Deputy Director, MEAL & Equity Impact

Southern Poverty Law Center; United States; Hybrid; USD 104,000 - 127,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Poverty Law Center seeks a Deputy Director, MEAL who is passionate about social justice and equity. You will lead MEAL strategy, ensuring data-driven decisions across SPLC programs and strengthening community accountability through rigorous evaluation.

The role requires strategic thinking, staff leadership, and the ability to translate findings into actionable improvements while fostering learning culture and collaboration across departments.

Qualifications

• Minimum seven (7) years of monitoring, evaluation, accountability & learning experience.
• At least five (5) years of directly managing staff.
• Minimum of bachelor\'s degree in political science, sociology, measurement & evaluation, social work, education, public policy or related fields.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and implementation of a MEAL strategy and approach that is responsive to social justice work and values and builds an organization that regularly uses data for learning, improvement and measuring impact.
• Provide guidance and review for MEAL products to ensure technical soundness as well as clarity and accessibility for non-MEAL audiences.
• Manage MEAL team collaboration with other departments to design MEAL frameworks and capture data that informs decision-making and measures the impact of work.
• Manage collaboration across different departments to support the implementation of community-based accountability practices and tools and to implement in the organization's programs, projects, initiatives, and activities.
• Conduct in-person and remote training on MEAL related topics, and travels as needed.
• Facilitate project brainstorming, design, strategy and planning sessions, and provides technical assistance on MEAL throughout all stages of the project life cycle to programs and teams across the organization.
• Support evaluations and research around the impact of SPLC's work.
• Manage a team of MEAL staff members by hiring, training, mentoring, coaching, assigning duties, setting and monitoring performance and development goals, and conducting performance reviews.
• Perform other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties in this job classification.

Skills

Strategic, analytical, and systems‑or‑

Equity- and community-centered

Collaborative and influential leader

Curious, rigorous, and courageous

Learning and improvement-oriented

Adaptable, results-oriented capacity

Education

Bachelor's degree in political science, sociology, measurement & evaluation, social work, education, public policy or related fields

Job description

Southern Poverty Law Center seeks a Deputy Director, MEAL who is passionate about social justice and equity. You will lead MEAL strategy, ensuring data-driven decisions across SPLC programs and strengthening community accountability through rigorous evaluation.

The role requires strategic thinking, staff leadership, and the ability to translate findings into actionable improvements while fostering learning culture and collaboration across departments.