Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning At Tetra Tech

Tetra Tech International Development (www.tetratech.com/intdev) is currently accepting expressions of interest from qualified

Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning professionals. This position will be based in Burlington, Vermont or Arlington, Virginia***.*** However, other US location may be considered.

The Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) is the head of the MEL Unit and works under the supervision of the Vice President of Project Support Services (VP PSS). The unit works across five technical sectors with the goal of providing the highest quality MEL services to support new business, project implementation, and technical leadership. The Director of MEL sets the strategic direction for the unit, provides quality assurance on proposals and projects, collaborates with VP PSS and other support service teams to improve internal processes, and manages the staff of the unit, among other responsibilities.

Responsibilities

The Director of MEL is responsible for providing support and services to further Tetra Tech’s ability to win and successfully implement quality projects. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

New Business Development

• Lead development of all aspects of MEL processes in new business, including development of results frameworks and theories of change, selection of monitoring indicators, drafting Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approaches, and supporting proposal team members on other content required to fully comply with requests for proposals (RFP)
• Provide guidance and support for the selection of local data collection firms and evaluation subcontractors and/or MEL candidates on proposals as needed, including interviewing potential firms and/or candidates
• Build core competencies of sector, new business staff or others as appropriate through mentoring, in-person training, and the creation of digital short courses (hosted in Tetra Tech online learning site) in MEL skills and knowledge required for proposal development

Project Technical Support

• Provide ongoing guidance and support to home and field office teams in all areas of MEL, especially developing monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans (MELP), baseline studies or other surveys required, and conducting data quality assessments (DQA). For certain Tetra Tech projects, this support may also include qualitative data collection and analysis, drafting of research protocols for Institutional Review Board (IRB) review and approval, and
• Build core competencies of project MEL staff and home office project staff through ongoing guidance and capacity building, including mentoring, in-person training, and the creation of digital short courses (hosted in Tetra Tech online learning site) to improve capacity to develop and execute all parts of a MELP
• Ensure project management teams and field office MEL staff follow USAID policies (particularly submission of data to USAID’s Development Data Library and the creation and use of Data Management Plans) and Tetra Tech policies related to MEL

Technical Leadership

• Develop new and refine existing tools and methods that will improve Tetra Tech MEL systems, including software used for home office MEL team management and recommendation software (data collection, analysis, visualization) for Tetra Tech projects
• Work with VP PSS and other support service directors to ensure MEL content is uniform, up-to-date, and simple to understand (e.g., work with Contracts, Grants, and Procurement team to ensure MEL language in subcontracts and grants meets Tetra Tech internal policies and client requirements [such as USAID ADS 579])
• Contribute to learning systems and processes that are used by Tetra Tech to bring data from projects and across sectors to new business processes to promote institutional learning

Qualifications

· Master’s Degree in related field required

· At least 8-10 years of related experience in MEL including research, MEL methods, data analysis, and/or project management

· Demonstrated extensive knowledge of and experience supporting USAID-funded MEL projects and best practices are required, including previous experience providing capacity building and support to projects in the field

· Experience with implementing mobile/web-based data collection, cloud-based data management, and data visualization for MEL

· Experience in designing systems for collecting, cleaning, analyzing, reporting and archiving data for field projects and to facilitate evidence-based organizational learning

· Must be willing to travel up to 30% of the time to all countries where Tetra Tech implements projects, including conflict and post-conflict countries

· English proficiency is required; proficiency in French and/or Spanish is preferred

· Previous experience with supervising staff strongly preferred

· Demonstrated effective oral and written communication skills

· Strong analytical and data synthesis skills

· High level proficiency of MS-Office applications, statistical applications; knowledge of and ability to use GIS in MEL systems a plus

Ability to legally work in the US without employer sponsorship