The position can be performed from any WRI country office with a preference for the Director to be in Europe (London or The Hague), or U.S.

Please submit a resume with a cover letter by the date of July 1

About the Program:
In this newly created role, you will be integral to the successful delivery of WRI’s Strategic Plan, 2023– 2027: From Commitments to Impact.

The strategy drives five major shifts in WRI’s approach:
Shift 1: An integrated approach for People, Nature, and Climate together.
Shift 2: Focus on systems change.
Shift 3: Emphasis on country transitions to deliver impact.
Shift 4: A unified approach to measure success, including Theories of Change.
Shift 5: Strengthening institutional operational services.

This strategy requires a new level of rigor in how WRI sets targets, creates theories of change, tracks progress, and evaluates and learns from the results. We have set ambitious impact targets for the next five years to support a transition to a low-carbon economy that is good for people and nature. To achieve this strategy, you will play a pivotal role leading the acceleration of a “step change” in Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (PMEL) practices at WRI and creating a strong results-based culture.

The specific goals of the step change in PMEL are to have:

• Robust, evidence-based theories of change (ToC) for our impact targets that are easily accessible for staff and partners to facilitate shared understanding and learnings.
• Intentional pause and reflect cycles to review ToCs and M&E data, discuss the learnings and changes needed to achieve the results in the strategic plan.
• PMEL specialist capacity supporting every WRI team to inform timely, evidence-based, adaptive management.
  Robust organization-level results framework to strengthen WRI’s internal and external accountability.

 

Job Highlight:
Reporting to the Managing Director for Strategy, Learning & Results, you will lead the global Managing for Results team and work with the network of PMEL professionals located in WRI’s country offices and programs. You will drive our organization-wide step-change in how WRI plans, monitors, evaluates, reports, and learns.

Your primary role will be four-fold:

• Lead the development of a strong results-based monitoring, evaluation and learning culture.
• Advance the science and practice of measuring impact through the interconnected lens of people, nature, and climate.
• Ensure processes are in place to ensure program Theories of Change and the organization-level Results Framework are robust, living documents, that drive learning and accountability.
• Build and nurture a vibrant community of practice of PMEL professionals across WRI’s global network, supported by common standards, processes, and training.

What you will do:

Lead Institutional Measurement (40%)

• Lead the creation of living Theories of Change that underpin an organization-level Results Framework.
• Lead annual planning process.
• Work closely with WRI’s Development team on reporting and planning requirements for major donors from the public and private sectors.
• Establish a cycle of evaluation within WRI, and provide leadership for ongoing evaluations across the institution, including dissemination of lessons learned internally and externally.
• Build PMEL capacity across WRI to advance impact target strategies.
• Work with programmatic teams to identify evaluation questions, develop evaluation methodologies, and liaise with external evaluators, if needed.

Provide MEL Technical Expertise (30%)

• Lead the integration of cutting-edge thinking and approaches to establish best practices across the institution for monitoring, evaluation, and learning, including a growing portfolio of data-for decision making apps.
• Ensure teams receive need-based technical expertise to support the development of plans, proposals, theories of change, evaluations.
• Oversee the development and adoption of training and capacity building to WRI staff on project design, strategy and MEL including curriculum development.
• Serve as internal reviewer for publications related to evaluations.

Build a Strong Culture of Learning for Impact (30%)

• Leads the development and implementation of an organizational learning agenda for WRI, focused on creating the practices and processes necessary to deliver a strong results-based monitoring, evaluation and learning culture.
• Demonstrate the value of robust PMEL practices by sharing examples and lessons learned internally with WRI staff and externally through blogs and papers.
• Coordinate with the Research Integrity and Data Lab teams on using TOC to define research and data need objectives.
  Provide ad-hoc and targeted guidance to WRI program teams, including strategy and program design, development of theories of change, monitoring and project implementation. Help identify areas needing support through the annual planning process.

What you will need:
Education: You have a completed a Master’s degree in public policy, economics, political science, environmental studies, or related field.
Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant, full-time work experience, including at least 5 years of supervisory experience leading a team of PMEL experts, preferably in a globally networked organization.
• Demonstrated experience leading change in a matrixed organization.
• Deep technical experience in at least two of Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation or Learning, and exposure to all subfields.
• Demonstrated leadership in the sustainable development field.
• Experience developing and overseeing an organization-level results framework.
• Strong organizational skills with ability to problem-solve and juggle multiple assignments at the same time.
• Team player, with a friendly, positive, can-do attitude.
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position is based. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization.

 

Opportunity summary:
Start date: Upon mutual agreement with candidate
Potential Salary: Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.

How to Apply:
Please submit a resume with cover letter by the date of July 1. You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.

What we offer:

• A competitive salary and generous PTO that increase with tenure.
• Access to the WRI global network with the opportunity to exchange with and learn from passionate colleagues working at the cutting edge of their fields across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the US.
• Opportunity to provide impact and to develop your career within a mission driven organization with access to varied learning and training opportunities.
• A workplace that focuses diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work.
• The opportunity to join and get involved in different working groups and affinity groups to shape the future of WRI.
• Long-term commitment to hybrid working model with flexible working hours.