[Hiring] Senior New Areas Researcher @GiveWell

Role Description

GiveWell is seeking a Senior New Areas Researcher to help direct tens of millions of dollars annually to the most cost-effective interventions we can find. You will have an outsized influence on our funding decisions and help us save and improve lives on a global scale.

The New Areas team grantmaking is divided into three workstreams:

• Core cause areas: Areas for which we devote a significant amount of time developing subject-matter specific expertise and networks, a thorough research agenda, and a large portfolio of grants (e.g., family planning, maternal and newborn health, tuberculosis and HIV).
• Emerging cause areas: A broader set of cause areas for which the New Areas team is starting to build its expertise, networks and research agenda, and is making some initial grants (e.g., medical oxygen, applications of AI to global health).
• Incubators: Supporting the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s Incubator and Evidence Action’s Accelerator to identify potentially cost-effective interventions and create programs that we would be excited to support in the future.

As a Senior New Areas Researcher, you'll create and lead ambitious research agendas related to our portfolios of work and answer complex questions that will inform GiveWell's grantmaking decisions. The researchers on our team combine rigorous evidence review, cost-effectiveness modeling, and thoughtful judgment.

What you might work on in your first year:

• Tackle thorny research questions in our existing portfolios.
• Design and oversee learning grants.
• Build our evidence base in new programmatic areas.
• Provide research support to grantmakers.

The Senior New Areas Researcher will help shape a major annual grantmaking portfolio, own grant investigations end-to-end (from research question through grant recommendation), and represent GiveWell to external counterparts. You'll have significant latitude to propose new areas of work.

Qualifications

• A quantitatively oriented advanced degree (e.g., in epidemiology, public health, economics, or a related field).
• Substantial professional experience in global health, or an adjacent field (broadly defined).
• Ability to get up to speed quickly on new topics and feel comfortable task-switching.

Requirements

• GiveWell’s mission and methods are personally energizing.
• You’re abnormally curious and willing to interrogate others’ work.
• You routinely think about and surface the value judgments that undergird your work.
• You dislike it when people express strong confidence in views that don’t seem to rely on commensurate evidence.
• You appreciate the value of an excellent reputation and strong relationships.
• You love a gnarly problem and constantly assess whether you and the team are working on the most important things.

Benefits

• Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any dependents).
• Four weeks of paid time off per year, plus a one week organization-wide summer break.
• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• Ergonomic home workstations or coworking space memberships.
• Automatic contribution equal to 5% of your gross salary into your 403(b) retirement plan (for U.S. based staff).

Company Description

GiveWell is dedicated to finding and funding outstanding giving opportunities in global health and development, sharing the full details of our analysis with everyone for free. Since 2007, we’ve directed over $2.6 billion to cost-effective programs and interventions.

• GiveWell is one of the world’s largest private funders of global development efforts.
• We estimate that the funding we’ve directed will save more than 340,000 lives.
• GiveWell grants have helped governments implement high-impact health programs.
• We never take for granted that GiveWell’s work is good for the world.