Senior Malaria Researcher - 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. 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.

Update: We will stop accepting new applications for this role on November 26, 2026.

The Role

You will be joining a small grantmaking team to contribute to our ambitious research agenda on malaria. You’ll sift through the countless questions we could try to answer, honing in on those that matter most. You’ll also communicate externally about your work and mentor and advise other researchers on the team.

You will shape a research agenda that brings rigor and creativity to the thorniest questions the GiveWell malaria team faces. Your work will combine empirical evidence review and critical synthesis, cost-effectiveness modeling, discussions with subject matter experts, understanding of the broader context, and your own judgment. In the course of your work, you might approach questions like these:

• How should GiveWell’s portfolio of investments change in response to new technologies and shifts in government or funder priorities?
• How does expanding the use of newly-developed insecticides in nets affect cost-effectiveness?
• What is the potential cost-effectiveness of novel interventions such as attractive toxic sugar baits at scale across contexts?

Team Structure

Our research department has over 60 people, and is currently organized into seven teams:

• Domain Teams: Five teams (Water, Livelihoods, Nutrition, Malaria, and Vaccines) focus on specific areas of grantmaking.
• New Areas: Focuses on interventions in domains that are new to GiveWell.
• Cross-Cutting: Focuses on methodological issues, research quality, and other big-picture concerns that cut across all of our research work.
• Commons: Provides generalized research support to each of the other teams, including landscaping research, vetting, and publishing.

Our malaria team has three subteams: two of them focus on grantmaking in vector control and chemoprevention, respectively, and the third is focused on cross-team research questions. You might sit on any of the three subteams.

Team Values

• Truth-seeking: We care deeply and centrally about finding and sharing truth. Truth-seeking is one of our core values. We post our mistakes and prize team members who keep our culture of free-flowing feedback strong.
• Independence: We focus 100% on finding the most cost-effective opportunities to save and improve lives. We never ask our researchers to trade off against honesty or to hide their real beliefs.
• Efficiency: Once it’s clear that a particular research question is unlikely to change our bottom-line funding recommendation, we drop it quickly.
• High Impact: In 2026, our research team of ~80 people is directing close to $1 billion.
• Collaborative Culture: We maintain a high-performing, collegial culture and pay our staff accordingly.

About You

Required Qualifications

• A quantitatively oriented advanced degree (e.g., in epidemiology, statistics, economics, or related fields).
• Substantial professional experience in the malaria landscape (broadly defined), including epidemiological or health economics modeling, and/or program implementation or funding.

Mindset & Professional Qualities

• Energized by GiveWell’s mission and analytical approach to research.
• Exceptionally curious and open to constructive scrutiny of your work.
• Mindful of value judgments, background assumptions, and potential mental model errors.
• Precise and legibly communicative about confidence levels.
• Able to build strong external relationships while moderating directness when appropriate.
• Passionate about solving complex, gnarly research problems.
• Continuously assessing whether work is focused on top priorities.

Position Details & Compensation

• Compensation: We use a location-based tier system for base salary:
  • NYC or San Francisco Bay Area: $308,000
  • All other U.S. locations: $280,000
  • International (UK, Canada, Switzerland, Germany): Similar to the "all other U.S. locations" salary ($280,000 equivalent in local currency based on historical exchange rates).
• Benefits:
  • Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance (100% premiums covered in the US for staff and dependents).
  • Four weeks of paid time off (PTO) per year.
  • 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
  • Ergonomic home workstation setups or coworking space memberships.
  • Automatic contribution equal to 5% of gross salary into 403(b) retirement plan (for U.S. staff).
• Eligible Hiring Locations: US, UK, Canada, Switzerland, and Germany (must reside in or be willing to relocate to one of these countries).
• Visa Sponsorship: Possible in the US on a case-by-case basis. Work authorization is required for all other listed countries.
• Flexibility & Travel: Flexible hours and remote work supported. International site visits and conferences take place on average 1–2 times per year, alongside quarterly org-wide retreats.
• Employment Type: Full-time preferred (part-time considered; no contract/project-based work).