Vice President, Impact Evaluation Services

Social Impact’s mission is to improve the effectiveness of international development programs in improving people’s lives. SI provides a full range of innovative management consulting, technical assistance, evaluation, planning and training services to strengthen international development programs, organizations and policies. SI is rapidly emerging as a leading consultancy providing impact and performance evaluation services to major USG clients, development banks and other bilateral and multilateral aid agencies.

The majority of our evaluation work comes from contracts with USAID and MCC with new Evaluation umbrella contracts with State Department, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and DFID. SI has experienced rapid growth in the Impact Evaluation Practice in the past several years and has some 30 IEs underway and a full time IE staff of 12 plus an additional 40 staff members specialized in performance evaluations using mixed methods approaches.

The Vice President for Impact Evaluation will provide a vision and strategy for the IE Center, technical direction, leadership and oversight for the Center, and be responsible for the overall growth, quality and financial performance of SI’s IE portfolio. The Vice President will also be Chief of Party and Senior Technical Advisor on selected major IE contracts such as the USAID E3 Impact Evaluation portfolio and MCC impact evaluations. This position will report directly to SI’s President and will coordinate closely with SI’s Vice President for Evaluation Services (who leads SI’s Performance Evaluations and long-term M&E Support contracts for USAID missions). The position will be supported by an IE Senior Director, Deputy, IE Technical Specialists, IE Program Managers and Project Assistants to support central technical and management functions.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Serve as Technical Director on selected impact evaluation indefinite quantity contracts (IQCs) and major IE contracts, working with SI clients to develop and clarify their impact evaluation agendas and to support the integration of impact evaluation into client project design.
2. Work with SI technical staff to respond to requests for proposals and task order proposals, conceptualizing and writing evaluation technical proposals, accessing top academic talent and other top IE specialists, ensuring high quality deliverables, and coordinating with SI’s other IE partners such as MPR, IPA, IFPRI and RTI to ensure the highest quality impact evaluations.
3. Conceptualize and implement a marketing/business strategy to build SI’s Impact Evaluation Practice. This includes developing opportunities with new and existing clients, tracking upcoming RFPs, leading proposal development teams, networking, etc.  The strategy will include specific business growth targets.  This work will be done in conjunction with SI’s President, Vice Presidents and SI’s Director of Business Development
4. Provide technical assistance on selected IE projects, including designing IEs, directing implementation and assisting with problem solving.
5. Work closely with SI’s IE staff to implement quality assurance procedures across the entire IE evaluation portfolio, providing technical oversight for the IE portfolio and working with the IE Center Deputy to allocate work flow and ensure high rate of billable time for IE staff.
6. Serve as a thought leader and high level representative for SI in the wider development community on matters related to international development impact evaluation and enhancing development effectiveness.
7. Mentor and support the professional development of SI’s full time IE Center staff, including staff management and development of internal learning opportunities.
8. Participate in selected impact evaluation training programs for SI clients.
9. Collaborate with SI’s other practice areas to ensure design and implementation of high quality mixed methods in their work and in the IE Center’s work and ensure IE Center support of activities and projects in SI’s other practice areas when their work requires IE or associated expertise such as survey design and implementation, GIS mapping, etc.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

1. Minimum 10 years of experience in leading and conducting impact evaluations for international development programs across sectors, including water and sanitation, infrastructure, rural development, environment and natural resources management, governance, health and education.
2. Demonstrated experience working with USAID, MCC, the World Bank, and other bilateral and multilateral agencies to provide technical leadership and oversight for portfolios of impact evaluations.
3. Demonstrated experience managing large government contracts with positive results. Strong team management skills and ability to track multiple deadlines and provide quality assurance and technical inputs for multiple IE deliverables under tight deadlines.
4. Strong business development experience/networks with evaluation units of international development agencies.
5. Extensive experience leading and supervising impact evaluation teams and consultants for evaluations in multiple sectors including governance, agriculture and rural development, health and education.
6. Proven evaluation proposal writing and proposal management skills.
7. Technical expertise in one or more sectors a strong plus.
8. Publication record for impact evaluations required, with publications in peer reviewed journals strongly preferred.
9. Strong leadership, entrepreneurial, management, writing and verbal communication skills a must.
10. PhD in Social Sciences with an emphasis in economics preferred.
11. Ability to work in a fast-paced business environment.
12. Willingness to travel on assignment a minimum of 25% of the time.

PAY AND BENEFITS

Pay and benefits will be commensurate with the candidate’s capabilities and experience. Standard benefits include paid leave, health insurance, SEP-IRA, and other benefits.

Come join our energetic and innovative team!  We offer you the opportunity to play a leading role in the growth of our company, work as part of a creative and committed team, and make a difference in the well-being of our world.

For more about Social Impact, please visit our website: http://www.socialimpact.com

Interested candidates, please forward CV, cover letter, 3 professional references, at least two writing samples (preferably published evaluation reports, especially those for USAID projects), and salary requirements to DevHire:

http://socialimpact.devhire.devex.com/jobs/328146

Candidates must be eligible to work in the US without visa sponsorship.

We will contact only eligible candidates to further discuss their availability.  Please no phone calls.  Social Impact is an equal opportunity employer.