Evidence-Driven Evaluation Lead for Federal Programs

LMI Consulting, LLC; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

LMI Consulting, LLC is seeking a Research Analyst/Program Evaluation Lead to strengthen evidence and decision quality across VA modernization initiatives. The role establishes evaluation standards, baselines, and interpretation approaches for outcomes across operational, clinical, adoption, workforce, and technology domains.

The position follows a hybrid model with about 25% onsite presence at Tysons or Washington, DC, and requires translating findings into actionable options for ongoing

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in operations research, statistics, economics, public policy, public health, evaluation, applied mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
• 10+ years in program evaluation, operations research, applied statistics, performance measurement, health services research, or related work.
• Demonstrated experience designing baselines, comparison methods, measurement frameworks, and defensible evidence standards.
• Strong command of uncertainty, bias, confounding, causal limitations, mixed methods, and executive interpretation.
• Recommended certification: PMP, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, or comparable evaluation/analytics credential; equivalent advanced training is acceptable.
• Ability to satisfy VA personnel vetting and applicable security, privacy, records, and data-handling requirements.
• Deep practical knowledge of quasi-experimental design, observational analysis, before/after evaluation, mixed methods, performance measurement, and appropriate interpretation of non-randomized evidence.
• Demonstrated ability to distinguish attribution, contribution, association, projected benefit, and observed outcome and to communicate those distinctions to non-technical leaders.
• Excellent technical writing and briefing skills for producing concise evaluation plans, evidence summaries, limitations, and recommendations that support investment or implementation decisions.
• Working proficiency with analytical tools and data structures sufficient to review code, calculations, data-quality findings, model outputs, and statistical results rather than relying solely on narrative summaries.
• Demonstrated ability to advise senior leaders when evidence is incomplete or conflicting and to frame reasonable options for additional measurement, retesting, or decision-making under uncertainty.

Responsibilities

• Define evaluation frameworks, baselines, comparison approaches, evidence thresholds, and decision criteria.
• Review measurement plans for data fitness, denominators, feasibility, bias, confounding, and methodological soundness.
• Distinguish observed results from projected benefits and communicate uncertainty without overstating causal claims.
• Design before/after, quasi-experimental, mixed-methods, and other fit-for-purpose evaluation approaches.
• Integrate operational, clinical, adoption, workforce, technical, and user-experience measures into coherent evidence.
• Partner with data staff on analytical execution while retaining responsibility for evaluation rigor and interpretation.
• Translate findings into decision-ready options for continue, adjust, retest, scale, defer, or stop decisions.
• Create reusable evaluation templates, standards, and review criteria for future VA work.
• Frame evaluation questions, logic models, outcome hypotheses, measures, data requirements, comparison strategies, and interpretation rules before implementation whenever feasible.
• Review sampling approaches, denominator logic, missingness, confounding, selection effects, measurement bias, and other threats to validity that could materially change conclusions.
• Develop fit-for-purpose data-collection and mixed-methods plans that connect quantitative results with user, implementation, operational, and contextual evidence.
• Conduct or direct sensitivity analyses and alternative interpretations when evidence is uncertain, and clearly state what the available data can and cannot support.
• Establish evaluation review checkpoints and reusable standards for measure definitions, analysis plans, evidence strength, limitations, and decision criteria across concurrent initiatives.
• Coach analysts and workstream leads on evaluation thinking so outcome claims, dashboards, reports, and executive briefings use consistent terminology and do not overstate what the data supports.

Skills

Program evaluation

Operations research

Applied statistics

Performance measurement

Data analysis

Executive interpretation

Technical writing

Uncertainty handling

Education

Bachelor's degree in quantitative field

Master's or doctoral degree in operations research, statistics, economics, evaluation, public health

Tools

Python

R

SAS

SQL

Job description

LMI Consulting, LLC is seeking a Research Analyst/Program Evaluation Lead to strengthen evidence and decision quality across VA modernization initiatives. The role establishes evaluation standards, baselines, and interpretation approaches for outcomes across operational, clinical, adoption, workforce, and technology domains.

The position follows a hybrid model with about 25% onsite presence at Tysons or Washington, DC, and requires translating findings into actionable options for ongoing