Senior Water Researcher

GiveWell

Senior Water Researcher at GiveWell dedicated to directing funding to cost-effective water interventions. Leading research and grant investigations to improve global water quality.

Posted 6/24/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $280,000 - $308,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Create and lead ambitious research agendas related to our portfolios of work and answer complex questions that will inform GiveWell's grantmaking decisions.
Join a small grantmaking team to contribute to our ambitious research agenda on water.
Sift through the countless questions we could try to answer, and hone in on those that matter most.
Communicate externally about your work and mentor and advise other researchers on the team.
Shape a research agenda that brings rigor and creativity to the thorniest questions the GiveWell water team faces.
Own grant investigations end-to-end (from research question through grant recommendation) and represent GiveWell to external counterparts.

Requirements

What you’ll need

A quantitatively oriented advanced degree (e.g., in epidemiology, environmental engineering, environmental health, public health, economics, or related fields).
Substantial professional experience in the water sector or an adjacent field (broadly defined). This could include experience in water quality, WASH, water infrastructure, environmental health modeling, or in program implementation, evaluation, or funding. We're especially interested in candidates with hands-on familiarity with water systems, epidemiology, or both. We don't expect any single candidate to have deep expertise across all of the areas we're exploring (chlorination, filtration, in-line UV, water access, market shaping, R&D), and we're happy to consider strong researchers whose expertise sits in any subset of these.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the US for you and any dependents)
Four weeks of paid time off per year, plus a one week organization-wide summer break
16 weeks of fully paid parental leave
Ergonomic home workstations or coworking space memberships
Automatic contribution equal to 5% of your gross salary into your 403(b) retirement plan (for U.S. based staff)

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

epidemiologyenvironmental engineeringenvironmental healthpublic healtheconomicswater qualityWASHwater infrastructureenvironmental health modelingprogram evaluation

Soft Skills

communicationmentoringadvisingresearch agenda developmentcreativityrigorproblem-solvingteam collaborationgrant investigationexternal representation