Back Sr. Officer- (MERL)

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Department Programs - Pact strives for a world where all people are heard, capable, and vibrant. The Programs Team helps realize this objective by bridging program management, technical support, and business development, enabling Pact to achieve its global strategy. We ensure program excellence through continuous learning, monitoring and evaluation and provide organizational and industry-wide thought leadership by leveraging a complementary set of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary skills, expertise, and experiences. The Programs team: influences progressive change through the development and implementation of global and regional strategies and business plans; supports advancement of innovative solutions; pursues new business opportunities; and drives effective internal and external engagement to maximize Pact’s impact across the globe. Across all aspects of its role, the Programs Department adheres to and promotes a culture of inclusion, accountability, and respect.

Position Overview

The Learning, Evidence and Impact (LEAP) Senior Officer leads on monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) at Pact and with Pact projects worldwide, with a particular focus on Spanish-speaking projects. They lead MERL system development during program start-up and provide technical direction on monitoring, evaluation, research and learning activities throughout the project lifecycle. Th This individual provides capacity development and backstopping to global MERL colleagues and manages LEAP team interns and consultants. They contribute to new business by leading the development of winning MERL designs in proposals, and championing or serving as technical writer for MERL-focused proposals. The LEAP Senior Officer is committed to learning new methods or approaches, employs them in supported programs, and shares learnings with LEAP colleagues and MERL COP members.

Key Responsibilities

Advance quality programming through technical MERL support to projects

• Lead on MERL start-up of new projects including but not limited to development of MEL plans, data management system setup, hiring of MERL staff, and preparations for baseline assessments.
• Provide technical guidance to a portfolio of Pact projects on all MERL activities throughout the project cycle, ensuring quality standards are met and that projects are using and generating evidence-based approaches and learnings.
• Lead on professional development and advance the capacities of Pact’s global staff by designing and providing in-country and remote training and mentoring to Pact offices on their MERL plans, outcome measures, data management strategy, data quality audits, use of data for decision making, among others.
• Support, including developing terms of reference, designing tools, providing sampling guidance, data analysis guidance, conducting data collection and analysis, leading a research team, and drafting and/or review of reports to ensure industry standards.

  Learning, Evidence, and Impact Institutional Support and Pact Growth

  • Lead on the development of winning MERL designs in proposals, including: theories of change, logical and results frameworks, measurement and metrics, research and other formative and summative assessment designs, imPact requirements (Pact’s instance of DHIS2) and draft MEL plans.
  • Advance Pact’s thought leadership broadly and on the topic of MERL specifically:
  • Serve as thought leader to further Pact’s reputation by participating in academic and professional conferences to publicize Pact’s MERL expertise and project results.
  • May contribute to LEAP external publication according to workplan and professional development goals.
  • Enhance Pact’s relationship with donors through leading quality and technically appropriate MERL activities responding to donor interest
  • Assist in maintaining and creating LEAP resource documents, giving trainings for our Community of Practice, and promoting knowledge management for MERL
  • Remain abreast of innovations and industry standards in MERL.

    All other duties as assigned

    Basic Requirements

    • Master's degree with six (6) years work experience or bachelor's degree with at least eight (8+) years work experience

      Preferred Qualifications

      • Master’s degree in social sciences, international development, or related field.
      • At least five years of experience working with international development programs and MERL systems, with at least two years in a low-resource setting.
      • Strong knowledge of MERL principles, including qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, tracking outcome indicators, and design of program evaluations using mixed methods.
      • Experience using Excel for data entry, management, cleaning, data manipulation, and analysis.
      • Demonstrated experience in project management and leading teams to produce deliverables on time.
      • Ability to work independently and to perform and prioritize multiple tasks.
      • Ability to establish and sustain interpersonal and professional relationships with Pact staff, donor organizations, and peer organizations.
      • Experienced in budget development and budget management.
      • Experience managing staff.
      • Experience implementing M&E systems for USAID, DFID, and other bilateral donors and/or foundations.
      • Fluency in Spanish
      • Ability to work with Asian and African time zones
      • Strong internet connection with ability to host video calls
      • Research and evaluation experience in integrated international development.
      • Experience with quantitative (SPSS, STATA) and qualitative analysis software, GIS systems, and/or data visualization software (NVivo, ArcGIS, Power BI, Tableau, etc.).
      • Familiarity with cloud-based data management systems
      • Ability to travel internationally up to 25% per year.