Senior Manager, People Operations

About this Role 

GiveDirectly's People Operations team owns global payroll, employee lifecycle, HR data, and total rewards delivery for a workforce spread across more than 20 countries. As the team has grown, so has the case for additional capacity at the leadership level to help own the operating engine that keeps payroll, service delivery, and people data running well every day. This role is that operating engine.

The Senior Manager, People Operations will manage a team of Associates and Coordinators (3 in total for now). You'll own end-to-end payroll delivery, the ticketing system and employee lifecycle (onboarding, offboarding, transfers), HRIS data quality, and execution of the annual compensation cycle and mobility transactions. You'll be the first point of contact for country HR teams on operational payroll, data, and ticketing matters, and you'll build depth across your team so critical knowledge doesn't sit with one person.

This is a hands-on, builder's role. You'll set the operating model for your areas (cadence, controls, service standards) and be accountable for the outcomes, not just for delivering against someone else's plan. 

Job Type: Full-time

Reports to: Senior Manager, People Operations

Level: Senior Manager

Location: Remote, with a requirement to overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours, and meaningful overlap with US Eastern hours. We can only employ people in certain places at the moment, so it's worth checking our current list of eligible countries to see if yours is included. If you're based elsewhere, it's not an automatic no, but do flag it early with your recruiter. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

Travel Requirements:  Must be able to travel ~3-4 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats and oversight.

What you'll do

1. Team leadership and delivery:
   • Lead, coach, and develop a team, setting clear priorities, standards of work, and ownership across payroll, service delivery, people data, and lifecycle operations
   • Build depth and cover across the team so critical knowledge is not concentrated in one person, and establish clear escalation paths for absences and peak periods
   • Define the operating model for your areas, including cadence, controls, service standards, and how work is prioritized against the function roadmap
   • Serve as the first point of contact for country HR teams on operational payroll, data, lifecycle, and ticketing matters
2. Global payroll:
   • Own end-to-end payroll delivery for all global staff across entities and employer of record arrangements, ensuring accurate and timely processing of salaries, benefits, and deductions
   • Own the payroll calendar, approvals, controls, and reconciliation, partnering with Finance on month-end, accruals, and people cost reporting
   • Manage payroll providers operationally, including service quality, issue resolution, invoicing, and migrations
   • Maintain current knowledge of payroll and statutory requirements across all operating locations, and drive the changes needed to stay compliant
   • Run annual bonus administration end to end, ensuring calculations are accurate and payments are made within designated timelines
3. People operations service delivery and employee lifecycle: 
   • Own the ticketing system and its operating rhythm, including triage, assignment, SLA performance, and reporting
   • Own onboarding, offboarding, transfers, and role changes as designed processes rather than a series of transactions, and be accountable for the experience they produce
   • Analyze trends and root causes of recurring issues and deliver structural fixes rather than repeat workarounds
   • Drive the implementation of tools that improve functionality and user experience
   • Act as the escalation point for complex or high-priority tickets, providing direction and ensuring timely resolution
4. People data and systems: 
   • Own HRIS operations and data quality, including the method for preventing inaccurate data entering the system at source
   • Own the people systems roadmap covering workflows, automation, integrations, and reporting infrastructure, partnering with IT and Finance on delivery
   • Run the audit and reporting cycle, and maintain reporting standards in practice
   • Produce the people reporting that leadership decisions rely on
5. Total rewards and mobility operations: 
   • Execute annual compensation cycles, salary adjustments, and increase rollouts accurately and on time
   • Own benefits administration across all locations, including renewals, enrollments, and issue resolution
   • Produce the analysis behind compensation decisions, including benchmarking, compa ratio and cost modelling, and equity audits
   • Execute mobility transactions end to end, including payroll and entity transfers, contract issuance, location-based pay changes, work permit and employer of record administration, and the supporting trackers and records
6. Other tasks:
   • Participate in cross-functional initiatives and organizational projects, representing People Operations requirements
   • Perform all other duties that may be assigned to you from time to time by the Senior Manager, People Operations and stakeholders

What you'll bring: 

• 6+ years of professional experience in People Operations, HR operations, or global payroll, including at least 2 years managing a team
• Direct experience running multi-country payroll and people operations, ideally including Sub-Saharan Africa and employer of record arrangements
• Demonstrated ownership of an HRIS, including an implementation, migration, or significant data quality turnaround
• A systems and process mindset, with the ability to point to workflows you have automated, simplified, or eliminated
• Working knowledge of employment and statutory requirements across multiple jurisdictions, with sound judgment on compliance risk and a clear sense of when to decide and when to escalate
• Strong analytical skills, including comfort with compensation and cost modelling and advanced spreadsheet ability
• Ability to liaise remotely with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures, and to act with credibility, tact, and diplomacy
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate technical people operations content to non-specialist audiences
• Comfort operating with incomplete guidance and shifting priorities, and strong time management across competing deadlines
• Professionally proficient in English
• Experience in a global non-profit, international development organization, or mission-driven company with an Africa presence preferred
• Familiarity with employer of record and contractor models across multiple countries (Oyster, Remote, or similar) preferred
• Aptitude to learn new software tools such as Slack, BambooHR, Jira, and Asana, and comfort with AI-assisted tools to streamline people operations workflows
• Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.

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 here.

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

United States

• Base Salary: $114,660
• Bonus at Target Performance: 10% (~$11,466, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $13,415 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $126,126+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393

United Kingdom

• Base Salary: £77,600
• Bonus at Target Performance: 10% (~£7,760, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be £9,079 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: £85,360+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760

Kenya

• Base Salary: $83,820
• Bonus at Target Performance: 10% (~$8,382, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $9,807 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $92,202+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453

This role is fully remote, so if you are not based in the US, UK or Kenya, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process. 

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