Senior Communications Officer, Strategic Communications

GiveWell’s mission is to help people in need as much as we can by researching the most cost‑effective ways to save and improve lives, sharing our work openly, and directing donations to the programs we believe will do the most good. Our work, which focuses on global health and well-being, is funded by tens of thousands of donors who rely on our research to inform their giving. We’ve grown from directing $1.5 million in 2010 to directing more than $400 million in 2025. We anticipate our total grantmaking is likely to approach or even exceed $1 billion this year, and we are working toward a future that could be several times that scale. Through years of deliberate groundwork, we’ve been growing our research capacity and scope in order to direct substantially more funding to the most impactful opportunities we can find.

We’re hiring a Senior Communications Officer, Strategic Communications to lead GiveWell’s development of messaging and narratives that explain its work across different audiences and contexts. You will translate the organization’s increasingly diverse and complex work into clear, accurate communications and lead major initiatives that require close coordination across GiveWell.

This role reports to Steven Profaizer , our Vice President of Communications, and will lead a small and growing team. This is one of three new communications leadership roles, alongside a Senior Communications Officer, Media & Public Affairs and a Senior Communications Officer, Editorial & Production .

About the role

Both our research and impact are expanding . Last year, we directed more than $400 million to highly cost-effective programs that save and improve lives. This year, we expect our grantmaking to approach, and possibly exceed, $1 billion.

To build toward the communications capacity this next stage requires, we are rapidly expanding our team. Together with the Vice President of Communications, the three new Senior Communications Officers will form GiveWell’s communications leadership team. Each leader will own their function, but much of the work that matters most—like team strategies, major initiatives, partnership campaigns, and how we present the organization as a whole—will involve all three. We will expect this group to set shared priorities and work closely together to achieve the team’s goals.

In this hands-on leadership position, you’ll own how GiveWell explains its work across different audiences and contexts, with end-to-end responsibility for this emerging function. You’ll set its strategy, hire and develop its people, build its systems, and personally own its hardest and most consequential work. This is an opportunity to build, not just inherit, an important function at a critical point in GiveWell’s development. You’ll start with a small team and grow it over time.

While this role is set at the Senior Communications Officer level, we may consider hiring an exceptional candidate as a Communications Director—with greater expectations, responsibilities, and compensation.

What You'll Do

As Senior Communications Officer, Strategic Communications, you will be responsible for translating GiveWell’s research, grantmaking, and ideas into messages, frameworks, and products across a variety of channels and contexts. You will also lead major communications initiatives, advise senior leaders and teams, and help GiveWell assess and respond to emerging communications opportunities and risks.

Specific duties will include:

Own how GiveWell’s brand positioning and guidelines are applied across teams, channels, and partnership communications, and work closely with the Vice President of Communications on developing and maintaining them.

Own the messaging and narrative that make GiveWell’s work accessible and relevant without sacrificing rigor, precision, or clarity about uncertainty.

Translate GiveWell’s research, grantmaking, and ideas into messages and frameworks tailored to the audiences we most need to reach.

Partner with Philanthropy on GiveWell’s donor communications strategy and lead donor-facing communications that require new or tailored messaging.

Lead complex, cross-functional communications initiatives, including major partnership campaigns and other high-priority communications involving grantees and external partners.

Serve as a strategic communications advisor to senior leaders and teams across GiveWell, bringing a clear point of view on audiences, framing, opportunities, and risks.

Lead GiveWell’s internal assessment of emerging issues that may affect the organization and develop our position and messaging, working with relevant teams and the Senior Communications Officer, Media & Public Affairs.

Own the strategic direction and institutional messaging for GiveWell’s website, working with communications colleagues on execution.

Own GiveWell’s internal communications strategy and major internal communications, helping our growing organization stay informed and aligned.

Manage and develop one or two team members initially, and help determine how the function’s team, systems, and capabilities should grow over time.

About You

You are skilled at using communications to help people understand complex ideas, build trust, and take action. You are comfortable being accountable for outcomes, making consequential decisions with limited oversight, and knowing which decisions genuinely require escalation.

You are energized by intellectually demanding work, and the challenges of creating engaging communications within a careful and precise style. You can engage deeply with GiveWell’s research, and you are comfortable understanding and communicating about data in detail. You have a long track record of getting up to speed quickly on complex subject matter and carefully communicating to a very high standard. You can build a compelling narrative that is entirely factual, representing what is known and unknown without overstating or hedging into vagueness—and you find the idea of working with GiveWell’s exacting communications standards exciting rather than limiting.