Senior Fellow, Learning and Evaluation

Summary

Join the New Practice Lab as a Senior Fellow - Learning and Evaluation and play a key role in improving benefits outcomes for millions of Americans. You will be a senior member of the team, identifying and scoping how the learning discipline is embedded into the Lab's work. Responsibilities include clarifying and refining the Lab's theory of change, developing innovative measurement approaches, and working with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in leading learning agendas, building partnerships, applying various learning methods, and working with government programs. This is a full-time remote position offering a competitive salary and benefits package, including health care, retirement plan, and paid time off. The position is open to North American candidates.

Requirements

• Demonstrate experience and success in leading the development of a Learning Agenda or complex learning strategy in an area of social policy, with the flexibility of having applied a learning framework to a variety of policy areas
• Assess the right type of evidence building activities that are well suited for the type of engagement a team is conducting
• Constructively build partnerships and embed learning into the work of multi-disciplinary teams, including partnering with product development and technology / digital service teams
• Apply a variety of learning methods of both quantitative and qualitative approaches, evaluation design and analysis strategies - particularly at the formative evaluation stage
• Conduct impact evaluations, including randomized evaluations, in field settings and adapting for the inherent constraints and surprises of learning in an applied environment
• Work within the evidence framework outlined in or closely aligned with the 2018 Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act and supporting guidance, including an understanding of standards of evidence and designing learning activities in the context of the needs of decision makers and leading practices of scientific integrity
• Think creatively about the application of insights from the social and behavioral sciences, and design interventions that are feasible within specific areas of public policy
• Work directly with government programs, policies, operations, and/or data and manage relationships with executive civil servants and leaders
• Demonstrate statistical competency in at least one data analytic programming language (e.g., R, Stata)

Responsibilities

• Clarify, evaluate, and continually refine the Lab's theory of change
• Review and refine the New Practice Lab’s north star measures and measurement approaches, working closely with the Data and Strategic Impact Lead on how projects are assessed against their potential for impact during the initiation phase, and continually assessing the New Practice Lab’s work against its goals for impact
• Develop innovative approaches to measuring the impact of the New Practice Lab as it builds new ways for disciplines to work together and practices to support a tighter feedback loop between policy and delivery
• Work with other New Practice Lab leaders to coordinate the review, update, and development of learning agendas and other portfolio management processes that consider evidence, progress of the New Practice Lab’s and others’ work in the field, and strategic considerations to inform project decision-making and level of effort the New Practice Lab should commit to various efforts
• Design a learning plan for individual projects and engagements of the New Practice Lab, in close coordination with the Data and Strategic Impact Lead, and assess whether the learning activities are best conducted by the New Practice Lab team itself or in collaboration with a learning partner
• Maintain a network of potential learning partners such as researchers, academics, government evaluation officers and teams, and organizations leading new practices in the field of social policy learning and evaluation
• Manage the team’s evaluation contractors and academic partnerships, and contracts to ensure the completion of key deliverables, and results, learning, and data are collected, analyzed, and reported in a timely and useful manner
• Lead the development of communications on the New Practice Lab’s impact, learnings, and long-term strategic implications
• Develop tools and processes to provide access to data, evidence, and analytics for the team; design and support data-driven learning opportunities for the team
• Write for both technical and public audiences, including memos, reports, briefs, op-eds, blogs, and others formats as needed
• Identify and pursue opportunities to disseminate and scale findings from sprints, collaborating with other members of the Lab’s team to translate insights into broader recommendations for action by policymakers and public sector agencies

Preferred Qualifications

Dexterity with working in new subject areas

Benefits

• Health care, dental, and vision coverage
• Generous retirement plan
• Paid time off
• Observes all federal holidays
• Office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day