Investment Associate

About DIV Fund

The DIV Fund is an evidence-driven open innovation fund for global development that identifies and supports cost-effective solutions with the potential to improve millions of lives. The Fund runs an open competition for innovations across sectors and geographies that aim to improve the health and welfare of people living in poverty. We use a tiered model that combines rigorous evidence standards with early-stage risk appetite, supporting early pilots, rigorous testing of promising ideas, and large-scale expansion of the most cost-effective solutions. The DIV Fund serves as a discovery engine for global development, building a pipeline of evidence-driven innovation to meaningfully improve outcomes around the world. We are small, fast-moving, and deeply ambitious about the impact a well-run global development fund can unlock.

The Role

The DIV Fund aims to maximize impact on people's lives, and identifying the innovations with the highest potential for the greatest expected social returns is central to our mission. Investment Associates are core members of our collaborative team, contributing across the full investment lifecycle: supporting sourcing efforts, conducting due diligence of potential new investments in partnership with senior members of the team, identifying the most promising opportunities for in-depth diligence, engaging with applicants and domain experts, and substantively contributing to investment recommendations. As part of an open innovation fund, this work requires comfort with ambiguity and the judgment to identify gaps early and flag key uncertainties without waiting for perfect information. As part of a fund driven by evidence and potential for cost-effectiveness at scale, it requires comfort with quantitative methods, diving deeply into empirical evidence and cost-effectiveness analysis. This is a hands-on role at the center of what we do, and will play a meaningful role in shaping our portfolio. 

We are a newly launched organization with a big mandate and a small and ambitious team. You will play an active role in building our organization's processes, tools, networks, and technology-assisted workflows, which makes our small team punch above its weight. 

If you're committed to improving lives through innovation — finding the rare solutions that really deliver for people and getting them the targeted resources to prove out impact and achieve durable scale — and want to help shape how a nimble, high-conviction fund operates in a new era, please apply.

What You'll Do

Pipeline Development & Sourcing

• Support efforts to attract high-quality applications to the DIV Fund, including outreach to networks, partners, and relevant communities of practice

• Create and maintain high-quality presentation materials for sourcing and co-funding discussions 

Application Review & Due Diligence

• Screen applications for eligibility, strategic alignment, and potential impact, and contribute to quality management across the full proposal funnel

• Conduct diligence on potential new investments, synthesizing findings and recommendations to inform advancement through the diligence pipeline, and supporting diligence on later-stage and higher-complexity innovations

• Conduct technical, financial, evidentiary, operational, and impact diligence in collaboration with investment team members, including synthesizing prior evidence, identifying key uncertainties, and evaluating potential for cost-effectiveness and scale

• Contribute to modeling the expected returns of high-potential proposals

• Solicit and synthesize input from subject-matter experts, including academic researchers, sector specialists, and practitioners.

• Contribute to investment memos and expected returns analyses for the Investment Committee

Technology & Cross-Team Tools

• Contribute to the design and ongoing development of our custom-built application portal

• Help identify, build and implement tools, automations, and workflows, including those enabled by AI, that can be used across the investment team to improve the quality or efficiency of sourcing, screening, and diligence

Portfolio & Expert Engagement 

• Provide support to current grantees and portfolio organizations

• Contribute to synthesizing results and learnings from the portfolio, and help translate these into accessible formats for external audiences — including write-ups, briefs, and other communications that share what we're learning with the broader global development community

• Support the coordination of our expert reviewer network 

Building a growing organization 

• Meaningfully contribute to the daily operations of a fast-paced, start-up organization, supporting broader initiatives where needed – such as supporting fundraising, hiring, and other priorities of the business.

What We're Looking For 

Required

• 3+ years of relevant professional experience in global development, public health, social policy, consulting, or an adjacent field — we care more about drive and analytical sharpness than a specific degree

• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret research and connect evidence to the practical realities of implementation

• Strong written communication; ability to synthesize complex information into clear recommendations for multiple audiences

• Entrepreneurial orientation — you are energized by ambiguity, like building things, and see "that's not my job" as a phrase that doesn't apply to you

• Collaborative and low-ego — we need people who argue well and update readily

• Team player with a sense of humor rated at least 8.4 out of 10

Preferred

• Direct experience working or investing in low- and middle-income countries, with firsthand exposure to the operational realities on the ground.

• Familiarity with evidence standards and research methods common in international development (RCTs, cost-effectiveness analysis, systematic reviews)

• Working familiarity with AI tools, including experience integrating AI into research, writing, analysis, or operational workflows

• Experience in sectors relevant to our portfolio, e.g.: global health, water, education, agriculture, or financial inclusion in low- and middle-income countries