How to apply for Senior Recruiter, Research

About GiveWell

GiveWell is a nonprofit that researches the most cost-effective ways to save and improve lives, then directs donations to those programs. It has grown from directing $1.5 million in 2010 to more than $400 million in 2025, with grantmaking likely to approach or exceed $1 billion this year. Senior research staff there make funding decisions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

About the role

This Senior Recruiter, Research role is about building the pipeline for GiveWell's senior research staff, who decide how hundreds of millions in grant money is spent. The talent pool for these researchers is not a defined group, so the recruiter must source from many backgrounds, including economics PhDs, policy analysts, and management consultants. It is a full-time remote position in the US.

A typical day

A typical day would involve sourcing and screening senior candidates from varied backgrounds, coordinating with GiveWell research staff on what the roles need, and managing a remote recruiting process. Because the job description is incomplete, ask the hiring team what a typical week looks like and how recruiting work is divided among the team.

Who GiveWell is looking for

• Has recruited senior-level candidates in a field without an obvious talent pipeline, such as research, policy, or another analytical discipline.
• Can build sourcing strategies from scratch instead of relying on one program, industry, or set of competitors.
• Understands or can quickly learn GiveWell's research work and the kinds of analytical skills its senior researchers need.
• Works well in a remote, full-time setting and can manage a recruiting process for high-stakes roles with limited structure.

Tips for this application

• In your application, name specific examples of senior hires you sourced when no defined talent pool existed, and explain how you found them.
• Read GiveWell's published research on cost-effectiveness before applying, then refer to it in your materials to show you understand what the researchers you would recruit actually do.
• Address the remote nature of the role directly: describe how you have run recruiting processes remotely and how you keep candidates engaged without in-person contact.
• Because the job description is truncated, check GiveWell's careers page or contact them to confirm the full requirements before you submit.
• Connect your recruiting work to GiveWell's scale: show that you understand a single senior research hire can influence how hundreds of millions of dollars in grants are directed.

What to cover in your cover letter

Explain how you have built pipelines for roles with no clear talent pool. Give one or two concrete examples of senior hires you made in research, policy, or analytical fields. Show that you understand GiveWell's mission and the weight of its grantmaking decisions. State why you want to recruit for this specific role rather than recruiting in general.

Research before applying

• Read GiveWell's published research on global health and development to understand what its senior researchers evaluate.
• Review GiveWell's growth in grantmaking, from $1.5 million in 2010 to more than $400 million in 2025, to understand the scale of the hiring need.
• Look at the backgrounds of current GiveWell research staff to see the range of paths into the role.
• Check the full job description on GiveWell's careers page, since the version provided here is cut off and may contain additional requirements.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would build a sourcing pipeline for senior researchers when the talent pool is not a defined group.
• Which backgrounds you would target for GiveWell researchers and why, based on the job description's mention of economics PhDs, policy analysts, and management consultants.
• How you would assess a candidate's ability to make grantmaking decisions involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
• How you have run a full recruiting process remotely, from sourcing through offer.
• What you know about GiveWell's research and how you would use that knowledge to talk with candidates.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating this like a standard corporate recruiting role and ignoring that the talent pool is undefined and must be built from many backgrounds.
• Applying without any knowledge of GiveWell's research or cost-effectiveness approach, which makes it hard to discuss the roles you would recruit for.
• Assuming the remote setup means less structure or less need to explain how you manage candidates across a fully remote process.