United States + International (Remote) Remote (Global) Employment 219000

GiveWell is hiring a Senior Water Researcher

About the Role

The role involves conducting in-depth evaluations of water and sanitation interventions, analyzing research data, and assessing the cost-effectiveness of programs to inform funding recommendations.

Responsibilities

  • Lead evaluations of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions
  • Analyze scientific studies and field data for program effectiveness
  • Estimate cost-effectiveness of WASH initiatives
  • Collaborate with external experts and implementers
  • Write detailed reports summarizing findings and recommendations
  • Identify gaps in existing research on water interventions
  • Assess scalability and sustainability of programs
  • Engage with stakeholders to gather implementation data
  • Review monitoring and evaluation frameworks used by organizations
  • Evaluate potential risks and unintended consequences of WASH programs
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of WASH research literature
  • Contribute to discussions on research methodology and standards
  • Support prioritization of future research areas
  • Present findings to internal and external audiences
  • Ensure analytical rigor in all assessments

Nice to Have

  • PhD or professional experience in a relevant discipline
  • Direct experience evaluating water or sanitation programs
  • Background in systematic literature reviews
  • Experience working with NGOs or funding agencies
  • Familiarity with meta-analysis methods
  • Track record of publishing or contributing to research
  • Experience in low- and middle-income countries
  • Knowledge of government WASH policies
  • Ability to assess monitoring data quality
  • Experience communicating complex topics to non-experts

Compensation

Competitive salary based on experience and location

Work Arrangement

Remote with flexibility; some travel may be required

Team

Part of a research team focused on identifying highly effective charitable programs through evidence-based analysis

Research Approach

  • We prioritize transparent, reproducible analysis grounded in empirical evidence.
  • Our work emphasizes real-world impact over theoretical models.

Impact Focus

Research directly informs funding recommendations to maximize lives improved per dollar spent.

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About company
GiveWell
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. Our giving funds enable donors to contribute to the most impactful and cost-effective programs our researchers identify. Since 2007, we’ve directed over $2.6 billion to cost-effective programs and interventions. In the last two years, we’ve made more than $500 million in grants. GiveWell is one of the world’s largest private funders of global development efforts, and we estimate that the funding we’ve directed will save more than 340,000 lives. GiveWell is most well-known for recommending a small number of Top Charities, which currently support seasonal malaria chemoprevention, antimalarial nets, vaccine incentivization, and vitamin A supplementation. However, most of our research capacity is devoted to finding cost-effective opportunities outside of those programs. GiveWell grants have: Helped governments to implement high-impact health programs, like in-line chlorination of drinking water in India and HIV/syphilis screening and treatment for pregnant people in Zambia and Cameroon. Funded program delivery alongside strengthened monitoring and evaluation, as in our grants to support treatment of clubfoot and to evaluate the program. Sought to scope and scale promising interventions that don’t have clear existing implementers. We are 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. For example, we funded a program to provide diarrhea treatment to children in Nigeria that we co-designed with CHAI through the Incubator program. Tested our assumptions through further research, including studies on the effect of water chlorination on mortality, the impact of a tree-planting program on farmers’ income, and the effects of combining the RTS,S malaria vaccine and perennial malaria chemoprevention. We never take for granted that GiveWell’s work is good for the world. We make our reasoning public and transparent so others can challenge it (sometimes we even pay people to point out our errors). We go to unusual lengths to check our assumptions and assess our impact, including funding research and external analysis to address our uncertainties and insisting that our grantees conduct rigorous monitoring and evaluation. We change our minds when the evidence demands it.
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Job Details
Department Water
Category other
Posted 3 days ago