Giving What We Can is seeking a Research Director to lead our research function as we scale towards our ambitious goal of 1 million pledgers giving $3 billion annually to high-impact charities. As a key member of GWWC’s leadership, the Research Director will lead and build out GWWC's research team, while overseeing our core current workstreams of evaluating evaluators, internal impact evaluation, and supported programs selection. 

Key responsibilities

Lead, develop and grow GWWC's research function and strategy (~30%)

• Set multi-year research strategy aimed at GWWC's goal of 1 million pledgers giving 3 billion USD annually to high-impact charities
• Manage, mentor and develop our current researcher and build out the research team as needed to achieve our ambitious goals
• Represent the research team in the GWWC leadership team and in organizational strategy setting.

Ensure the quality of our grantmaking and giving recommendations (~30%)

• Oversee, support and grow our work on evaluating evaluators to select which impact-focused evaluators we rely on for recommendations across worldviews and cause areas to inform a growing ~$80M in donations annually
• Manage and further develop our in-house cause area funds which grant to our recommendations in various cause areas
• Oversee the selection of which promising other supported programs we make grants to and highlight to our community of pledgers.

Push the boundaries of global effective giving research (~20%)

• Further investigate and develop GWWC’s views on key effective giving topics such as charity comparisons, cause prioritisation and worldview diversity.
• Build productive relationships and collaborations with impact-focused evaluators, grantmakers, and other organisations both within the current effective giving ecosystem and beyond.

Guard the epistemic quality of GWWC’s content and communications (~10%)

• Review key content and communications to ensure it is in line with our research views, high epistemic standards, and team values.
• Set up review processes to guard quality as we scale the quantity of our communications (e.g. social media posts, videos, press releases).

Oversee our internal monitoring and evaluation (~10%)

• Oversee and support our work on evaluating GWWC’s own impact.
• Ensure our impact evaluation keeps meeting the highest epistemic standards, yielding useful lessons that directly inform our organisational strategy, and contributing to positive norms in the effective giving ecosystem.

Ideal candidate profile

Essential skills and experience

• Familiarity with impact-focused charity evaluation and grantmaking, and a strong grasp of key research concepts in effective giving and effective altruism
• Building, leading and developing a high-performing team (particularly a remote, international team)
• Prioritisation and judgement; a scout mindset and a commitment to communicating accurately and truthfully; strong probabilistic reasoning and calibration (e.g. Bayesian thinking); and broad research and analytical skills
• Written and verbal research communication skills
• Deep alignment with GWWC’s mission, team values and community values.

Beneficial skills and experience

• Deep familiarity with GWWC’s existing research or the effective giving ecosystem
• Previous work at impact-focused charity evaluators or grantmaking organisations, or other effective giving or effective altruism research institutions
• Academic research background in relevant fields (e.g. economics, philosophy, global health), or deep knowledge in major cause areas in effective giving
• Exceptional writing or public speaking skills and experience

Role overview

• Start date: May 1st 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter
• Hours: 0.8-1.0 FTE
• Location: Global/Remote (preference for UTC-8 to UTC+4 timezones)
• Salary: Up to 150,000 USD, depending on experience and location (see how we approach pay) Some example ranges:
  • 120,000-145,000 USD in New York City, United States
  • 85,000-105,000 GBP in London, United Kingdom
  • 75,000-90,000 EUR in Barcelona, Spain
• Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer (Sjir Hoeijmakers)
• Application deadline: 13 January 2026 23:59 UTC
• Contact: rd-hiring@givingwhatwecan.org

To apply: Apply here by 13 January 2026.

Application process

See below for the preliminary stages and timeline of this hiring process (please note these are subject to change):

• Apply via this Application form (closes 13 January)
• Work test and short call with CEO (16 - 27 January)
• Work trial and interviews with Researcher and COO (30 January - 10 February)
• Final interview with CEO and reference calls (13 - 20 February)

If you think this role might be right for you then we strongly encourage you to apply!

Know someone who'd be excellent for this role? Please share this with them or let us know at rd-hiring@givingwhatwecan.org. We're keen to hear about strong candidates.

Find the complete role overview, and application form here. Applications close 13 January 2026 23:59 UTC.