The Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Advisor will provide technical management of organization-wide measurement and evidence collation. This new position sits in the Strategy, Innovation, and Evidence Office (SIEO) which is housed within the Office of the CEO and led by the Chief Strategy and Evidence Officer (CSEO.) The Advisor will work closely with the CSEO, the senior advisor of organizational evidence and evaluations, and other members of the SIEO team and will also collaborate extensively with teams across the organization. This is a hybrid position, requiring one day per week in the Washington DC office (typically Thursdays).
This individual will support organization-wide efforts at developing and collecting impact measurement indicators, working with multiple project teams across the organization to compile and report on FHI 360's overall social impact. Additionally, they will work with team members in the SIEO to review and summarize evidence and literature on various topics related to our organizational strategy and initiatives. They will also support the evidence and evaluations office in conducting specialized evaluations of organizational impact, including ex-post evaluations. The MERL Advisor will be expected to think critically, reviewing and interpreting reported data, research, and evidence to draw insights and synthesize evidence from multiple sources. This role is a combination of technical and interpersonal: the MERL Advisor will need to be comfortable working with data in various formats, reading and interpreting research, and synthesizing evidence from different sources, as well as interacting with people from around the world to understand and develop ideas for organizational learning.
Note: A cover letter is required for consideration.
Accountabilities:
Technical Requirements:
Provide technical leadership in a specific technical component and/or project wide activity.
Works on problems of moderate to complex scope that require evaluation of variable factors.
Networks with key internal personnel.
Supports the collection of organization-wide indicators and metrics, working with multiple projects across the organization.
Works with data analyst staff to prepare indicators for reporting in centralized dashboards, reports, and presentations to key audiences including the executive team, board, and funders.
Supports the development of measurement frameworks for specialized evaluations, such as ex-post evaluations of previously-completed projects.
โEmbodies the principles of locally led development, identifying and pursuing ways to support local staff and leaders in MERL efforts through collaboration and teamwork.
Participates in research projects, such as systematic literature reviews, to support organizational learning.
Reviews evidence from FHI 360 and external sources to compile best practices and inform organizational strategy.
Supports organizational learning efforts by combining aggregated metrics and recommendations from project and operational indicators, external evidence, systematic reviews, and other research streams.
Demonstrates good judgment in selecting methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining solutions, with some supervision.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Project Design Implementation:
With technical oversight, provide technical leadership in design, development, planning, implementation; and capacity- building of specific technical components of projects
Creates technical portion of the project plan, within the given resource and financial constraints
Leads the day to day technical and operational activities of assigned projects
Track delivery of project outputs
Maintains a constructive dialogue and technical exchange with field counterparts and technical staff members of implementing partners
Develops tools for the design and implementation of specific technical components
Ensures technical implementation is consistent with best practices in the industry / subject and meet client / funder contractual obligations for of one or more large functional areas
May supervise junior technical staff members, sub-contractors, and others implementing technical project work
Functions at the advisor capacity with oversight of technical project administrative and finance compliance, technical deliverables, and team management. (Includes projects and consultants)
Develops tools for the design and implementation of specific technical components
Leads the day-to-day technical activities of assigned projects
Track delivery of project outputs
Business Development and Client/Funder Support:
Collect data for inclusion in proposals
Participate in business development meetings with partners/clients as necessary.
Develop strategies to grow the business.
Participate in client / funder meetings and provide technical input as necessary.
Represents the organization and / or Institute to external entities at professional meetings and conferences.
Maintains collaborative relationships with donor/client organizations, relevant government agencies, bilateral and other NGOs (non governmental organizations) and consistently maintained and viewed as a knowledgeable resource in their technical area.
Continually maintains a dialogue and technical exchange with field counterparts and technical staff members of implementing partners.
Partner/Sub-Award Management:
May be daily POC (Point of Contact) with internal or external partners for some projects on technical matters.
Capacity Building, Training and Supervision:
Develops and implements technical training and capacity building interventions.
Identifies strategies to address training gaps, and learning gaps for the organization.
Operations Management (Finance, HR, etc.):
May manage the processes, services, planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling of all technical resources for a project.
Project/Program Reporting:
Drafts financial and technical reports.
Collates and uploads output and deliverables data to organizational data systems.
Prepares and delivers presentations to internal and external key stakeholders on progress.
Helps in the development and review of work plans.
Serves as the primary author for technical deliverables (e.g., reports, presentations, manuscripts).
Gathers and aggregates data to provide a summary/high level overviews.
Quality Assurance:
Ensures technical deliverables are consistent with best practices in the industry
Identifies areas for improved efficiency or effectiveness within prescribed parameters, and institutes enhancements to procedures.
Problem Solving & Impact:
Demonstrates the ability to assess needs within agreed upon duties and considers course of action best to meet those needs.
Effectively applies knowledge of technical area to solve a range of problems.
Demonstrates the ability to develop solutions to problems that cannot be solved using existing methods or approaches.
Faulty decisions/ recommendations /failures to complete assignments will normally result in serious delays to assigned projects resulting in considerable expenditure of additional time, resources, and funds.
Decisions and actions impact primarily workflow, project processes and timeframes.
Problems encountered are varied, requiring review of practices and precedents to resolve.
Problem solving involves evaluating and resolving discrepancies with data, analyses, processes, etc. within prescribed guidelines.
Policies or guidelines exist for most problems; others must be referred to by a supervisor or more senior professional.
Supervision Given/Received:
May supervise junior staff members, or manage consultants, subcontracts, or implementing partners for a defined project.
Coordinates own workflow and sets individual priorities.
Works under general guidelines for completion and accuracy as determined by the supervisor.
Accomplishes results through staff managers or through experienced staff who exercise independence in their assignments.
Serves as mentor to more inexperienced technical staff.
Reports to a Senior Advisor.
Qualifications:
Masterโs degree or its international equivalent in Knowledge/Information Services, Communications, Education, Environment, Health, Behavioral, Life/Social Sciences International Development, Human Development or Related Field.
8+ years of relevant experience in technical implementation of large international development or humanitarian projects and/or programs โ may manage activities of lower-level staff, however, main function is individual contributor.
Documented experience providing technical assistance and business development in one or multiple development sectors.
Prior work experience in a non-governmental organization (NGO), government agency, or private organization.
Past experience working on USAID-funded projects is strongly preferred.
Fluency in written and spoken English; ability to speak other languages is a plus.
Experience working on a research team, and/or conducting systematic reviews is a plus.
Experience with any coding and data management systems, such as: PowerBI, smartsheets, R, Python, Stata, SPSS, MySQL.
Strong knowledge and experience with development program reporting data, PIRS completion, and MERL systems.
Ability to manage data workflows and reporting; must have the ability to work with and manage numerical and qualitative data.
Exceptional organizational skills, including the ability to independently manage multiple priorities in parallel.
Demonstrated analytical skills; the ability to determine the best analytical approach and identify trends and themes from evidence.
Ability to motivate, influence, and work well with others to achieve goals.
Ability to synthesize evidence and draw meaning from large amounts of information from disparate sources to drive learning.