Data Engineer

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly (GD) provides cash grants directly to people living in extreme poverty. Since launching in 2011, GD has raised over $1B, delivered cash to more than 1.5 million recipients, launched operations in 15 countries, and continues to expand its reach across the Global South. GD has also grown the research base supporting unconditional cash with 20 randomized control trials from its programs, generating rigorous evidence across countries and contexts. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD's leading role within it) has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and agile. We work alongside 750+ individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. Team members at GiveDirectly attest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but a fundamental part of our culture and values. We actively seek to recruit individuals from the communities we serve, and use DEI as a lens in our hiring practices, programs, and initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a workplace where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel valued and respected for who they are. We strive to be inclusive of all cultures and experiences while upholding our values globally. In the spirit of our "Know Yourself and Grow" value, we recognize there is always room to improve our team's working experience. But day to day, we aim to "Create Positive Energy" - we take care of one another, have fun, aim to maximize flexibility and accessibility in roles, and pursue professional development opportunities to stay challenged & engaged in our work.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

Location:
This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 4 hours. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

About this role

The mission of the Central Data team is to empower GiveDirectly with a rigorous, data-driven culture to maximize our efficiency, effectiveness, and scale of delivering dollars to recipients. Access to accurate, timely, actionable financial data is key to this mission but currently a pain point for the organization. As the seventh member of Central Data, you will collaborate with the Finance team to build, maintain, and improve data pipelines, tools, and dashboards to address this need. Additionally, you will work closely with the Senior Data Architect to maintain and enhance our current infrastructure (AWS, Databricks, Tableau) to ensure data accessibility for data scientists and analysts.

Reports to:
Graham Tyler (Director of Data)Level:
Manager

Travel Requirement:
Must be able to travel ~1-2 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits

What you'll do:


Success in this role is determined by meeting these key objectives:

• [30%] Build data pipelines and tools that reduce the time and risk associated with monthly financial reporting and other finance processes.
  • Reconciling data across accounts and systems is currently a time consuming, mostly manual process. You will combine data from multiple sources in Databricks and automate reconciliation tasks.

• [20%] Build datasets and dashboards that make financial data more transparent, actionable, and accurate.
  • Only top level financial metrics are currently available in dashboards. You will make detailed financial data easily accessible for decisions and analysis, as well as automate data quality tests to validate key financial metrics.

• [20%] Increase data available for analysis and ML models by ingesting new data sources.
  • Our data lakehouse does not currently include data from all internal data sources, such as our HR system. You will build pipelines to make this data available and useful.

• [30%] Increase speed of development, reduce infrastructure failures and cost.
  • On-call rotation duties:
    monitor pipeline jobs, review and test new pipeline PRs, track usage and cost.
  • Add new data quality checks and alerting.
  • Proactively identify and implement improvements to data infrastructure, as well as the tools used by data scientists and analysts to develop, deploy, and share their work.
  • Leave our systems and processes better than you found them.

• Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies:
  emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.
• Language Requirement:
  English
• Language Preferences:
  No additional language preferences
• Critical thinking and analytical approach necessary to develop technical solutions that scale and are resilient to changes over time
• Entrepreneurial mindset and stakeholder management skills required to identify, design, and execute technical solutions that solve important, ambiguous organizational problems
• Python, SQL, and spark expertise, along with core competencies required to ship high quality data pipelines and data tools fast
• Extensive experience with Databricks preferred; experience with Tableau is a plus
• Intellectual humility, curiosity, and a commitment to being part of an exceptional team

• The United States base salary for this role is $130,000.
• The Kenya base salary for this role is $74,000.

• A positive and supportive team with opportunities for advancement
• A demonstrated commitment to helping all staff develop and grow
• A competitive salary, i.