Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Director, USAID/Ukraine, New Workforce Development Activity
About Palladium:
Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.
This Proposal Opportunity:
This new activity will serve as USAID/Ukraine’s flagship workforce project from 2024 to 2029. The new activity will support the upskilling and retraining of Ukraine’s labor force to adapt to the demographic and workforce shocks caused by war. The activity will help adapt employers and employees to structural changes in the labor market. This is a 5-year project.
Position Summary
The MEL Director will report to the Chief of Party and lead the development and implementation of the MEL Agenda. He/she will closely monitor the Activity’s progress and outcomes to ensure high-quality, timely, valid, and verifiable data collection, reporting, analysis and learning. The MEL Director will work closely with the Technical Director to highlight the impact and achievements of the activity and pay particular attention to the capture of results targeting women, youth, veterans and other vulnerable groups.
*This is an anticipated project, and all positions are contingent upon award from USAID. *
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
Provide technical leadership in Monitoring, Evaluation and to capture and communicate program results, as well as ensure high-quality, timely, valid, and verifiable data collection, reporting, analysis and learning. Work with the M&E team to design project Activity Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan and data systems to track program progress against indicators and ensuring that all data and data analysis of project activity outcomes, impacts, and results presented accurately and in a timely manner in all USAID reporting and tracking tools and reports. Design and operationalize a project Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach by leading its implementation as per the MEL plan and regularly share the same with the donor as part of progress reporting. Ensure that key learnings and best practices are captured, synthesized, reported, disseminated and used to make timely adjustments to the program using the CLA approach. Work closely with technical leads to ensure M&E inputs are both informed by technical staff and that adaptive management via CLA is occurring and results are feeding in to workplan sessions with key stakeholders. Develop/adapt and apply tools and curricula to build M&E capacity of key program stakeholders such as national and district government and community organizations to collect and report quality data up to district and national levels. Oversee data quality work and related M&E strengthening within the program including routine data quality assessments (RDQA). Supervise the MEL team as well as consultants (i.e. data collectors, programmers, evaluation experts, etc.) Write technical reports and present technical activities both internally and externally to high-level stakeholders. Serve as a member of the senior leadership team of the program and support the Chief of Party in oversight of staff. Work with the Chief of Party and other project staff to continuously refine processes by integrating lessons learned and best practices. Any and all other project-related tasks as required by the Chief of Party and Palladium HQ.Required Qualifications:
Experience as a data-driven adaptive management leader, with experience infusing MEL approaches on large development projects to drive program results and learning. Experience developing and implementing MEL and CLA work plans, preferably for a USAID program. Experience with monitoring, evaluating, and learning on a USAID project including setting up, managing, and training others on MEL systems, in workforce development would be a plus Demonstrated quantitative or mixed-method and analytical skills and ability to articulate technical information clearly and effectively to both technical and nontechnical audiences. Demonstrated experience in gathering, organizing, and analyzing large amounts of data as well as the ability to design manageable, transparent M&E systems that report progress against indicators throughout the life of the project. Experience in data review and data use including adaptive management. Demonstrated ability to work with partners and USAID. Demonstrated ability to work effectively in team-based environment, supervise a professional team and ability to interact with a variety of technical specialists.’ Strong leadership and communication skills. Demonstrated ability to be flexible and respond to emerging opportunities and overcome barriers. Attention to detail and ability to effectively and efficiently perform multiple tasks and balance competing priorities often within a required timeframe. Microsoft office suite proficiency and the ability to operate spreadsheet and word-processing programs at a highly proficient level. Excellent oral and written communication skills in Ukrainian and English.Professional Expertise/Competencies Preferred:
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.
Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.