Job Description

R4D’s Evaluation and Learning Team seeks to leverage the best of design thinking, structured experimentation, and rigorous short- and long-cycle research methods to provide relevant and rapid feedback on programs in order to increase their impact. Our team is at the cutting edge of innovative monitoring, evaluation, and learning methods that result in improved programming that resonates within the local context and empowers implementing partners.

Opportunity:
R4D is seeking a Program Officer (PO) - Adaptive Learning Technical Lead to lead the development of high impact monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning activities to improve the impact of the Evaluation and Learning Team’s expanding work in the areas of adaptive learning and rapid-cycle evaluations. This includes work on topics like education, health, early childhood development, and child protection. The PO will support the management of the program’s impact evaluation efforts, operational research work, and monitoring & evaluation activities.

This position is based in Washington, D.C., and will report to the Program Director. There will be frequent travel based on project needs and the potential for eventual overseas placement.

Responsibilities:
Specific key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Study and intervention design:

• Support design of studies that include experimentation across treatment arms, and vary in degree of rigor from simple feedback experiments to rapid-cycle evaluations, randomized controlled trials, and other types of impact evaluations
• Develop effective data collection strategies and instruments and quality assessment tools
• Support and oversee design of interventions and strategies for piloting and assessing their effectiveness using a variety of methods (rapid RCTs, design thinking, structured experimentation, rigorous quantitative & qualitative research methods)

Study and intervention implementation:

• Oversee piloting and field testing of data collection instruments
• Lead “learning checks” where implementing partners come together to review data and findings, and develop action steps to iterate on the existing program
• Craft data quality control measures and implement quality control activities
• Conduct rapid impact assessments and report on findings to inform program design
• Manage technical teams, including overseeing external data collection partners

Analysis and Results Reporting:

• Lead and oversee data cleaning, processing, and analysis
• Develop high-quality, actionable materials to foster the use of results to drive decision-making including policy briefs, presentations, and technical reports to a range of audiences

Partner engagement:

• Manage relationships with internal and external experts, clients, and program managers involved in engagements
• Provide high quality counsel and support using rigorous evidence to program managers, funders, and other key stakeholders
• Support training and professional development for other staff and program stakeholders, including study coordinators supporting field research and program staff involved in monitoring and evaluation activities

The ideal candidate will have interest and experience using evidence to improve social impact, practice, and policy, and be an engaging and strategic thinker who will thrive in a fast-paced, open-structure, entrepreneurial, and multicultural environment. They must be able to successfully manage and prioritize multiple tasks or work streams, have a keen eye for detail, and have exceptional written and oral communication skills.

Experiencing conducting research in resource-limited settings, having independently coordinated and managed research firms, and/or has experience engaging with implementing partners in low- and middle-income countries desirable.

Qualifications:

• BA or MA in economics, public health, biostatistics, or other applied quantitative field
• 3-5 years of experience with a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, preferably related to global development issues
• Advanced econometric and statistical analysis skills with demonstrated hands-on experience with SAS, Stata, R, or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience in rigorous impact measurement and the use of data to inform decision-making for programs and/or policies
• Proven capacity synthesizing data into effective presentation of results
• Ability to digest and disseminate large amounts of data, and translate findings into impactful and actionable items and programmatic recommendations
• Eagerness to push the boundaries of monitoring, learning, adaptation and evaluation and help to develop new methods and ways of working
• Experience contributing to developing pipelines of projects through client engagement, strong proposal writing, and presentation of work
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
• Willingness to travel per project need

About the Organization

Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too.