Risk Management Program Manager

About GiveDirectly

What if the most effective way to fight poverty was also the simplest: give people money and trust them to decide what they need? Since 2011, GiveDirectly has proven that idea at scale. We’ve delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty and crisis across 15 countries, and rigorous research shows the results: healthier kids, stronger businesses, sturdier homes, and more resilient families and local economies. Cash is now widely recognized as one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid. Our ambition goes beyond our own programs. We want cash to become the benchmark for aid, much as the index fund became the benchmark for investing, so that every aid dollar is held to one question: is this doing more good than giving the money directly to people living in poverty? We’re growing fast, and this is a rare and important moment to join. We expect to hit $1B in revenue in 2026 with significant growth forecast for 2027. At the same time we are building a new technology stack and operating model designed for a roughly 10x change in scale, and we are actively pursuing partnerships with major funders to move even more money in bigger ways, to people who need it. We are known for our extensive integration of technology into field processes; our quantitative approach to performance measurement; and our commitment to rigorous, independent, experimental evaluation of our impact, with multiple Randomized Control Trials completed and others in progress.

How we work

Our team spans 20+ countries and 69 languages. Our culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We expect high ownership and give people real responsibility early. Our values are central to how we hire, work, and grow, and they are deliberately opinionated:

• Recipients first. Recipients’ preferences come before those of donors or ourselves.
• Team next. We optimize for organizational success, not individual success.
• Be proactively candid. We say what we believe and share information openly.
• Create positive energy. We aim to be a source of energy for colleagues, not a drain.
• Think rigorously; act quickly. We reason from first principles, then act rather than debate.
• Know yourself and grow. We own our imperfections and seek feedback to grow.
• Accept reality. Propose solutions. We focus on what can change and bring solutions, not just problems.
• Be productively ambitious. We take risks for step-change impact, not incremental progress.

If they describe how you like to work and they energize you, this could be a great fit. Want to learn more? Read and listen: We are one of Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026, and our work has been covered by The Economist, NPR, TED, and The Washington Post. We're now preparing to deliver billions of dollars a year to people in extreme poverty, if funding allows. Read our CEO's essay on what that will take.

About this role

The Risk Management Program Manager is responsible for preventing, detecting, mitigating and investigating the field-based risks associated with delivering millions of dollars to thousands of poor households across a portfolio of countries. The Program Manager (PM) will work with the Internal Audit Director and the wider Internal Audit team to design innovations to manage the risks associated with cash transfers.

Reports to: Director, Internal Audit Level: Manager Location: Remote - Maputo/Nampula, Mozambique with a requirement to overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours.

Role Summary

• Supports overall Global Internal Audit (IA) strategy.
• Overall risk manager for the countries in their portfolio.
• In partnership with the Country Director (CD), lead the development of the country IA strategy.
• Supports on all project design at all stages (project inception, proposal creation, project design, risk register creation, ongoing project risk management, project closure).
• Leads (or where relevant, delegates) all country syncs with CD.
• HR oversight (not direct management) for all countries in their portfolio.
• Takes direct lead on certain, more sensitive and high risk investigations in portfolio (as determined by CD and IAD).
• Manages Internal Audit for each country in their portfolio
• Manages Internal Audit Manager (IAM) directly.
• Supports admin oversight and procurement for the IA team in country (ensuring docs are in order etc).
• Carries out regular spot checks on country operations and ensures IAM is doing their checks and documenting them.
• Seeks to develop and analyze data we have but also look for new ways to spot and reduce fraud.
• Visible point of contact for country team and part of country management team where relevant.
• Leads coordination with other internal teams (such as Safeguarding, Programs, and Tech) as well as external partners, such as Telcos where needed.
• Visits each country in portfolio at least 1x per year for field visits.

Roles and responsibilities:

Project Design (25%)

• Represent IA in country project design conversations, including development of strategic risk management measures.
• Owning development of project-specific Internal Audit proposals detailing audit rates, audit approaches, e.t.c. for new projects and discussing these with CD.
• Oversee community risk scoping exercises and ensure full scoping report is submitted to IAD and CDs for all new projects.
• Ensure that customized risk registers are created for all new projects; ensure that risk registers for ongoing projects are updated regularly.
• Review implementation tools, e.g. enrollment surveys, to better align them to risk detection, mitigation and prevention.

Systems Orientated risk monitoring (45%)

• Owning and monitoring IA metrics / KPIs in countries of portfolio and owning correction of dropping or critically missed metrics.
• Overall owner (accountable) of country project workbooks detailing workplans and staffing, tech related requirements and activity timelines.
• Define and review risk classifications based on projects and country level activities.
• Hold weekly (or bi-weekly) meetings with Country Directors in each country you are assigned.
• Lead the development of escalation protocols for different types of risks and monitor implementation of the protocols by country managers.
• Lead the transparent, accountable and where needed collaborative investigation of high risk cases.
• Support the IAM to undertake community based fraud intelligence monitoring exercises and escalate any identified risk trends to the CD and IAD.
• Monitor the traffic and trends of risk reporting and flag high risk countries and projects to the CD and IAD.
• Support the IAD with tech-related fraud prevention innovations work through different inputs as may be requested from time to time.
• Where relevant, build in-country relationships with fraud management stakeholders (for example, MoMo provider telcos) for sustainable fraud resolutions in-country.
• Conduct spot checks on both the programs and IA operations to ensure high quality and identify any abnormalities.
• Build and manage in-country project related stakeholder relationships; working with different in-country teams to ensure IA deliverables are tracked as per workplan.
• Write and share with the IA - Director, quarterly productivity reports and/or project specific retrospectives (or progress reports).

People Management (10%)

• Directly manages Internal Audit Managers in all countries you are assigned.
• Conduct regular check-ins with Direct Reports.
• Conduct performance reviews for direct reports every quarter and provide a report of the same to the IA-Director and CD where relevant.
• Indirectly support the AFMs and FOs in the countries you are assigned.
• Develop a team with a high capacity for problem solving, critical thinking, and strong analytical and communication skill.
• Conduct regular skip-level meetings with AFMs.
• Hiring: Directly responsible for hiring IAMs in the countries you are assigned.
• Create a strong overall team
• Manage conflicts and other risks within the team and escalate where appropriate.
• Promote effective team culture by encouraging recognition of positive achievements and other team-building initiatives.
• Model ethical behavior that encourages the team to report misconduct within GD staff, partners, community and recipients.
• Conduct staff career growth needs assessments (through structures surveys and 1:1 sessions) and liaise with the HR manager to deliver robust professional development sessions internally and externally.

Culture Building (10%)

• Act as the custodian of ‘Recipients First’ Value within the team by ensuring compliance to policies and protocols of GiveDirectly.
• Maintain an active, visible and consistent commitment to a common standard of behavior that is required throughout every aspect of the organization as stipulated in the Code of Conduct Statement.
• Manage a team that is driven by individual accountability involving moving beyond corporate ‘rules-based’ behavior to ‘values-based’ behavior that promotes a greater focus on promoting individual integrity.”
• Identify sub-cultures within the organization that may result in safeguarding and fraud risks to recipients.
• Conduct annual training to country Programs teams on fraud and safeguarding mitigation requirements as outlined in GD policies.

Other responsibilities (10%)

• Supports Director on reflecting on and rethinking the Global IA strategy and mandate.
• Supports Director on utilizing AI and technology to improve GD’s fraud risk management systems.
• Participates in weekly IA management meetings and weekly sprints to discuss cross-team activities.
• Support on country external audits where requested.
• Support on non-field based fraud management on an as-needed basis in your countries of operation.
• Proactively identify and flag ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of IA’s operations.
• Support other country of operations outside of portfolio where necessary.

What you’ll bring:

• Internal audit / risk management background - 3+ years leading audit, compliance, or risk functions, ideally in a role that combined strategy design with hands-on fieldwork (not just desk audits).
• Fraud investigation experience - has personally led or overseen sensitive/high-risk investigations, not just routine checks.
• People management - directly managed a team, including hiring, performance reviews, and conflict management.
• Cross-country or multi-site portfolio experience - managed risk/audit across several countries or regional units simultaneously, since this role owns a country portfolio.
• Field-based operations exposure - comfortable with in-person field visits (at least 1x/year per country) in low-resource or humanitarian/development settings, not purely office-based audit work.
• Stakeholder management - experience liaising with external partners and internal cross-functional teams (Safeguarding, Programs, Tech).
• Data/analytics fluency - experience using data to detect fraud trends, build KPIs/metrics, and monitor risk reporting, plus openness to AI/tech-driven fraud prevention tools.
• Program/project design experience - has contributed to project design, risk registers, and proposal creation, ideally in an NGO, cash-transfer, or development-sector context.
• Report writing at a senior level - track record producing strategy documents, quarterly reports, and retrospectives for leadership.
• Fluency in both English and Portuguese.
• Alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.

Why work at GiveDirectly?

At GiveDirectly, we work to ensure that you have everything you need to excel in your role and on your team, including:

• 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!)

Read more about our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and about our decision to move our central support teams to remote first.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophy.

Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.

Base Salary: $67,400 Bonus at Target Performance: 10% (~$6,740 with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $7,886 in 2025) Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $74,140+

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Flagging for US applicants: We invite you to “Know Your Rights” as an applicant.

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty, GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients, staff, and partners seriously. To that end, GiveDirectly is a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, and will systematically check with previous employers about any abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with, and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance when it comes to preventing, reporting, or responding to any form of abuse or exploitation.” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of the role, please email us at recruiter contact with the email subject “Accommodation Needed”. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!

Referrals

Know the right person for this role? Please consider referring them. 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. Thank you for sending great people our way!