Senior Communications Officer, Media & Public Affairs - GiveWell

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.

We're hiring a Senior Communications Officer, Media & Public Affairs to lead how GiveWell's work is represented in the media and in public conversations. You will set our strategy, build trusted relationships with journalists and other influential voices, pursue opportunities that increase understanding of GiveWell's work, and lead our external response in fast-moving situations.

This role will lead a small and growing team. This is one of three new communications leadership roles, alongside a Senior Communications Officer, Strategic Communications 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. The three Senior Communications Officers will work together on many projects to support GiveWell's communications needs, while working closely with other leaders across our organization. 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.

In this hands-on leadership position, you'll own how and where GiveWell engages in media and public conversations, 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.

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, Media & Public Affairs, you will combine long-term strategy and relationship-building with the ability to respond quickly and exercise sound judgment in sensitive or fast-moving situations.

Specific duties will include:

• Strategy & Planning: Set GiveWell's strategy across media, thought-leader engagement, online communities, public forums and events, and other earned communications opportunities.
• Relationship Building: Build and maintain high-trust relationships with journalists, editors, podcast hosts, event organizers, thought leaders, subject-matter experts, and other influential external stakeholders.
• Storytelling & Pitching: Identify, develop, and pitch substantive stories, event opportunities, and thought-leadership ideas that extend understanding of GiveWell's work.
• Inbound Media Management: Own inbound media engagement, including rapid-response situations, close coordination with subject-matter experts, and careful judgment on messaging.
• Issues Management: Build and maintain GiveWell's readiness for sensitive or fast-moving situations, monitor emerging issues, and lead external responses.
• Executive Advisory: Advise GiveWell's leadership on external opportunities and prepare senior leaders and subject-matter experts for interviews and public appearances.
• Risk Evaluation: Exercise sound judgment about when and how GiveWell should enter public conversations, evaluating likely value, reputational considerations, and risks.
• Partnerships: Evaluate and help shape public-facing communications partnerships and advise on participation.
• Spokesperson: Serve as a spokesperson for GiveWell in select media interviews, events, and other public forums.
• Grantees & Partners: Work with grantees and partners on press releases and media-facing communications involving shared work.
• Team Management: Manage and develop one or two team members initially, building systems and additional capacity 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.

Qualifications

• Experience: 10+ years of experience in media relations, thought leadership, and public engagement in complex, high-stakes environments.
• Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to quickly make complex ideas clear and compelling without sacrificing rigor or nuance.
• Leadership Track Record: Demonstrated experience building or substantially rebuilding a team/function, hiring, developing, and managing people.
• Craft Excellence: Recent, hands-on experience producing or substantially shaping communications work over the past few years.
• Intellectual Curiosity: Ability to engage deeply with GiveWell's research and ideas, even without prior experience in global health/giving areas.
• Executive Advising: Experience advising executives or other senior decision-makers directly.
• Values Alignment: Strong alignment with GiveWell's mission, truth-seeking, transparency, and accuracy.

Key Questions & Information

What are some of the reasons I might not like this role?

• You want to step into a mature function with established systems rather than build one while running it.
• You prefer clear direction and established priorities rather than setting your own.
• You prefer advising on communications rather than producing and being accountable for them.
• You want sole ownership of an organization's overarching communications strategy and brand (which is owned by the CEO and executive team).
• You want to lead a large team from day one.
• You find standards of precision and understatement limiting and frustrating.

Can I apply to more than one of the Senior Communications Officer roles?
You can, but most people shouldn't. We're looking for deep expertise in specific areas. Apply for the role you are most qualified for, and we'll let you know if another role suits you better.

Interview Process:

• Application
• Interview with Talent Acquisition Team
• Compensated work trial
• Interview with Chief of Staff to the CEO
• Values interview
• CEO interview and References