Senior Product Manager, Global Payments Systems

GiveDirectly; City Of London; Remote; GBP 97,000; Full time

Job summary

A nonprofit organization focused on cash transfers is seeking a Senior Product Manager to drive innovative payment solutions for global cash transfers. The role requires extensive experience in digital payment systems, with responsibilities including the development of the product roadmap, investigation of global payment channels, and collaborative work with cross-functional teams. This position is fully remote, necessitating an overlap with East Africa timezone.

Qualifications

• Experience working with financial technology platforms.
• Hands-on experience evaluating payment solutions in low-infrastructure environments.
• Ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders and communicate technical concepts.

Responsibilities

• Own the product vision and roadmap for international payments infrastructure.
• Identify and recommend international payment solutions for fragile markets.
• Define and document technical requirements for payment implementation.

Skills

Emotional intelligence

Problem solving

Project management

Analytical skills

Education

5+ years of experience with international digital payment systems

Tools

SQL

Python

R

Job description

Senior Product Manager, Global Payments Systems

London, UK

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving – and millions of lives – by providing cash grants directly to the world’s poorest. The Brookings Institution estimates that $70B of cash transfers would be required to eliminate the poverty gap; the aid sector currently spends $135B each year, much of it on evidence‑free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that, establishing cash transfers as a benchmark for foreign aid – as the index fund is a benchmark for the financial industry – and in the process accelerating the end of extreme poverty.

GD has raised over $1B since launching in 2011, delivered cash to more than 1.5 million people in 15 different countries. We’ve also supported large‑scale, experimental research that indicates strong recipient impact of our programs. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non‑profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) have been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

Our culture is candid, analytical agile, and non‑hierarchical. Our global team of ~150, and country operations teams of ~650, together come from 21 different countries speaking 69 different languages. From software engineers to seasoned humanitarian workers, former management consultants to public servants, researchers to field operations – it’s an incredible group of people.

Our values are central and deliberately opinionated. We genuinely center the people we serve in our decision making, and strive to build an ambitious, dynamic and high performing environment. We strongly encourage you to read through our values carefully, if they reflect how you like to work and energize you, this could be a great fit.

We work hard to create an environment in which all our team members can thrive, succeed and grow. We support flexibility, take care of each other, have fun, and create professional growth opportunities.

Priority application deadline: August 25, 2025 or until we reach a critical mass of applications.

Location: This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.

About this role

GiveDirectly is seeking a Senior Product Manager to drive the design, evaluation, and deployment of cutting‑edge payment solutions that support cash transfers to people affected by crises or in extreme poverty—anywhere in the world. This individual will serve as the technical and strategic lead on payment rails and digital transfer mechanisms within the International Rapid Response (IRR) Product team, with a strong focus on reaching displaced and crisis‑affected populations with unconditional cash assistance efficiently, securely, and with dignity.

Reports to: Senior Product Director, International Rapid Response

Level: Senior Manager

Travel Requirement: approximately once per quarter

What you’ll do

Payments Product Strategy and Roadmapping

• Own the product vision, roadmap, and prioritization for international payments infrastructure.
• Translate strategic objectives into actionable product goals, features, and success metrics.
• Regularly evaluate and refine product‑market fit in the context of fast‑evolving program and country needs.

Investigate and Innovate Global Payment Channels

• Identify, assess, and recommend international payment solutions that can reach populations in fragile and underserved markets.
• Develop partnerships with global and regional payment aggregators, mobile money platforms, remittance providers, and stablecoin or crypto partners.
• Pilot and evaluate alternative transfer modalities, including blockchain‑based or decentralized finance (DeFi) approaches, particularly in contexts where traditional banking access is limited.

Build and Scale Payment Infrastructure

• Design systems for integrating new payment rails into GD’s operations, ensuring compliance, security, and scalability.
• Define and document technical and operational requirements for payment implementation in humanitarian and development settings.
• Collaborate with engineers and data teams to ensure seamless integration with targeting, verification, monitoring, and payments systems.

Research & Landscape Analysis

• Map and compare emerging technologies and vendors in the payments space, with a focus on rapid deployment and cross‑border capabilities.
• Conduct technical due diligence on vendors and track trends in stablecoin, mobile finance, and blockchain applications.

Cross‑functional Collaboration

• Work closely with program managers, engineers, field teams, and finance/legal teams to ensure payment strategies align with on‑ground realities and compliance frameworks.
• Ensure excellent handoff of provider execution, oversight and compliance to implementation teams.
• Support crisis response deployments with technical insight and problem‑solving on‑the‑fly to ensure people get paid.

Performance and Reliability Management

• Define and monitor key metrics (e.g., transaction success rates payment speeds, reconciliation gaps).
• Coordinate root‑cause analyses and mitigation planning for issues affecting reliability, latency, or compliance, and feed this into the product and FSP strategy.

Drive Efficiency and Creativity

• Leverage your creativity to solve the unique challenges of delivering money in unpredictable, unstable, or disconnected environments.
• Continuously refine internal payment playbooks and propose systemic improvements to speed, reliability, and recipient experience.

What you’ll bring

• 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.
• 5+ years of experience working with international digital payment systems, financial technology platforms, and/or crypto/blockchain‑enabled services.
• Demonstrated understanding of global remittance infrastructures, mobile money networks, cross‑border compliance issues, and KYC/AML processes.
• Hands‑on experience evaluating and/or implementing stablecoin or cryptocurrency payment solutions in low‑infrastructure environments.
• Experience in a high‑ambiguity, low‑structure environment — you create clarity, not wait for it.
• Ability to collaborate inclusively with stakeholders across varied social, national, and cultural backgrounds, including communicating technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Analytical problem solver: looks at problems with analytical and iterative mindset, with strong framework for prioritization.
• Intermediate to advanced data manipulation and analysis skills to derive insights from payment data.
• Technical fluency with payments APIs and technical documentation, including data security standards and the ability to identify areas of concern or strength.

Nice to Have

• Experience operating in crisis or humanitarian contexts (e.g., conflict zones, natural disasters).
• Prior work with startups or experimental products in global south or emerging markets.
• Comfort working in SQL, python, R or other scripting data manipulation tools for performance monitoring.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s total compensation package (base compensation + bonus) falls within the 75th percentile of similar roles, at similar organizations. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophy here.

• The United States base salary for this role is $128,000.
• The Kenya base salary for this role is $101,221.

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

#LI-REMOTE

Working at GiveDirectly

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

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.

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 [e-mail] with the email subject “Accommodation Needed”. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

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