Operations and Procurement Manager

Reports to: Program Director

Role overview:

GiveDirectly Malawi has grown steadily since its introduction in 2019 and in 2025 launched our most ambitious program and research agenda yet, delivering funds across an entire district alongside the largest-ever randomized trial on unconditional cash. To deliver our ambitious plans for scale, we are looking for an Operations and Procurement Manager (“OPM”) with robust procurement experience, demonstrated ability to drive value for money and innovative solutions, and strong team leadership skills. The OPM ensures that GiveDirectly’s day-to-day processes run smoothly by managing core office, procurement, and administrative functions. The role will reward exceptional organizational skills, rapid problem-solving for a range of logistical challenges, and a deep interest in building GiveDirectly’s culture and organizational reach. 

The OPM will play a critical role in scaling up the capacity of the country office by designing and implementing systems to streamline and strengthen operational capacity. As GiveDirectly continues to scale, this role ensures that our procurement and administrative processes are transparent, efficient, and compliant – aligning operational speed with strong governance standards. This position also plays a critical role in safeguarding operational integrity – implementing preventive controls, building staff capacity, and identifying and mitigating procurement or administrative risks. The OPM is responsible for leading and developing their own team while also providing strategic and hands-on support to teams across GiveDirectly Malawi. They will drive excellence across the office in terms of management and administrative processes, providing advice to the Program Director and Country Director on operational planning and process improvements, and driving for value for money solutions across all procurement.  

Responsibilities: 

Lead the Admin and Procurement Function 

• Manage a cross-site team effectively, providing overall task coordination and oversight, coaching, prioritisation, and quality assurance for deliverables. 
• Ensure all core logistics and admin support tasks are delivered on time and to a high quality: ensure smooth running of office functions and team events, support sub-offices with logistical support and supplies, and oversee logistics coordination for high-priority visits.
• Work closely with the global Finance team to manage vendor payments, tax requirements, and invoicing.
• Oversee office maintenance and security to ensure an orderly and secure office environment.
• Lead on procurement of visas and permits for GiveDirectly visitors or employees.
• Leads on developing the operational and administrative annual budget, under the guidance of the Program Director.

Design and Implement Systems to Improve Internal Operations 

• Improve current back-office systems such as procurement processes and inventory management to support efficient and effective delivery of programs in-country  
• Lead implementation of GiveDirectly’s global procurement policy, including coordination with the Senior Manager Global Procurement, to ensure Malawi upholds the highest levels of compliance
• Review inventory and asset management systems and recommend improvements as necessary, including but not limited to: maintaining records of organizational property, strengthening protocols on staff handling of GD property and overall adherence to safe-storage policies, managing stock updates.

Increase the organization’s capacity for scale without compromising quality of product

• Train and supervise managers within the office management / admin functions 
• Enable rapid scale-up of the team through efficient deployment of staff to required settings and delivery of required services, equipment, and materials.  
• Assess, on an ongoing basis, resource/capacity gaps across the country office and proactively plan ahead to fill gaps 
• Design and implement solutions (e.g. human resources, technology, alternative supply chain mechanisms) to address key operational constraints blocking delivery at scale.
• Build skills and capacity within the Admin and Procurement function through proactive coaching, identifying skill development areas and opportunities for growth, and building a strong team culture. 

Identify and mitigate risk

• Identify key risk areas (e.g. supplier capacity, macroeconomic environment) to reduce the impact of anticipated/unanticipated operational roadblocks
• Build expertise within GiveDirectly’s administrative team on the national/local regulatory environment and compliance requirements 
• Support finance team in internal audit and financial review processes

Desired qualifications:

• 5-7 years of work experience in relevant procurement, logistics or operational roles
• Bachelors/Masters in a relevant field
• Strong alignment with GD values (see below) 
• Experienced people manager with demonstrated ability to deliver results through others and set up strong management processes
• Exceptional ability to logic through complex operational questions & run robust analyses to inform management and programming decisions 
• Exceptional written & verbal communication skills to be deployed for a range of audiences ( field teams, local and global leadership teams, regulatory authorities, service providers etc.) 
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a collaborative management style
• Enthusiasm for fast-paced environments, which may lack pre-defined playbook for success and involve significant “learning by doing”