Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Manager
New York, NY
Position Overview:
Pure Earth seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Manager to support and strengthen organization-wide MEL systems, processes, and practices during a period of significant growth. In this new role, reporting to the Director of MEL, you will serve as a thought partner and hands-on manager to headquarters (HQ) and country program teams: helping design and refine practical approaches for MEL, implementation support, and reporting.
The MEL Manager will play a critical role in cultivating a strong culture of inquiry, reflection, and learning from successes and failures across Pure Earth's projects. The Manager will help strengthen staff capacity, facilitate learning activities, advise on data and management information systems and evaluation approaches, and support teams in translating evidence and emerging insights into improved program strategy and practice.
Applicants should bring a proven track record managing multiple MEL initiatives, comfort working through ambiguity, strong relationship-building skills, and enthusiasm for advancing new systems and initiatives in a growing, evolving organization.
Reporting and Team Structure:
Reports to: Director Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Direct reports: None
Key internal partners: Country Directors and Technical Managers, Regional Directors, Grants Manager, and other Programs staff
Work Location:
New York City
Employment Type:
Full-Time, Exempt
Scope of Work:
Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Planning, Designing, and Managing Systems and Practices
- Advise on the continued development of Pure Earth's organizational MEL systems, processes, and tools to support major new projects and capture progress, key results, insights, and lessons learned.
- In collaboration with the MEL Director, Grants Manager, and external consultants, advise on the design of a program-aligned database and MIS to streamline the collection, management, analysis, reporting, and storage of project data.
- Advise on the design and implementation of external evaluations, including developing scopes of work, evaluation materials, and guiding the process to ensure evaluation standards are met.
Shape a culture of Inquiry, Evidence, and Learning
- Build MEL knowledge among Pure Earth staff and strengthen their ability to integrate learning and evaluation practices into planning, implementation, and reflection.
- Design methodologies for learning spaces and mechanisms that promote cross-learning, reflection, and decision-making, and train and support teams to use them effectively.
- Synthesize insights and emerging findings from assessments of Pure Earth's programmatic work for internal and external learning.
- Facilitate and document learning and reflection processes; co-develop knowledge products that guide program strategy and contribute to the sector-wide evidence base.
- In collaboration with Technical Support, Research, Programs teams, and external consultants, support the development of learning agendas and evaluation priorities for countries and major projects.
- Integrate reflection and learning into Programs team practices; create opportunities for strategic learning, including workshops and learning events.
- Support the development of a learning and governance plan that defines how findings are reviewed, acted on, and incorporated into future country engagements.
Project MEL Design and Implementation
- Support the development of proposals and concept notes aligned with Pure Earth's Programmatic Logic.
- Support the design and implementation of funder-compliant project MEL plans that align with Pure Earth's Programmatic Logic
- Support effective and efficient data collection for project and global indicators, including training staff on data collection tools and methods as needed.
Success in the First 6 Months:
- Has made substantive contributions to design of organizational MIS for MEL data.
- Has supported coaching and training of in-country staff on MEL frameworks for current projects.
- Has helped devise create new methods and mechanisms for organizational cross-learning
- Has supported development of learning agendas and evaluation priorities
Required Qualifications and Experiences:
Education
- A degree in a relevant field or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience
Experience
- At least 7 years of experience designing and implementing MEL systems, preferably in international nonprofit or NGO sector
- At least 3 years of experience designing and operationalizing Management Information Systems (MIS) for MEL to support data management and analysis.
- Have successfully built collaborative learning practices that surface internal knowledge and insights from across departments and translate them into program improvements.
- Able to translate MEL data into user-friendly formats for internal and external audiences, making complex information accessible to non-technical users.
- Can navigate complexity well, balancing attention to detail with the ability to see the bigger picture and translate big ideas into practical tools, processes, and plans.
- Bring strong data management and analysis skills, including developing systems and processes to collect, manage, analyze, and communicate qualitative and quantitative data for program learning, strategy, fundraising, and communications
- Coaching, training, and supporting virtual teams to integrate MEL practices.
- Can guide and moderate discussions productively, helping groups work through different perspectives toward clear outcomes.
- Strong interpersonal and active listening skills, along with openness, curiosity, and humility; you adapt well to different working styles and cultural contexts.
- Highly organized, anticipate workflows, clarify priorities, and deliver high-quality work with attention to detail and deadlines.
Desired (nice to have)
- Demonstrated expertise with statistics, including sampling techniques.
- Fluency in Spanish, Swahili, or another language used in countries where we work.
Work Environment:
- Hybrid employees work from the New York City office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and may work remotely on other weekdays. Strong remote candidates (U.S.-based) with ability to travel to NYC quarterly or more frequently will be considered.
- Occasional early mornings, late evenings, or weekends to work with colleagues across time zones.
- Work authorization for the United States is required. Pure Earth will not sponsor visas for this role.
Salary:
Full-time, Exempt, Level L4. Salary band for L4 positions is $80,000 to $96,900.
How to Apply:
To apply, please submit your application through Pure Earth's online career portal. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
This job description may be revised and updated as required to meet organizational objectives.
