ABOUT THE ROLE: SENIOR MONITORING, EVALUATION, AND LEARNING SPECIALIST

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist will serve as the full-time monitoring and evaluation lead for a large, global project. Working closely with IRI's Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team, the Senior Specialist will design, operationalize, and manage the project's monitoring and evaluation systems and will oversee data collection, data quality assurance, analysis, learning, and reporting throughout the project lifecycle.

The Senior Specialist will develop and pilot data collection methodologies and tools, analyze quantitative and qualitative data across multiple countries and participants, and be responsible for the overall measurement of project results. The Senior Specialist will also lead or coordinate the project's baseline and final assessment, including working with external evaluators.

This position is located in Washington, DC. The Senior MEL Specialist is expected to work in-office at least three days per week.

This position is contingent upon project funding.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Monitoring and Evaluation System Management

• Serve as the project's lead for day-to-day monitoring and evaluation workflows, ensuring systems align with the theory of change, objectives, deliverables, and donor requirements.
• Maintain the Performance Monitoring Plan, including indicators, targets, tracking systems, data collection roles, schedules, procedures, and quality expectations.
• Coordinate with project staff, partners, subrecipients, consultants, technical service providers, and IRI's MEL team to support data collection, technical quality assurance, and compliance with IRI standards.

Baseline Activities

• Lead and coordinate baseline data collection and analysis, including content, audience, media-market, business-operations, revenue, expenditure, and sustainability data.
• Develop, test, and refine baseline and remeasurement methodologies, protocols, templates, surveys, interview guides, assessment tools, and data management processes.
• Ensure assessment findings inform project planning, participant support, technical assistance, and adaptive management.

Data Collection, Management, Analysis, and Reporting

• Design, pilot, and maintain quantitative and qualitative data collection tools tailored to participating countries, languages, media markets, and outlet types.
• Compile, clean, manage, analyze, interpret, and triangulate data from surveys, assessments, interviews, partner reports, training assessments, publication reviews, content analysis, and other project sources.
• Produce data summaries, visualizations, dashboards, analytical products, written findings, and project deliverables for internal use and donor reporting.
• Lead funder-required reporting processes, including drafting quarterly, baseline, midline, and final reports, while maintaining verifiable supporting documentation for reported results.
• Lead regular data review, pause-and-reflect, and adaptive-management sessions with project staff and implementing partners.
• Monitor contextual, political, security, and media-market developments that may affect implementation, participant safety, measurement, or interpretation of results.
• Document lessons learned, promising practices, implementation challenges, adaptations, and decisions, and ensure findings inform project management and donor communications.

Data Quality, Ethics, and Safeguarding

• Establish and maintain data quality assurance procedures covering validity, reliability, timeliness, precision, integrity, completeness, and consistency.
• Conduct routine data reviews, verify supporting evidence, identify missing or inconsistent information, and follow up as needed.
• Ensure all M&E activities follow informed-consent, confidentiality, data-protection, participant-safeguarding, and do-no-harm standards.
• Coordinate with IRI's MEL team to provide targeted M&E training, coaching, and technical assistance to project partners as needed.

Final Impact Assessment

• Coordinate the project's final impact assessment and serve as the primary liaison with the contracted external evaluator.
• Support the evaluator's scope of work, procurement, and contract-management processes in coordination with project staff.
• Provide relevant baseline data, PMP documentation, indicator data, project reports, reflection-session records, and other project materials to support the assessment.
• Review proposed methodologies and draft deliverables for quality, consistency with baseline approaches, and comparability across measurement rounds without directing findings.

Project-Specific Coordination and Other Responsibilities

• Coordinate with project leadership, project staff, regional teams, partners, subrecipients, consultants, participating media outlets, and technical service providers on M&E activities.
• Manage M&E-related consultants or technical specialists, including deliverables, schedules, methodological alignment, and scope performance.
• Participate in project planning, implementation, reporting, and review meetings when monitoring evidence or M&E guidance is needed.
• Travel internationally as needed to support data collection, assessments, monitoring, training, partner coordination, or other project requirements.
• Other duties as assigned.

Note: This post is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, or skills required in this role. Further details of the role will be shared during the recruitment process.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

We seek a passionate, resourceful, and technically fluent individual with:

• Undergraduate degree in monitoring and evaluation, political or social science, international relations, statistics, research methods, international development, or a related field. Graduate degree preferred.
• Minimum five years of relevant professional experience, including substantial experience in monitoring and evaluation for international development, democracy and governance, independent media, information integrity, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience designing and managing monitoring and evaluation systems for complex, multi-country or multi-partner projects.
• Demonstrated ability to operationalize theories of change, logic models, performance monitoring plans, indicator matrices, performance indicators, targets, and measurement strategies.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing baseline studies, assessments, remeasurement exercises, or performance evaluations.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills, including experience designing surveys, semi-structured interviews, assessments, observation or monitoring tools, and other data collection instruments.
• Demonstrated ability to clean, manage, analyze, interpret, and present qualitative and quantitative data.
• Experience working with geographically dispersed partners or participants and adapting data collection approaches across different languages, operating environments, and levels of organizational capacity.
• Experience applying ethical research, informed-consent, data-protection, participant-safeguarding, and do-no-harm principles.
• Strong facilitation skills and experience leading data review, reflection, learning, or adaptive-management sessions.
• Demonstrated ability to manage consultants, evaluators, or other technical service providers and review technical deliverables for quality and methodological consistency.
• Strong project management, organization, attention to detail, and time-management skills.
• Ability to prioritize multiple concurrent data collection, analysis, reporting, and coordination requirements and meet established deadlines.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision while collaborating effectively with project staff, partners, consultants, and participating organizations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office required.
• Experience with U.S. government-funded cooperative agreements, grants, performance reporting, or monitoring and evaluation requirements preferred.
• Experience monitoring independent-media, media-sustainability, information-integrity, countering-foreign-influence, or related programming preferred.
• Experience with content analysis, audience analytics, digital-platform data, media monitoring, revenue data, or other media-sector measurement approaches preferred.
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally as required.

IRI TOTAL COMPENSATION

The anticipated compensation range for this position is $80,000 to $90,000 USD.

The salary for this position is determined based on a wide variety of factors including but not limited to an individual's professional experience, qualifications, education and other business needs along with internal equity considerations. Employees are not typically hired at the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are made based on the aforementioned considerations.

WE OFFER

An empathetic and dedicated work environment with generous benefits that demonstrates IRI's commitment to all dimensions of employee wellness, including:

• Health and Wellness Support: Significant coverage of health, dental, and vision insurance costs. Meaningful assistance programs through an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) and Rula (access to mental health experts).
• Long-term Financial Health: Retirement plan with generous employer contribution (vested after 12 months).
• Hybrid Work: Employees typically work in-office three days per week and telework two days per week.
• Time Off: Company-paid holidays, parental leave, generous vacation, sick, and personal leave days.
• Family Support: Dependent Care FSA
• Learning and Development Opportunities: Annual allowance for professional development courses and seminars along with access to world-class e-learning via eCornell.
• Compensation Equity: Regular competitive review of internal and external equity to ensure fairness in pay for employees working in similar jobs requiring comparable knowledge, skills, and experience.

Benefits, professional development, and flexibility offerings may vary based on employment classification and location.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS - RESUME, COVER LETTER, REFERENCES

In your application, please include a copy of your most up-to-date resume along with a cover letter that outlines your background and explains why you are interested in this opportunity. Additionally, please include the contact details of at least 2-3 professional references. If you are selected for an interview, we will contact your references before the final interview.