Interim Program Manager, United States

Job Type: This is a full-time position which concludes in August 2025 once the program ends. This is a project-based position, which means it is contingent upon funding. 

Location: Remote, U.S.-based; preference for central or eastern time zone. Note: We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas in the U.S. at this time.

About this role

Since 2017, GiveDirectly has provided cash relief to low-income Americans affected by disasters. Between 2020 and 2021, we distributed $200M to 200,000 households in response to the COVID-19 crisis – 100% remotely. In 2021, GiveDirectly launched a permanent U.S. team to implement cash programs in disaster response and guaranteed income. As part of this effort, we launched the largest guaranteed income program focused on Black women in the U.S., and administered two of the largest government-funded GI programs in the country in Chicago, IL and Cook County, IL.

GiveDirectly has been selected as the program administrator for a cash program in Chicago, IL, targeting homeless families. Applications to participate in the program will open in Q4 2024.

The Program Manager will play a key role in driving and executing operations across the program. Primary responsibilities will include leading end-to-end project management, coordinating with internal and external stakeholders, working with a technical partner to design application form flows, recruiting and managing a team, and driving operational excellence and improvement. Managers may be asked to support partnerships and positioning through research, contributing to proposals, and occasionally will own relationships with funders and partners. 

Program Managers should be able to:

• Manage steady state programs with little supervision, escalating and seeking support particularly during launch and close, or in the instance of adverse events or partnership challenges
• Build and manage workplans, basic budgets, and report out (internally and externally) on program progress
• Work with our technology provider to outline tech specs and flows
• Help define “good” in a program and oversee operational metrics to ensure program quality and drive improvement
• Communicate clearly and effectively, internally and externally, about project goals and how they connect to team and org-wide strategy and impact

Reports to: Senior Manager

Level: Manager

Travel Requirement: This position requires domestic travel, up to 20%.

What you’ll do:

Program Management

• Play a core operations role for the program, leading end-to-end project management as well as supporting Senior Program Managers and the Country Director on other tasks, as required
• Support with designing the operational model for the program, including assessing trade-offs of different design decisions (e.g., targeting, payments, customer service)
• Support with dynamically identifying operational vulnerabilities (e.g. fraud, brand risk, etc.) and creating solutions to de-risk
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure successful and timely operational execution
• Define and review operational and efficiency metrics, with an eye to managing to improvement
• Manage dedicated project staff, including a program associate and community engagement coordinators
• Lead community outreach and mobilization plan, including identifying and recruiting community based organization outreach partners.
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with key community members, local service organizations, government agency officials, and elected officials
• Define project-level field staffing needs, oversee/drive recruitment, and directly manage field teams (e.g. call center/help desk, enrollment teams) to deliver high-quality operations and programming

Tech

• Translate program operational needs into technical specifications
• Draft workflows and copy for program forms, surveys, and other technical processes (e.g. intake forms, payment surveys, etc.)
• Conduct and participate in robust user testing of technical tools and processes and organize testing feedback into actionable improvement requests
• Collaborate with internal and external tech stakeholders and vendors to ensure alignment with data protection policies and best practices

Partnership Management

• Support routine reporting (financial, narrative) to funders and other partners, with oversight from Senior Managers/Country Director
• Lead vendor and partner scoping, evaluation, and management to enable effective program delivery
• Establish and maintain high quality relationships with operational partners including funders (e.g. local government partner) when they are engaged in operations and delivery
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with key community members, local service organizations, government agency officials, and elected officials

What you’ll bring:

• 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.
• 4+ years of work or volunteer experience in a role that required problem solving and project management
• Ability to work with technology providers and understand tech specs and workflows
• Exceptional communication, organizational, and analytical skills
• Proficiency in Excel
• Ability to manage day-to-day operations and propose and implement process improvements
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly independent and self-directed manner, while effectively communicating upwardly about gaps and risks
• Enthusiasm for fast-paced environments, which may lack a pre-defined playbook for success and involve significant “learning by doing”
• Experience working in or with government agencies
• Ability to work as a team member with personal enthusiasm, optimism, humility, and a sense of humor.
• Ability to travel locally throughout the program period and ~1-2 times per year to one of our areas of operation for team retreats or field visits
• Language Requirement: English
• Language Preferences: We encourage candidates who are bilingual in any of Chicago’s commonly used languages (e.g., Spanish) to apply

Compensation: At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s total compensation package (base compensation + bonus)  falls within the 75th percentile of similar roles, at similar organizations. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles.

The United States base salary for this role is $94,700