iMentor is seeking an experienced professional to lead iMentor’s Organizational Learning and Impact (OLI) team, which oversees the measurement, analysis, and communication of the impact iMentor is having on students, mentors, schools and communities. The Managing Director of Research and Evaluation (MDRE) sets strategy and leads a team of four people who manage all research and evaluation activities for the organization. In this role, the MDRE is responsible for ensuring a deep understanding among internal and external stakeholders of iMentor’s short- and long-term learning agendas.
The MDRE informs iMentor’s learning agenda, engages in data and measurement to inform strategic planning, provides guidance and support for program monitoring and evaluation, and leads or contributes to research partnerships and capacity building, including pilots and projects, both internal and external to iMentor. This role is an exciting opportunity for a candidate with a deep background in research and evaluation, management, and strong qualitative and quantitative analytic skills to contribute to the continued growth, learning, and success of a national, EdTech-centered mentoring organization. The ideal candidate will also have a background in developing organizational learning practices and/or a clearly articulated vision for the work.
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Key Responsibilities
The OLI team is primarily responsible for helping iMentor evaluate and learn from our program models, ensuring a thorough understanding of the impact of our programs and partnerships. The MDRE develops strategy and vision for the work of the OLI team, which includes annual and multi-year cycles of evaluation and learning, and support for program design and implementation through the management and dissemination of metrics and benchmarks from which to measure organizational success.
In addition, the MDRE leads their team to perform in the following areas:
Program Research, Evaluation, and Learning
- Serve as the team leader for Organizational Learning and Impact, participating in strategic planning, and ensuring high quality, innovative monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning approaches for iMentor’s mentoring programs and partnerships.
- Lead the continued development of evidence-based program standards, promoting the application of learning for better program design, implementation, and evaluation; elevating organizational understanding of connections between program activities and outcomes.
- Set technical standards and priorities, maintaining and improving existing learning, measurement, and evaluation tools to ensure work across iMentor is informed and guided by qualitative and quantitative data.
- Promote the application of research and evaluation best practices as a key element of program implementation.
- Build and maintain iMentor’s data warehouse, improving data collection and management tools intended to evaluate the impact of iMentor’s programming, ensuring data integrity and accuracy.
- Engages key internal and external stakeholders (e.g. the Center for First-generation Student Success) to design and oversee the research related to iMentor’s widespread impact goals within the current strategic framework
- Contribute to impact studies and program evaluations, including development of tools and protocols, analytic plans, and communication materials.
- Ensure production of high-quality reports and data visualizations, such as iMentor’s long-term outcomes, external stakeholder reports, annual program performance evaluations, and reporting to meet program-specific needs.
- Maintain and improve iMentor’s articulation of a logic model that guides programmatic and partnership activities.
- Create evaluation plans for new bodies of work undertaken by iMentor, including programmatic pilots.
Strategic Leadership & Collaboration
- Lead organization-wide learning agenda, including refinement of learning questions, methods for capturing learning, and documentation; elevating the most pressing programmatic and organizational questions to answer in order to have a transformational impact on how we run our program and partnerships.
- Liaise with the National Program Team to identify, create, disseminate, and apply learning to our program and partnership models.
- Sit on the organizational strategic implementation team, coordinating strategic initiatives including iMentor’s capacity building initiatives, and strategic research partnerships.
- Train, develop, coach, and lead OLI staff, clearly communicating organizational and team priorities, and team understanding of how their work contributes to our mission, ensuring that the working environment continually fosters iMentor’s core values, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
- In collaboration with fundraising, business development, and regional leadership teams, support efforts to secure and diversify funding, including being responsive to data-related requests.
- Works collaboratively and effectively with national and regional team leaders in order to facilitate the use of data to drive decision making and action.
- Represent iMentor at conferences and external events related to program impact and contribute to meetings related to mentoring research and evaluation.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Master’s degree or equivalent experience required; advanced degree in quantitative/qualitative analysis, psychology, sociology, policy or any of the social sciences preferred.
- A minimum of 8 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning, preferably including providing technical advice, guidance, and direction to mentoring or education-related programs and grants.
- Proven qualitative and quantitative research skills required, including but not limited to study design, survey instrument design and use, sampling, data analysis plans, data cleaning, statistical analysis, presentation and reporting, and communication of results.
- Experience implementing strong data warehousing/management practices, including ensuring accuracy, quality, and consistency of data.
- Skilled in experimental design; establishing strategy for proposals and/or programmatic pilots.
- Experience leading Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) to understand broader impact, using smaller scale studies.
- Demonstrated knowledge of program evaluation, including promoting understanding at a student level.
- Outstanding analytical ability, with advanced statistical knowledge and facility with database application, research services, and statistical packages;
- Exceptional project management and planning skills, with demonstrated success in producing high-quality deliverables on time and within budget;
- Excellent strategic and systems-thinking skills, with the ability to operationalize concepts and transform ideas into action as well as apply research findings to ongoing program development;
- Proven track record in leading successful collaborations across various internal and external stakeholder groups.
- Experience working collaboratively in a fast-paced, cross-functional mission-driven environment, including establishing and promoting a learning agenda.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to engage and inspire others using data-informed information, and data visualization (e.g. Tableau) to communicate complex material in an easy-to-understand manner.
- Extensive experience with both quantitative and qualitative research methods, tool design, and validation.
- Successful experience managing a multi-functional research and evaluation team to achieve shared results, utilizing equitable and sustainable practices.
Compensation & Benefits
- Salary $130,000 - 150,000 commensurate with experience
- Up to 100% employer funded comprehensive medical and dental coverage
- 18 days paid annual vacation (increasing annually to 21, 23, 25), 13 paid holidays+ your birthday + one floating holiday, iMentor closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day, plus 6-7 sick days annually
- 401K match up to 4%
- Flexible Home/Office/School working arrangement
- Pre-tax commuter benefits
- Dependent care and health care flexible spending plans
- 1 hour of wellness time off per week for wellness activities of your choosing
- Flexible personnel wellness budget for reimbursements or marketplace purchases
- Every staff member is eligible for organization-sponsored professional development annually
- 9 weeks of paid parental leave
About iMentor
Celebrating 25 years of impact, iMentor is one of the most innovative college success organizations in the country. iMentor believes that all students deserve an equitable chance to pursue their ambitions. Our program builds authentic mentoring relationships in order to bring greater equity to our students’ educational journeys. Through these long-term relationships, first-generation students of color from underserved communities increase their access to the knowledge, experiences, and resources required to succeed in college or their post-secondary pathway of choice, and to pursue their career ambitions.
By partnering with public schools serving primarily first-generation college students and providing every student in the school with a mentor, iMentor supports students’ post-secondary journeys with a level of depth and personalization that cannot be matched by traditional advising models. iMentor’s students are 37% more likely to enroll in college and are graduating college at double the rates of their peers. Since inception, iMentor has created and supported 40,000 mentoring relationships.
iMentor’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We believe that people of all backgrounds deserve equal access to educational opportunities. Recognizing that our country’s history of racism and systemic oppression continues to drive educational disparities for students of color, we give special focus to addressing the economic and racial divides that impact the communities we serve. We are committed to the collective work and intentional investment necessary to consistently move in the direction of educational equity and inclusion. Learn more at www.iMentor.org.
How to Apply
Visit www.imentor.org/jobs to submit a resume and detailed cover letter describing your interest in and qualifications for this position. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
iMentor is an Equal Opportunity Employer