Right Fit Evidence Senior Manager

IPA’s Right-Fit Evidence (RFE) Unit is seeking a Senior Manager to lead our work overseeing a variety of engagements for selected partners. Specifically, the Senior Manager will develop and oversee the delivery of a portfolio of  evidence- and learning-related advisory services such as theory of change and learning agenda development, technical assistance to implementing partners to develop and execute Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning (MEL) frameworks, leading ‘communities of practice’ among consortia of implementing organizations, and (depending on skill set) conducting evaluations.  The Senior Manager will also contribute to the strategic development of IPA’s Right-Fit Evidence Unit as a member of our leadership team.

Complementing the well-known work of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) on impact evaluations, the RFE Unit is a fast-growing unit in IPA that helps global development organizations more effectively use evidence to increase their impact. In collaboration with IPA’s sector, policy, and country teams, RFE advises organizations on designing and executing evidence-based learning strategies and plans. We are helping to improve the performance of the development sector by increasing the capacity of NGOs, funders, social businesses, and governments to learn and adapt.

The Senior Manager will provide technical leadership and management for a set of multi-partner engagements providing such advisory and technical assistance services to NGO, funders and government partners. Depending on your skillset, this may also include managing  developmental evaluations or process evaluations, typically in collaboration with an implementing partner’s own monitoring efforts and for the purposes of their own learning. Overall, the Senior Manager will provide intellectual leadership for the design, analysis, and write-up of those evaluations.

While you will likely get involved in work across multiple sectors, your portfolio may include projects relating to early childhood development and education, economic livelihoods, financial inclusion, or technology for development.

Compensation:
IPA's compensation structure is designed based on the labor market for the specific geographic location where the employee is located. We are offering the following salary ranges for this position: 
-   Senior Manager is classified as "C3" on IPA's global job structure.
-  For US based employees the starting annual gross salary is $ 77,598 with a maximum of $100,000
-  The salary for locations outside of the US will vary depending on IPA's salary scale ranges for that specific location.

Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, base salary of internal peers, business sector, and geographic location.

Responsibilities

You will report primarily to an (Associate) Director within the RFE Unit, but will work with different directors, associate directors, and other managers of the RFE unit on different engagements.

You will be expected to provide performance mentoring to 2-3 Advisors, and possibly some “dotted line” oversight to country office staff.

Leading the execution of a portfolio of advisory engagements (80-90%)

• Serve as the primary management-level point of contact for a wide range of clients (foundations, government agencies, NGOs, private companies, etc.)
• Manage a team of RFE unit staff to develop and implement tailor-made solutions for our clients’ MEL needs.
• Lead the design, analysis and write up of various kinds of studies, including developmental, process and outcome evaluations if this fits your skillset
• Advise and support IPA country office teams worldwide on their own technical assistance engagements with partners
• Design and facilitate various kinds of external MEL related workshops
• Oversee multiple Analysts, Associates, or Advisors and working on various RFE engagements, and support their professional development
• Track project deliverables and finances, ensuring high-quality outputs are delivered at- or under-budget

Take part in the development of the Right Fit Evidence Unit (10-20%)

• Lead on proposal development for a small portfolio of new potential engagements, mostly assigned, and possibly some self-initiated
• Be the main interface for the Right-Fit Evidence Unit for a set of active or potential funders, and occasionally represent the Unit in conferences or other similar events
• Take an active role in the refinement and implementation of the strategy of the RFE Unit at the global level, and in the continuous improvement of its various MEL service products

Qualifications

There are several different profiles that could fit this position particularly well (and if you don’t fall in any of these categories but feel like you meet the qualifications below, please do apply as well!):

• Management consultants with some international development experience who would be excited in a career shift to an entrepreneurial and impact-focused environment leveraging their skillset
• Evaluators and M&E practitioners who are interested in management consulting-style MEL advisory and evaluative work, and feel strongly about both credibility and actionability of evidence
• Researchers and research management professionals in international development who enjoy working closely with practitioners and are interested in broadening their scope to all the types of data and evidence that can inform decisions

You’ll likely be working across multiple sectors, but it will be a plus if you bring some expertise in the early childhood development and education sectors.

Required Qualifications

• Undergraduate or graduate degree in public policy, economics, international relations, development, or other related fields
• 5-10 years of relevant work experience
• Exposure to the design and management of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning systems
• Strong managerial experience and skillset
• Superior analytical, quantitative and conceptual thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to coach and train others on technical matters
• Strong client facing and presentation skills. Ability to present information in a structured and insightful way, both in writing and orally
• Self-starter, entrepreneurial mindset, versatility and strong multi-tasking skills
• Experience working in developing countries.
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.
• Ability to travel (up to 20%)
• Passion for making data-driven decision making a reality in the development sector

Preferred Additional Qualifications

• Prior experience in consultancy or similar professional services
• Familiarity with debates around MEL and the use of evidence
• Experience leading or managing project or program evaluations
• Appreciation for the strengths - and limitations - of various data collection and evaluation methods and ability to match the appropriate method(s) to a variety of circumstances
• Working knowledge of Spanish and/or French
• Knowledge of STATA or similar statistical software
• Familiarity with Survey CTO, ODK or similar data collection software