Role Description
The Director of Impact leads ĒMA’s Impact Team, ensuring that programs are data-informed, transparent, and continuously improving. This role provides strategic oversight, manages research partnerships, and ensures that monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) principles are embedded across the organization. The director is also the internal liaison for data needs across teams, ensuring that the Programs and Advancement teams have the right insights to drive program design and fundraising efforts.
While this role initially focuses on strengthening foundational impact measurement systems, it will progressively build innovative approaches to advance ĒMA’s ability to measure, evaluate, and improve program outcomes over time.
Key Responsibilities
Research & Learning (Strategy & Evidence Building)
- Lead the development of evidence-informed learning systems to improve program design, strategic planning, and organizational outcomes
- Develop and oversee a long-term learning agenda that integrates qualitative and quantitative findings into continuous program refinement
- Conduct and commission mixed-methods research (quantitative and qualitative) to assess family stability, program effectiveness, and impact trends
- Build and manage strategic research partnerships (e.g., ID Insight, IPA, universities, think tanks) that expand evaluation capacity and external collaboration
- Translate and disseminate research findings across ĒMA’s leadership, program teams, and external stakeholders to drive informed decision-making and fieldwide learning
- Cultivate a culture of reflection and adaptive learning across the organization, embedding learning into internal practices and planning cycles
- Ensure ethical and equitable research practices that reflect the lived experiences of families served and uphold standards for working with vulnerable populations
Monitoring & Evaluation (Program-Level Impact Measurement)
- Oversee monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure timely, accurate, and useful data collection for program improvement and accountability
- Design and maintain the family risk & stability assessment to track risk factors associated with family separation and evaluate changes over time
- Compare program data across affiliates, local chapters, and control groups to identify trends, quantify outcomes, and ensure consistency in reporting
- Establish and maintain feedback loops with clients, advocates, and affiliates to inform responsive, bottom-up program improvements
- Define M&E staffing needs and lead the hiring, training, and management of a support team as ĒMA’s capacity grows
- Provide the Programs team with timely insights, tools, and guidance to support continuous quality improvement and data-informed decision-making
Laying the Groundwork for Future Innovation
While the Director will begin with hands-on implementation of MEL activities, they will shape the long-term infrastructure of ĒMA’s impact function by:
- Building predictive analytics to identify early risk patterns and optimize interventions
- Developing AI-powered tools to strengthen program targeting, case pairing, and forecasting
- Exploring experimental research methodologies (e.g., A/B testing, RCTs, machine learning insights) to drive evidence-based innovation
- Expanding ĒMA’s research influence through strategic academic, philanthropic, and cross-sector collaborations
- Informing best practices in family stabilization, prevention, and maternal advocacy across the sector
Additional Expectations
- Occasional travel to South Florida
Qualifications and Skills Required
- Master’s degree in social sciences, public policy, economics, or a related field
- Proven experience designing and implementing mixed-methods impact measurement strategies
- Familiarity with MEL frameworks, ID Insight-style methodologies, or large-scale evaluation models
- Demonstrated ability to translate research into actionable insights for diverse internal and external stakeholders
- Experience conducting ethical research with vulnerable populations, with attention to equity and lived experience
- Strong leadership and project management skills, including cross-functional coordination and stakeholder engagement
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to tailor findings for both technical and non-technical audiences
Preferred
- PhD in social sciences
- Five or more years of experience leading research teams or managing strategic evaluation initiatives
- Familiarity in quasi-experimental and complexity-aware evaluation methodologies
- Experience developing internal learning agendas and building a learning culture within a mission-driven organization
- Prior work in child welfare, poverty alleviation, or maternal/family stabilization
- Experience securing and managing research partnerships with academic, philanthropic, or policy-focused institutions
- Working knowledge of data visualization, analytics tools, A/B testing, or predictive modeling platforms (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, R, or similar)
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: From $115,000.00 per year
Work Location: Remote
