Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Associate

Job Summary:

Every employee of IRI is responsible for carrying out the Mission of IRI and demonstrating the Core Values in their day to day operations. The Core Values, which are IRI’s foundational building blocks include: **

Excellence– We believe in quality results delivered by investing in people. Freedom– We believe in exploration and experimentation to be agile and responsive. Respect- We believe in trust, empathy and empowering people. Teamwork- We believe in diversity, inclusion and the power of global collaboration. Transparency– We believe in open communication and clear decision-making. Accountability- We believe in personal responsibility as the foundation of success.

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Associate will be responsible for providing research and administrative support to the Center for Global Initiatives (The Center), which cultivates innovative, informed programming and provides resources, tools, and expertise to IRI staff to advance democracy worldwide. Within the Center, the Evidence and Learning Practice (ELP) supports informed, evidence-based programs by providing support to IRI staff in program design, performance monitoring, evaluation, and research.

Position Requirements

· Undergraduate degree in political science, international relations, or related field.

· 1-3 years of experience in MEL, international development, or related field.

· Strong organizational skills, ability to multi-task, and attention to detail required.

· Experience with Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint required. Intermediate to advanced Excel skills preferred.

· Excellent writing, research, and communication skills.

· Strong grasp of results-oriented project design and monitoring approaches; familiarity with common MEL elements such as: logic models, theories of change, performance monitoring plans and indicator matrices.

· Experience managing MEL-related databases.

· Experience drafting MEL narratives, interview protocols and surveys required

· Familiarity with both qualitative and quantitative data analysis software, such as Dedoose, NVivo, SPSS, STATA, R or AtlasTI is a plus.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

· Provides general support to ELP, including administrative support, developing, and tracking work plans, monitoring deadlines and deliverables, and other relevant project-related elements.

· Assists with interview transcriptions and data cleaning.

· Drafts data collection tools, such as interview protocols and surveys.

· Conducts basic qualitative and quantitative data analysis and contributes to reports.

· Reviews MEL elements of proposals, indicator tables and reports.

· Supports MEL training and MEL capacity building of program staff by providing logistical and facilitation support during ELP’s trainings, managing ELP’s training calendar and helping draft and update related deliverables such as MEL training guides, guidance notes and similar tools and handouts.

· Maintains internal SharePoint site and file system.

· Supports data quality audit processes, conducts project document and indicator data review for quality issues.

· Drafts externally facing outreach materials such as blogs, tweets, presentations, etc. Backstops members of the ELP team as needed.

· Supports other staff in the Center for Global Impact to reach programmatic objectives and deliverables.

· Occasional travel to difficult locations outside the U.S. may be required.

· Works with the relevant program teams to collect data for and populate the Global​ ​Elections​ ​and​ ​Political​ ​Transitions, GEPT database and other databases IRI may use with reliable and timely data.

· At the direction of the relevant ELP database lead, creates new indicators in the database.

· At the direction of the relevant ELP database lead, continuously check quality of data in the database for completeness, relevance, timeliness, and other standards in accordance with the specifications of indicators described in the performance indicators reference sheets (PIRS).

· Meets monthly data entry deadlines effectively, ensure that data is collected, checked and ready for data entry through proactive follow up with field teams before the deadline looms.

· Provides timely support to relevant program teams in addressing database issues or requests to allow smooth maintenance of the database.

· Identifies and reports to the ELP database lead gaps in skills and knowledge of program teams related to data collection, database maintenance, and data quality.

· Provides attention to detail to achieve thoroughness and accuracy in data entry in the database.

· Performs other activities related to data entry, documentation, and/or provide refresher orientation to newcomers as and when requested.

· Performs other duties as assigned.