Product Lead

Summary

Join GiveDirectly's Product team as a Director and lead cross-functional teams to develop, optimize, and scale products serving both recipients and donors. You will set product vision, define success metrics, and build products using technology and in-person operations. Leverage data, evidence, and market research to drive product development and fundraising efforts. This role requires strong leadership, communication, and analytical skills, along with experience in product development, program delivery, or research. The position is fully remote with a requirement for East Africa timezone overlap and up to one two-week trip per quarter to program sites. GiveDirectly offers competitive salaries, health benefits, flexible paid time off, and allowances for desk setup and learning and development.

Requirements

• Exceptional alignment to GD values , passion for our mission, and commitment to recipient dignity and empowerment
• 8+ years of professional work experience in similar role or function (product, programs, business development, partnerships)
• Proven leadership ability and management experience in building high performing teams
• Experience working with a distributed team in a multicultural environment
• Interest in working as part of a growing company, with awareness about the opportunities and challenges that come with a highly adaptive environment
• Strong, succinct communications: Skilled in speaking, writing, presenting, and negotiating across multiple stakeholders
• Analytical problem solver: Looks at problems w/ analytical and iterative mindset, with strong framework for prioritization
• Be entrepreneurial generalists, with capabilities / experience across at least 2 of 3 following areas: software & technology, development research & evidence, and program delivery
• Demonstrate strong go-to-market instincts , with track record for mobilizing resources around big ideas and opportunities
• Be data driven with excellent altitude awareness , and should be able to flex between big picture vision and “in the weeds,” data-driven problem solving
• Show discernment and conviction in ambiguity , making the hard decisions to say no to things and drive focus
• Have track record of driving big results without direct formal authority (strong influence and high follow through)

Responsibilities

• Set vision and define success for their products
• Product leads must set multi-year vision and annual/quarterly goals for their products, as well as defining interim milestones to track progress
• They should have a clear sense of their products’ value proposition and competitive advantage (what makes this product better than the next best alternative?), while leveraging GiveDirectly evidence and external research to do so
• Set minimum standards for their products, in close consultation with the Programs teams, and closely monitor implementation to identify gaps and areas of concern
• Define the target outcomes of the product, taking into account donor and market priority outcomes as well as recipient’s own desired outcomes
• Define the major programmatic features based on evidence and operational learnings to drive to these outcomes (e.g., transfer size, timing, tranches, touchpoints)
• Define the technology we will use to deliver the program (existing in-house, new in-house, vendor, partner platform etc)
• Select and work with any needed partners, designing their components to be complimentary to our own
• Build needed components of your design that may not exist yet - for example, a new satellite targeting capability, a new SMS system,, scripts for new touchpoints - leading with the needed external or internal stakeholders (e.g., internal engineering teams, vendors, academic partners)
• Partner with programs teams to troubleshoot implementation, leveraging ops and program data to identify pain points and drill down into solutions
• Product leads will conduct or oversee robust market assessments for their products, and be propositional on how GiveDirectly positions those products
• They will also support fundraising efforts, primarily by supporting existing relationship owners but occasionally owning their own relationships with key funders (e.g. anchor funders)
• Product leads are responsible for assembling (with the VP of Product) and motivating cross-functional teams toward a common goal
• Drive for alignment with their product teams, establishing key operational principles and ways of working early (given they will not manage direct reports)
• ���Clean escalate” as needed to VP of Product if and when there is misalignment between key product stakeholders

Benefits

• 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)
• Flexible paid time off
• Allowances for desk set-up and learning and development