Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. GiveDirectly is a nonprofit organization that has delivered over $1 billion in cash to people living in poverty. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build systems that support their cash transfer operations and collaborate with various teams to enhance their technological capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Design and build scalable, reliable systems that power our core operations—whether that’s donor platforms, systems that deliver payments directly to recipients, or crisis response tools reaching hundreds of thousands of people globally
- Own end-to-end development of new features and services, from architecture through deployment and monitoring
- Improve our developer workflows by strengthening CI/CD pipelines, reducing manual steps, and increasing test coverage
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, ops, data) to understand real-world needs and ship tools that directly support program delivery in the field
- Debug and resolve production issues across our stack, with a focus on root cause analysis and long-term fixes
- Advocate for sustainable engineering practices, including testing, documentation, and monitoring
- Help shape our tech roadmap with an eye toward scale, maintainability, and recipient experience
Skills
- Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity
- Language Requirement: English
- 4+ years of industry experience creating production-caliber software and systems
- Experience with backend architecture: databases, cloud services, APIs
- Experience building infrastructure to deploy software
- Experience with strongly-typed, object-oriented programming such as Java, C#, Go, etc. and scripting languages such as Python, Ruby, etc
- High degree of ownership and autonomy - you proactively advocate for ways to improve systems and constantly leave our codebase in a better state than you found it
- Strong analytical skills and communication - able to break down complex problems, describe technical trade-offs, and collaborate with cross-functional partners (e.g. technical program managers, product managers)
- Experience using Python and AWS in a production environment
- Experience with payments/financial software and/or experience with microservice/serverless architecture
Benefits
- Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$23,625, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $27,641 in 2025)
- Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393
- Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~£16,223, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be £18,981 in 2025)
- Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760
- Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$13,725, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $16,063 in 2025)
- Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453
- 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
- 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.
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