Director, Impact Intelligence

Save the Children International; United States; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Save the Children International seeks a Director, Impact Intelligence to lead a movement-wide learning and evidence agenda across Insights and Learning, MEAL, Research and Evaluation, Ethics and Evidence Generation, and Economic Evaluation. The role focuses on data‑driven decision making, ethical evidence generation, and cost‑informed programming for children.

This senior leader will drive cross‑unit collaboration, build robust systems, and advance learning culture with hybrid/remote options and

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a related field (international development, social sciences, planning & statistics).
• Author of publications or thought pieces on learning, evaluation or research in development or humanitarian settings.
• Certification in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) and related methodologies is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Lead a movement-wide evidence and learning strategy across Insights and Learning, MEAL, Research and Evaluation, Ethics and Evidence Generation, and Economic Evaluation.
• Establish governance, roles and expectations for leaders on evidence use, learning and accountability.
• Oversee design and implementation of connected impact intelligence to improve data quality and surface insights for country offices, members and global teams.
• Lead prioritisation of impact intelligence to focus on decisions that matter and align agendas across indicators, MEAL standards, research and economic analyses.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Data literacy

Change management

Education

Advanced Degree

Publications in development/humanitarian settings

MEAL/certification desirable

Job description

Save the Children International has an exciting opportunity for aDirector, Impact Intelligence to join our global team.

Team and Role Purpose

The Impact Intelligence team puts what actually works for children at the centre of Save the Children’s day to day operations. It leads on our movement-wide efforts to become a learning‑oriented organisation that ensures rigorous data, ethical evidence generation, and cost‑informed programming drive scalable impact for children. The team co‑owns delivery of the Digital, Data & Evidence enabler, connects and stewards the global learning ecosystem, and consists of four units and working closely with a fifth:

• Insights and Learning
• Research and Evaluation
• Ethics and Evidence Generation
• Economic Evaluation
• MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning)

The Director will provide dynamic, strategic and operational leadership across these four units, ensuring that robust and ethical standards, tools, and capabilities are at the heart of our decision making for children. The Director will drive a coordinated agenda for data, evidence, evaluation, ethics and learning; will improve our systems and incentives for learning; and will focus on organisational efforts on the questions, metrics and insights that should most influence decisions in our programmes and influencing.

Reports To: Chief Innovation & Learning Officer

Work Pattern: Hybrid/Remote with flexible working options available

Location: Any approved Save the Children International office location. For a full list of locations that Save the Children International can hire in, please visit: SCI Careers

Required Time Zone: GMT +/-3

Contract Length: Fixed Term Contract (3 years)

Grade: Executive

Right to Work: The successful candidate must possess the unrestricted right to work in their current or preferred location for the duration of employment

International Travel: up to 20%

People Management: manager of multiple teams; 24 direct/indirect reports

Remit: Global

Principal Accountabilities

Strategic leadership and governance

• Lead a single, movement‑wide evidence and learning strategy and agenda that brings together Insights and Learning, MEAL, Research and Evaluation, Ethics and Evidence Generation, and Economic Evaluation, aligned with Save the Children’s Global Strategy, Theory of Change and inter‑agency agendas.
• Establish clear governance, roles and expectations for leaders on evidence use, learning and accountability, ensuring evidence is treated as a core organisational function rather than an add‑on.

Enhance the impact intelligence ecosystem

• Oversee the design and implementation of simple, connected impact intelligence which prioritises data and learning systems that reduce duplication, improve data quality, and surface the right insights at the right time for country offices, members and global teams.
• Ensure MEAL frameworks, standards, policies and tools are coherent across SCI entities and integrated with other core systems (e.g. Global Indicators, GAR, digital platforms) to enable real‑time and routine learning rather than one‑off reporting.

Focus on decision‑critical evidence

• Lead a strategic prioritisation of impact intelligence, focusing the organisation on the decisions that matter most and right‑sizing evidence requirements accordingly (e.g. lean designs, proportional baselines, targeted evaluations).
• Ensure global indicators, MEAL standards, research and evaluation agendas, and economic analyses are aligned to these priority decisions, reducing unnecessary data collection and reporting burdens.

Lead and connect organisational evidence efforts

• Act as the hub that connects evidence, data and learning across clusters and functions (programmes, operations, governance, funding, ethics, digital), enabling evidence to travel across units, countries and members.
• Build and steward strong collaboration mechanisms between the four units (Insights and Learning; MEAL; Research and Evaluation; Ethics and Evidence Generation; Economic Evaluation) and related functions (e.g. Global Indicators, GAR), reducing silos and duplication.

Experience and Skills

• Curiosity and positive scepticism about how data is collected and used, and a passion for understanding what is ‘best in field’.
• Demonstrated track record in leading organisational learning and evidence agendas in large, complex, multi‑country organisations, including fixing fragmented data and learning systems.
• An interest in how trends and technology can enable and influence our impact for children.
• Extensive experience leading research and evaluation portfolios aligned to strategic priorities, including mixed‑methods designs and synthesis of evidence for decision‑makers.
• Experience overseeing or closely collaborating with ethics and research governance functions, including responsible data and safeguarding in evidence generation.
• Experience integrating economic evaluation or cost‑informed analysis into programme and influencing decisions, or proven ability to lead specialist teams in this area.
• Strong record of building and leading diverse, geographically dispersed teams, and of working through influence and matrix structures to align evidence efforts across units and countries.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to turn complex evidence into clear options and recommendations for senior leaders and partners.
• Experience designing and implementing organisation‑wide learning or knowledge‑management initiatives, including digital solutions that reduce reliance on static documents and enable real‑time learning.
• Experience engaging communities, children and young people in co‑creating learning questions, monitoring, research and evaluation, particularly in humanitarian and development contexts.
• Demonstrated commitment to and experience in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within evidence, research and learning work.

Education and Qualifications

• Advanced Degree: A post‑graduate degree (Masters or PhD preferred) in a related field such as international development, social sciences, planning & statistics
• Author of publications/thought pieces on learning, evaluation or research in development or humanitarian settings.
• Recognised Certification: Certification in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) and in research, evaluation methodologies is highly desirable.

Working at Save the Children International

Save the Children is the world's leading organisation for children, employing ~25,000 staff. We save children's lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Through our work in 116 countries, we put the most deprived and marginalised children first.

We know that great people make a great organisation, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

The work here is challenging but is also immensely rewarding. At Save the Children, you will be in good company, working with talented, like‑minded individuals who are determined to ensure that all children survive, learn, and are protected. Your contribution will help ensure children's voices are heard at the highest levels, and that we achieve our global strategy, Ambition for Children 2030, and reach every last child.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

DEI is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply.

Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this.

Our Recruitment Process

• Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
• Two-stage competency‑based interviews with the hiring team
• Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview

If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks

We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our Code of Conduct and all policies and procedures relating to Anti‑Harassment, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, and DEI and Equal Opportunities.

Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.