How to apply for Senior Malaria Researcher

About GiveWell

GiveWell is a nonprofit that directs donor money to global health and development programs it believes do the most good. It grew from directing $1.5 million in 2010 to more than $400 million in 2025, with total grantmaking likely to approach or exceed $1 billion this year. Working there means your research feeds directly into large-scale funding decisions.

About the role

You join a small grantmaking team to build and run a research agenda on malaria. The work mixes evidence review, cost-effectiveness modeling, expert discussions, and your own judgment to answer the questions that matter most. You also communicate externally and mentor other researchers on the team.

A typical day

A typical day could involve reviewing malaria evidence, updating a cost-effectiveness model, and discussing findings with the small grantmaking team. You may also mentor another researcher, take an external call with a subject matter expert, or draft a public writeup on your work. The exact rhythm depends on the team, so ask about meeting cadence and how research priorities get set.

Who GiveWell is looking for

• Has deep empirical research skills in malaria or a closely related global health area, including evidence synthesis and critical appraisal.
• Can build and critique cost-effectiveness models, and is comfortable with uncertainty in the inputs.
• Can set priorities among many possible research questions and explain why some matter more than others.
• Has experience mentoring or advising other researchers and communicating findings to external audiences.

Tips for this application

• Show a concrete example of a research question you scoped down, why you chose it, and what you concluded. GiveWell cares about judgment in prioritization, not just methods.
• Include cost-effectiveness modeling work in your materials. If you have built a model, describe the key assumptions and how you tested them.
• Name specific malaria interventions, trials, or evidence bases you have worked on. Vague global health experience is weaker than named malaria work.
• Demonstrate mentoring: describe a time you advised a researcher and how you improved their output.
• Read GiveWell's published malaria research and reference it. Explain where you would extend or challenge it.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your track record on malaria or a closely related disease area, with specific studies or programs named.', 'How you decide which research questions are worth answering, with an example of a question you dropped or deprioritized.', 'Your experience with cost-effectiveness modeling and how you handle weak or conflicting evidence.', 'Your approach to mentoring researchers and communicating research externally.']

Research before applying

• Read GiveWell's malaria research and grant writeups to see how it frames cost-effectiveness and evidence quality.
• Review GiveWell's published criteria for top charities and how it decides between funding opportunities.
• Look at recent malaria guidance from WHO and major trials or reviews to understand the current evidence base.
• Check GiveWell's history of directing funds, from $1.5 million in 2010 to more than $400 million in 2025, to understand the scale your research would inform.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• Walk through a malaria research question you scoped and how you decided it was the highest priority.
• How would you build or critique a cost-effectiveness model for a malaria program with uncertain effect sizes?
• Which current malaria evidence gaps do you think GiveWell should prioritize, and why?
• Describe a time you changed your mind on a research conclusion after new evidence or expert input.
• How do you mentor a junior researcher who is stuck on a modeling or evidence-review problem?

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating this like a general global health role. GiveWell wants malaria-specific depth and evidence of prioritization.
• Ignoring cost-effectiveness. If your materials do not show modeling or quantitative reasoning, you look like a poor fit.
• Overclaiming certainty. GiveWell works with uncertain evidence; candidates who cannot state limitations look weak.
• Skipping GiveWell's published work. Applying without referencing its malaria research signals low interest.