Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Director (MEL) at United States International University - USIU Africa

JOB SUMMARY

USIU-Africa seeks a qualified candidate for the full-time Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Director (MEL) position for an upcoming potential award being solicited through USAID/Kenya & East Africa to strengthen employment pathways for youth. The project would seek to develop and implement high quality, industry-endorsed training directly connected to youth employment opportunities in high priority sectors.

The MEL Director will have overall responsibility for and oversee the guiding the strategic metric implementation of the project, focusing on developing and overseeing robust systems for monitoring and evaluating project performance, ensuring learning is integrated into practice, and contributing to the project’s overall success and impact assessment while liaising with the USAID MEL personnel to enhance the project. The position would report to the Chief of Party, and the opportunity is an open call for interest and is contingent on contract award.

JOB DUTIES

• Guide the technical execution of the program, ensuring effective monitoring, evaluation, learning, and research efforts align with project goals.
• Develop and oversee monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems, setting up indicators, baselines, targets, and evaluation plans.
• Report directly to the Chief of Party, ensuring strategic alignment and coherence in project activities.
• Work closely with the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, and USIU-Africa Deputy Vice Chancellor to manage MEL components, using project and relevant to youth and employment data for strategic planning.
• Implement quality assurance and auditing of data as part of leading all MEL activities, including project evaluations.
• Create opportunities for continuous learning and adapting among project staff, partners, donors, and government counterparts.
• Manage a team of MEL professionals, maintaining clear communication and defined responsibilities.
• Incorporate findings and lessons learned into project implementation to enhance intervention quality.
• Conduct research, contributing to the project's knowledge base and strategic direction.
• Provide technical support in MEL systems and approaches to build USIU-Africa and TVET partners’ capacity.
• Lead the project’s learning questions and agendas in collaboration with affiliated researchers.
• Assist in planning and implementing MEL Plans for project programming.
• Utilize practical indicators for development outcomes, reflecting a synthesis of USAID and partner priorities.
• Integrate learning methodologies to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of project.
• Facilitate consensus among diverse activity stakeholders, ensuring aligned decision-making.
• Capture and share learning to develop and disseminate learning products for wider stakeholder uptake.
• Monitor recipient progress in achieving objectives, communicating regularly with the Chief of Party about implementation strengths and challenges.
• Handle data management tasks, including database maintenance, dashboard development, and liaising with USAID specialized departments and partners around the world.
• Keep abreast of new developments in locally led development, actively participating in relevant events, and sharing insights.
• Operate in compliance with USAID rules and regulations and USIU-Africa policies.

The position is subject to the availability of funds and approval by USAID. The role would be in-person at project headquarters in Kenya with periodic travel to target Kenya counties up to 30% of the time.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 10+ years of progressively responsible professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• 5+ years experience in USAID-funded projects in MEL functions.
• 3+ years of supervisory experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in collecting, analyzing, and managing donor funded project data.
• Demonstrated experience managing monitoring and evaluation systems, consistent with USAID protocols for data collection and reporting.
• Experience with the United States Government (USG) CLA approach, including developing and integrating the CLA approach within project frameworks and leading CLA approaches across partners and technical focuses.
• Familiarity with USG administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems.
• Bachelor’s degree in international development, political economy, economics, business, quantitative methods and research, or a related field required.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS BUT NOT REQUIRED

• An advanced degree that incorporated research methods, statistics, quantitative/qualitative data analysis in the social or behavioral sciences.
• Experience in the successful MEL management of international projects of similar scope and size.
• Work specifically on USAID/Kenya & East Africa funded projects.