Director, Monitoring & Evaluation

Position specification

Director, Monitoring & Evaluation

Peter G. Peterson Foundation

New York, NY

ABOUT THE PETERSON FOUNDATION

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation (“Foundation”) is working to secure a healthy, growing economy by addressing America’s long-term fiscal and economic challenges. The Foundation partners with leading decision-makers in government, policy, academia, media, business and issue/constituent groups to build support for solutions to put America on a sustainable fiscal and economic path. As a non-partisan organization, the Foundation engages in grant-making, partnerships and research to educate and involve Americans from a variety of perspectives. Learn more at pgpf.org.

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

The Peterson Foundation is seeking a Director, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) to build, execute, and oversee the Foundation’s evaluation activities with a goal of understanding the effectiveness of the Foundation’s initiatives, demonstrating the impact of promising approaches, and informing strategic program decision making.

The Director, M&E will contribute to a culture of shared learning that increases the Foundation’s impact and advances the Foundation’s mission by supporting ongoing improvement and adaptation. The Director, M&E will coordinate with leadership to publish select assessment findings as well as collaborate with, seek guidance and input from, and create relationships with program leaders.

Primary Responsibilities Include:

Evaluation and Assessment

• Designs and directs the Foundation’s strategic performance assessment process including:
  • Designs the performance assessment framework and process across the Foundation and for programs to identify and track relevant, measurable, and strategic metrics and outcomes.
  • Works with program leaders to inform the Foundation’s planning process, which includes gathering data, assessing progress to date, analysis of current context and opportunities, and identification of annual priorities.
  • Directs projects that gather feedback from key constituents, including grantees, Foundation staff, external partners (e.g., consultants), and community stakeholders.
• Provides expertise and guidance for evaluation, monitoring and other program-related assessment activities including:
  • Supports program staff on the design and execution of specific program evaluations, advising on monitoring and impact indicators, data collection plans, and grantee involvement.
  • Prepare program staff to lead ongoing program evaluation and monitoring oversight; consult as needed to ensure success.
• Collaborates with program and communications staff to synthesize lessons and findings of evaluations and other relevant assessments, including identifying target audiences, key messages, and effective formats and products as well as opportunities for sharing with the field.

Learning

• In consultation with Foundation leadership and program leaders, develops and implements a learning agenda for Foundation staff, with a focus on best practices in grantmaking, outreach/communications, and developments and innovations in the Foundation’s areas of focus.
• Encourages and assists program staff in leveraging the current data and learnings to accelerate progress toward strategic goals.
• Contributes to a culture of learning, inquiry, experimentation, understanding of and tolerance for risk, and a commitment to learning from failures.
• Informs all assessment and programmatic activities by staying current on emerging practices in planning, impact assessment, and learning, including new ways to assess prototyping, piloting, scaling, and dissemination of work.

ABOUT THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE:

The Director, M&E will be accomplished in monitoring and evaluation with strong technical expertise in program evaluation and/or applied research across multiple and complex programmatic efforts, including design of experiments, logic models, and applied statistics. They will use this experience with excellent strategy, collaboration, and communications skills to establish a new, robust M&E function.

You should have/bring:

• A minimum of 10+ years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, preferably in philanthropy, policy research, think tanks, applied economics, public policy, and/or consulting.
• Demonstrated skills in both quantitative and qualitative research and data analysis methods.
• Track record of strong intellectual engagement, problem solving, and analytical skills.
• Capable of planning and thinking strategically, setting realistic goals and objectives, balancing multiple priorities, and managing project details.
• Ability to successfully collaborate with colleagues and organizational leadership across functions and disciplines in policy, research, and academic settings.
• Enthusiasm for building a new learning discipline from the ground up within an organization.
• Self-directed, adaptable, and a quick, nimble learner who enjoys facing new situations and the challenge of ambiguity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize learnings into clear, concise, and compelling PowerPoint presentations and the personal presence to represent the Foundation in diverse forums and organizational relationships.
• Experience using Excel and a statistical software program; experience with data visualization a plus.
• Motivated by and committed to the Foundation’s mission.

EDUCATION: Master’s degree in a relevant discipline preferred.

COMPENSATION: Salary and benefits are competitive and commensurate with experience.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply for this position.

Please email cover letter and resume or nominations in confidence to: PGPF@sandlersearch.org