply for the GiveWell Senior Program Officer position

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