Technical Advisor, Cost Analysis at CARE

JOB SUMMARY:

• As part of CARE’s commitment to maximizing impact per dollar, this position generates actionable, comparable insights into cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness to strengthen decision-making. The role expands CARE’s ability to routinely collect, analyze, and apply cost and efficiency data across programs, building the foundations for Value for Money (VfM), supporting scenario modeling, and contributing to the objectives of CARE's Economic Evaluation Unit (EEU).
• The Advisor supports teams in using cost information for program design, planning, and adaptive management, and contributes to building integrated systems, capacity, and knowledge products that inform CARE’s VfM agenda

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Conduct economic analysis of program interventions

• Expand cost-efficiency, cost, and cost-effectiveness analysis across priority programs, signature products and country teams.
• Support resource-tracking efforts to generate standardized expenditure and input data.
• Link cost data to output and reach indicators to support routine VfM integration.
• Collaborate with country teams and Impact Efficiency Labs to improve design, scale-up and transition decisions and produce comparative cost benchmarks.

Strengthen the capacity of staff and partners for cost analysis

• Build capacity and train staff to routinely use cost, efficiency, and economic data in their workflows, leveraging collaborative opportunities with CARE partners.
• Strengthen staff understanding of basic economic evaluation concepts and how they inform decisions.
• Support country teams in collecting standardized expenditure data and enable non-technical teams to use simple, accessible VfM tools.
• Provide technical input for concept notes and proposals

Knowledge management and learning

• Produce high-quality knowledge products that integrate cost, efficiency, and VfM insights, including contributions to the VfM Toolkit, Playbook, and applied research outputs.
• Contribute to internal and external reports, including donor reporting and management updates
• Maintain structured datasets and documentation that support automated pipelines, Power BI dashboards, and program-level analytics.
• Share learnings with partners and support CARE’s external VfM leadership efforts.
• Oversee maintenance and enhancement of the cost analysis platform and document repository
• Work with Digital / Finance / IT teams to improve data flows, automation, and integration across key systems, including Dioptra, Power BI, PIIRS, resource-tracking pilots, and cost analysis.
• Contribute to developing standardized frameworks for expenditure classification and routine data collection to support consistent, high-quality cost and efficiency analysis.
• Provide troubleshooting support, configuration updates, and input on feature enhancements for Dioptra and related platforms.

Required Qualifications:

• University degree in economics, statistics, public policy, international development, or related field.
• 5 years of experience in applied cost-efficiency analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, impact evaluations, or research and project budgets in humanitarian or development contexts.
• Strong skills in data interpretation and ability to translate findings and cost/efficiency insights into actionable guidance.
• Proficiency with CARE's preferred digital tools for data collection, analysis and visualization (e.g., Power BI, DHIS2, KoboToolBox, R), with experience using the Dioptra costing tool strongly preferred.
• Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills and cross-cultural sensitivity.
• Fluency in spoken and written English required.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Graduate degree in economics, statistics, public policy, international development, or related field.
• Dioptra Software Training
• Certification on MEAL, data analysis or visualization
• Experience with technical issues of data systems, data flow, M&E processes, and financial management preferred.
• Experience applying cost‑effectiveness or economic evaluation methods in development or humanitarian contexts.
• Experience contributing to standardized toolkits, playbooks, or organization-wide data processes.
• French, Spanish, or Arabic language skills