LEAD ECONOMIST | DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC EVALUATION

Job Description

JOB SUMMARY

As the Lead Economist | Director of Economic Evaluation, you will play a pivotal role in shaping how CARE measures and maximizes the value for money in our global programs, ensuring every dollar spent drives the maximum impact. You will provide global leadership for CARE USA’s use of economic evaluation, generating critical evidence on the cost-effectiveness, efficiency, affordability, and scalability of our solutions. This role will lead the institutionalization of value for money as a core decision-making lens across CARE, positioning us as a sector leader in delivering quality, community-driven impact.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership & Institutionalization of Value for Money

Lead the development and execution of an organization-wide strategy to systematically integrate economic evaluation and value for money (VfM) principles into CARE’s programming and decision-making frameworks. This responsibility is critical to achieving CARE’s 2030 vision of becoming a global leader in community-driven impact per dollar. 

Principal Tasks:

• Develop and implement a strategic roadmap to embed economic evaluation evidence into design, budgeting, and evaluation processes to optimize resource use and scale cost-effective solutions. 
• Lead and mobilize technical support for cost analysis across the organization, with a goal to unlock significant cost-efficiency gains in our top programs. 
• Lead fundraising efforts to grow the Economic Analysis function, including through proposal writing and developing relationships with donors focused on return on investment. 
• Collaborate with Finance, IT, and Digital departments to develop and integrate systems (like PeopleSoft, Power BI) and tools (like Dioptra’s costing tools) that enable all teams to conduct cost analysis easily. 
• Institutionalize VfM thinking by embedding cost-efficiency checkpoints and decision tools across CARE’s program and product lifecycles.

Technical Oversight of Impact & Economic Evaluations

Lead and oversee CARE’s VfM evidencing agenda, strengthening impact evaluations and cost analysis efforts to build a robust case for the cost-effectiveness of our work. This ensures our programs are not only cost-effective but also have the potential for scalability. 

Principal Tasks: 

• Provide strategic leadership on CARE’s impact evaluation portfolio, overseeing a pipeline of evaluations and strengthening processes for high-quality data collection, analysis, and use. 
• Develop and manage a sub-team of economic evaluation experts and roster of vetted costing consultants 
• Lead the establishment and operation of country-based “Impact Efficiency Labs” to co-create and test cost-effective design innovations in priority countries. 
• Guide teams in using evidence to make the economic case for programming, focusing on cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of proposed approaches.

VfM Thought Leadership, Partnership and Sector Influence

Represent CARE externally and leverage strategic partnerships to shape sector practice around Value for Money, amplifying our ability to generate and use evidence. This responsibility positions CARE as a leader in applying cost-effectiveness to outcomes that matter for women and girls. 

Principal Tasks: 

• Develop, nurture, and evaluate global strategic partnerships with academic and research institutions, technical partners, and consortia around VfM 
• Translate and present complex data and evidence to promote its use in decision-making for internal and external audiences, including donors and policymakers. 
• Represent CARE in key external forums and meetings, shaping the sector’s conversation on “quality value for money” with a focus on women-centered design. 
• Lead the creation of public-facing knowledge products, such as a “VfM Casebook,” to document and share learnings on how cost-effectiveness improves outcomes.

Required Qualifications:

• PhD in Economics or a related field
• 8-10 years of professional experience in impact evaluation and economic evaluation, including cost-effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and cost-benefit analysis.
• Proven experience leading and managing research and evaluation teams, including geographically dispersed teams.
• Successful track record of fundraising for research and evaluation through proposal development and donor engagement.
• Strong track record of translating complex data and evidence into actionable insights for non-technical audiences to inform program, policy, and advocacy decisions.
• Experience building and managing strategic partnerships with academic institutions, technical organizations, and other NGOs.
• Excellent data analysis, writing, and presentation skills.
• Substantial professional experience working in low- and middle-income countries

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proficiency with CARE’s preferred digital tools for data collection, analysis and visualization (e.g., Power BI, DHIS2, KoboToolBox, R), with experience using the Dioptra costing tool strongly preferred.
• Experience working in a large, complex international development or humanitarian organization
• Professional proficiency in French or Spanish

About the Organization

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CARE is an Equal Opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

Starting salaries are based on internal equity, candidate experience, and the cost of labor where the job is based. Salaries listed only apply to jobs based in the US.