African Leadership Academy is seeking an experienced Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) to lead the organization’s MERL functions and enable our strategic vision.
About African Leadership Academy
Since 2008, African Leadership Academy (ALA) has sought to identify, develop and connect the most promising young leaders on the African continent, organizing them into a powerful community of ethical and effective collaborative action. More than fifteen years into the journey, the organization has built a powerful track record of impact. Our campus community serves 250+ young leaders from across the continent each year. Our pan-African programs in entrepreneurship and impactful careers serve hundreds more. Through these young leaders, we are already impacting thousands of Africans as we pursue a vision of lasting peace and shared prosperity.
The Role & Responsibilities
At ALA, we believe in embedding impact design and measurement into the way that we work across all parts of the organization, and that all employees should own and see the measurement of our progress towards the organization’s mission and vision. These principles have underpinned the growth of a small but highly capable Institutional Learning (IL) team that is deeply embedded in ALA’s program implementing teams, stewarding ALA’s MERL activities. Institutional Learning is integral to clarifying the “why” and “how” of our work, as well as accountability for the results of our efforts. The Director leads a team of impact managers, a database administrator and data capture support.
Embedding Impact: The Director of MERL champions our commitment to impact, grounding our decisions in data and aligning them to our strategy and mission. As a member of ALA’s Executive Committee, they are uniquely positioned to understand and provide input across the breadth of the organization's programs. The Director works with peers to ensure coherence across our theories of change and synthesize insights across all our programs.
Strategic Advisor to Managers & Executives: The Director of MERL will, either directly or through the management of their Impact Managers, ensure that IL serves as a thought partner and advisor to program managers and executives. By collaborating closely with leadership, they will ensure that ALA's program design, implementation and reporting of results reflect our institutional strategy and intended impact. They will lead impact managers who in turn support program teams to improve their data literacy and behaviors, and analysis of internal data and external evidence to inform and support strategic decision-making. The Director of MERL will also advise and support decisions in relation to ALA’s Data Privacy Policy, including training on the policy and its periodic review.
Manage routine MERL operations: As the Executive ultimately accountable for the veracity of ALA’s impact data, the Director will manage all aspects of IL’s MERL work. This begins with the systemic collection, storage and observation of program data in comprehensive data management systems, databases and dashboards, and extends to external programmatic evaluations. From time to time, the Director will advise program teams on their data systems and architecture.
Support fundraising: The Director of MERL will collaborate with ALA’s Development department and program managers and executives to ensure coherent prospecting, cultivating and stewarding of donors. The Director will be integral to synthesizing evidence of ALA’s impact thereby attracting new mission-aligned supporters, as well as to ensuring that proposals for new funding are aligned with programmatic impact frameworks, and that regular reporting for existing grants is accurate, robust and articulates achieved outcomes of our work.
Share Learning: The Director of MERL will build the department’s proficiency and consistency in sharing evidence-based learning internally to inform and strengthen our program delivery. They will also lead external sharing to advance ALA's contribution towards influencing the beliefs, knowledge, practices and investments of actors in the African education, entrepreneurship and careers ecosystems.
Skills and Profile of Ideal Candidate
- Bachelor’s or advanced degree in a relevant field such as monitoring and evaluation, research methods, statistics, econometrics, or international development.
- Deep expertise in data systems and information management.
- Solid knowledge and experience in working with both quantitative and qualitative data; experience with statistical analysis preferred.
- Understands different evaluation designs and measurement tools and can explain these concepts to
- 5+ years of working in monitoring and evaluation; 10+ years of total work experience. Some background in education a plus.
- Proven track record in leading high-performing teams, fostering collaboration, and promoting a culture of innovation, learning, and growth.
- Demonstrated success and affinity for breaking down complex problems into component parts and ability to consider policies from multiple perspectives.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills; report writing experience required and external communication experience preferred.
- A passion for Africa, the potential of its youth, and commitment to the vision of
Reporting: This role reports to the Chief Executive Officer, and is a member of ALA’s Executive team.
Location: ALA Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa
Anticipated Start Date: March 2025
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