The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success (PS) strategy seeks to transform colleges and universities to dramatically improve credential attainment and eradicate equity gaps for low-income students and students of color in order to meet the nation’s workforce development needs.
We are currently seeking an exceptional candidate for Senior Program Officer, Strategy-Level Measurement. This role will be responsible for designing, implementing, and monitoring measurement, learning, and evaluation (MLE) activities for the Postsecondary Success (PS) team. Develop and manage a portfolio of grants and contracts to execute our strategy-level measurement plan requiring strong grant, project, and partner management skills, and provide statistical and evaluation design expertise to both internal and external partners. Projects require deep engagement to ensure milestones are clearly defined, progress stays on track, and deliverables meet standards to advance the goals of the PS strategy.
The Senior Program Officer (SPO) will report to the Deputy Director (DD).
- Directly or indirectly leads a project team to develop, manage and implement the strategy-level measurement plan for the Postsecondary Success team. This includes but is not limited to serving as the project lead to refresh our team measurement plan and learning agenda; refine our strategy goals and develop evidence-based targets; ensure quality reporting to leadership on strategy progress on a regular basis (in collaboration with our Strategy Planning and Management team); develop tools and processes to provide access to data, evidence, and analytics to the team; design and support data-driven learning opportunities for the team; and represent the PS team on cross-foundation initiatives related to measurement, learning, and evaluation.
- Engage with internal partners to develop appropriate evaluation models and support MLE activities related to their work and with external partners to provide evaluation expertise to help them produce relevant, high-quality work to support the field. Analyze, synthesize, and report findings from funded and other research to inform the PS team’s and the foundation’s learning, planning, and development internally.
- Negotiate, execute, and manage complex portfolio of grants or performance-based contracts. Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals and provide clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding.
- Consult with grantees and other partners to maximize impact of projects and ensure grants are meeting strategy goals. This may include: reviewing grantee progress, budgets, and deliverables; conducting site visits, and convening meetings of key stakeholders.
- Develop, manage, resource, and implement a portfolio that aligns with foundation strategy and is operationally integrated with other foundation programs. Contribute to the design of new strategies, collaborations and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact.
- Represent the Postsecondary Success team and the foundation through clear and consistent communication with grantees and partners related to postsecondary measurement, learning and evaluation.
- This role may manage employees and be responsible for hiring the talent needed to achieve our goals, ensuring successful employee onboarding, communicating performance expectations, creating goal alignment, integrating project and change management, giving and seeking feedback, providing coaching, measuring progress and holding people accountable, supporting employee development, and recognizing achievement and lessons learned.
- Recognized internally and externally by the professional community as an expert in higher education measurement, learning, and/or evaluation, with in-depth knowledge of evaluation design and implementation, including logic models, quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection and management, and data analysis and presentation to inform education policy and practice.
- Ability to engage at a deep level with high-level researchers and evaluators at top national organizations as well as the ability to translate technical information for foundation management, staff, and partners into learning and applied use.
- Proven ability to lead and influence others in a constructive manner and to build and sustain collaborative relationships in a complex, matrixed environment.
- Demonstrated project/program management skills including managing multiple projects and timelines with shifting internal expectations and priorities.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to effectively synthesize information to reach diverse audiences, support learning, and build consensus.
- Experience as technical resource to teams and leadership on impact, cost effectiveness and decision analyses to achieve results in a fast-paced environment.
- Advanced degree in Education or related social science field with 10+ years of relevant experience
- Higher education measurement and evaluation experience required.