Job Description
The Director of Program Quality and Learning (PQL) will lead a seven-person team that delivers the analytics, results measurement, and learning that underpin and continuously advance Counterpart’s mission and impact. The two success outcomes for this position will be (1) proof that Counterpart’s strategies create measurable, sustainable social change; and (2) Counterpart’s partners and donors choose to work with Counterpart based on our evidence, methodologies, and commitment to continuous improvement.
The Director of PQL will be a creative, evidence-driven leader who delivers high-quality services to other functions of the organization, including Programs Operations, New Business Development, Communications, and the Executive Office. The Director will lead a team tasked with designing and supporting CLA (Collaboration, Learning and Adaptive Management) practices into all programs, and coaching other members of Counterpart’s global staff to successfully adopt CLA skills and business practices. The Director will ensure that data and information are harvested, analyzed, and turned into knowledge and guidance that helps the Counterpart global team improve design and practices. Finally, the Director will ensure that Counterpart continually seeks feedback from other organizations in the Counterpart ecosystem, to include Counterpart’s thousands of partners and grantees.
Primary Functions & Responsibilities:
- Lead and mentor a team of PQL professionals that are agile learners who can consistently deliver high-quality services to PQL’s internal and external customers
- Manage PQL strategies, practices, activities, and technical staff in a way that results in improved impact and aligns with Counterpart’s Growth and Innovation Strategy
- Oversee the development of a learning model (to include Theory of Change (TOC), Learning Agenda and MEL strategy) for Counterpart that identifies and instills capabilities and processes that will enable Counterpart to become a best-in-class learning organization
- Serve as custodian for Counterpart’s TOC – to be reviewed / updated annually
- Support the learning processes and capacity of Counterpart’s partners (including grantees and donors) and staff to create a robust learning environment that spans both direct and indirect (grantee) work
- Instill capabilities, processes, and pathways internally to ensure real-time learning – to include grantee feedback – to deliver evidence needed to improve program performance
- Establish an annual MEL budget drawing from both billed and overhead resources to ensure Counterpart’s learning agenda and MEL strategy is properly resourced
- Establish and oversee performance monitoring systems, evaluation and research projects through articulation of standards, guidelines, processes, and train Counterpart staff as required
- With NBD, ensure that every project has a MEL strategy that is aligned with and strengthens the organizational MEL strategy and meets donor positioning needs
- With IT, direct the design and maintenance of CPI Knowledge Management systems, ensuring timely tactical knowledge management for all staff and real-time strategic information for leadership and decision-making, and donor accountability and positioning
- Identify, recruit and manage staff and consultants as required for MERL activities
- Ensure creation and curation of micro-learning communities around key Counterpart methodologies and thematic areas
- Build organization-wide skills in use of “pause and reflect” and partner/grantee feedback to achieve state-of-the-art CLA methods
- Conduct quality control and sign off on all impact evaluation reports to donors
- Produce Counterpart’s Annual Organization Learning Report
- Seek out external funding for Counterpart’s MEL strategy, both within projects and from third party funders
- Perform any other duties as assigned.
Position Requirements:
- Curiosity and forward-leaning desire for new evidence and knowledge: innovative, exploratory, pragmatic technophile
- Deep customer engagement skills: ability to understand internal and external customers’ hunger for and need for evidence, engagement, and learning, and to design solutions that meet those needs
- Ability to develop MEL strategy that delivers credible proof of value and extracts learning effectively and consistently from each project and aligns with Counterpart’s Theory of Change
- Ability to right-size MEL strategy to different resource levels (high v. low-resource settings)
- Deeply collaborative: ability to co-create and co-implement strategies across complex systems/organizations, including engagement of external stakeholders (clients, grantees, partners)
- Master’s Degree in International Development-related field strongly preferred.
- 15+ years’ experience in International Development with significant experience in performance monitoring, process and impact evaluation, KM strategies and systems, business process re-engineering, data governance, change leadership
- Project Management experience and PMI / Prince2 qualifications if possible
- Proven ability to manage staff and consultant experts and deploy to meet organization’s needs
- Proven analysis, reporting, and written communication skills, including ability to write cogent, evidence-based syntheses
- Appreciative approach to team-building, engagement, and learning
- Ability to travel internationally as required
