Senior Data Scientist, MNO Data

# Senior Data Scientist, MNO DataAI SummaryGiveDirectly seeks a senior data scientist to develop repeatable methods for inferring residence, displacement, and potentially poverty signals from mobile network operator data. The role combines spatio-temporal statistical modeling, method specification, validation, and adaptation to sparse, high-volume operator datasets. The hire will guide external engineering teams, support privacy-by-design technical decisions, and train internal stakeholders on data limitations. It is a fully remote international role with substantial travel of roughly 25-50%, including possible short-notice travel for emergency responses.Experience: SeniorSee how your resume can be rewritten and optimized for this specific job. PRO identifies relevant strengths, missing keywords, and opportunities to present your experience more clearly.**Illustrative PRO preview** Example output format. 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I would welcome the opportunity to bring these strengths to your team and contribute to **[business objective]**...Opportunity details## About this role.**About GiveDirectly**Since 2011, GiveDirectly has proven that idea at scale. We've delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty and crisis across 15 countries, and rigorous research shows the results: healthier kids, stronger businesses, sturdier homes, and more resilient families and local economies. Cash is now widely recognized as one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid.Our ambition goes beyond our own programs. We want cash to become the benchmark for aid, much as the index fund became the benchmark for investing, so that every aid dollar is held to one question:**We're growing fast, and this is a rare and important moment to join.**We expect to hit $1B in revenue in 2026 with significant growth forecast for 2027. At the same time we are building a new technology stack and operating model designed for a roughly 10x change in scale, and we are actively pursuing partnerships with major funders to move even more money in bigger ways, to people who need it. We are known for our extensive integration of technology into field processes; our quantitative approach to performance measurement; and our commitment to rigorous, independent, experimental evaluation of our impact, with multiple Randomized Control Trials completed and others in progress.**How we work**Our team spans 20+ countries and 69 languages. Our culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We expect high ownership and give people real responsibility early. Our values are central to how we hire, work, and grow, and they are deliberately opinionated:1. **Recipients first.** Recipients' preferences come before those of donors or ourselves.2. **Team next.** We optimize for organizational success, not individual success.3. **Be proactively candid.** We say what we believe and share information openly.4. **Create positive energy.** We aim to be a source of energy for colleagues, not a drain.5. **Think rigorously; act quickly.** We reason from first principles, then act rather than debate.6. **Know yourself and grow.** We own our imperfections and seek feedback to grow.7. **Accept reality. Propose solutions.** We focus on what can change and bring solutions, not just problems.8. **Be productively ambitious.** We take risks for step-change impact, not incremental progress.If they describe how you like to work and they energize you, this could be a great fit.We are one of Most Influential Companies of 2026, and our work has been covered by,,, and. We're now preparing to deliver billions of dollars a year to people in extreme poverty, if funding allows. on what that will take.**About this role**We are hiring a Senior Data Scientist to progress our work on location inference from MNO data, and to make it repeatable. Your job is to improve and extend our library of method templates, adapt them to each new operator and setting, and design new elements when an intervention requires it. You'll assess what can be inferred from a given operator's data, specify the analysis clearly enough for their data engineers to implement, then test it with them remotely or on site. You'll support introductory meetings with MNOs, describing methodologies at a high level, and inform the work of data privacy and cybersecurity teams to ensure only necessary data are shared securely. You'll also help colleagues across GiveDirectly understand the strengths and limitations of this data source, so we design programs around questions it can best answer.This work is live in several countries, and we're expanding it across the countries where we have offices and to low- and middle-income countries anywhere in the world when a crisis hits.**Reports to:** Senior Product Manager - MNO data**Level**: Senior Manager**Location:** At this stage of GiveDirectly's growth and scale, we're prioritizing hiring in the countries below, where we can employ you through a GD entity or an established employer of record: Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, DRC, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, and United States. This list reflects where our employment infrastructure is established today, and may evolve as we grow. If you're based elsewhere and not open to relocation, we may not be able to consider your application for this role right now, but we'd encourage you to check back. *Please note that we are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time.***Travel Requirement:** Substantial international travel, roughly 25 to 50% of your time depending on emergencies, sometimes at short notice - for workshops with operators to support programs and emergency responses.**What you'll do:*** Improve and extend our library of analytical method templates for establishing where people live from MNO data, and depending on circumstances, for detecting displacement or estimating poverty. Design novel methods when an intervention requires it.* Support colleagues in technical conversations with operators, bringing clarity on the data we need and why, and steering discussions toward technical designs that make the analysis workable.* Assess the information that can be inferred from each operator's data given data types and sparsity, and for each geography and targeted area. Support intervention #J-18808-Ljbffr