Senior Learning and Experiments Manager

SmartStart; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NGO network in Johannesburg is seeking a Senior Learning and Experiments Manager to enhance their adaptive management and program effectiveness. The ideal candidate will have a Master’s degree and at least 5 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MERL). Responsibilities include designing developmental evaluations, leading rapid experiments, and building capacity for data-driven decision-making. This role supports a culture of innovation within the organization and its broader network.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in MERL or adaptive management.
• Proven ability to synthesize complex data into actionable insights.
• Experience with social impact organizations and relevant programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of developmental evaluations.
• Develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track program impact.
• Facilitate reflective practices and learning loops across teams.

Skills

Developmental evaluation expertise

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Fluency in African languages

Education

Master’s degree in Monitoring & Evaluation or related field

Tools

Power BI

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Job description

Johannesburg, South Africa | Posted on 09/29/2025

SmartStart is a successful national network of NGOs and partners that is realising quality, affordable early learning for all children aged three to five. We are achieving this by scaling a network of and building a platform for providers, achieving specific ecosystem transformations with governments and partners, and promoting early learning as a priority societal cause.

Job Description

Purpose

The Senior Learning and Experiments Manager will play a critical role in strengthening SmartStart’s capacity for learning, adaptive management, and programme improvement. This role will lead the design and implementation of developmental evaluations and rapid experiments to enhance programme effectiveness and responsiveness. The Senior Learning and Experiments Manager will synthesise insights to support leadership and staff in sense-making and decision-making and foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation across SmartStart and its network.

The Senior Learning and Experiments Manager is responsible for designing and facilitating reflective practices, learning loops, and adaptive management processes to drive programme improvements and strategic coherence. This role will enable SmartStart to become a more adaptive, data-informed organisation, co-creating the conditions for network-wide rapid learning and collective intelligence.

Key Responsibilities

Designing and Leading Rapid Experiments & Nimble Evaluations

· Together with the SDI team head, drive the design and execution of developmental evaluations and nimble experiments to improve effectiveness and responsiveness.

· Develop and implement fit-for-purpose monitoring and evaluation frameworks that align with SmartStart’s strategic goals and learning priorities.

· Establish and refine key performance indicators (KPIs) and feedback mechanisms to track programme progress and impact.

· Support teams to design and implement rapid-cycle learning and experimentation processes to test and adapt programme models.

· Ensure that evaluation findings and experimental insights are synthesised into actionable recommendations.

Strengthening Monitoring and Performance Measurement

· Together with the SDI team head, drive the development and management of monitoring frameworks and tools to track programme performance and network-wide impact.

· Enhance the use of data dashboards and performance reports to support real-time decision-making.

· Enable data collection, analysis, and interpretation across SmartStart’s network.

· Build capacity across teams to engage with performance data, identify gaps, and take corrective action.

· Facilitate alignment between MERL frameworks and funder expectations, reporting needs, and organizational strategy.

Supporting Systems Thinking and Strategic Coherence

· Synthesise data and insights to support leadership in sense-making, decision-making, and action-taking.

· Enable teams to apply systems thinking approaches to understand complex programme dynamics and improve strategic alignment.

· Promote coherence and alignment between monitoring, evaluation, learning, and strategy, seeking to ensure that SmartStart’s theory of change is embedded into how decisions are made.

· Collaborate with the Data, Sense-Making, and Insights Team to strengthen data governance, integrity, and accessibility.

· Support the development of data feedback loops that enable real-time learning and adaptation.

· Build team and partner capacity to engage with and interpret data for programme improvement and strategic decision-making.

· Ensure that MERL data is integrated into organizational decision-making and strategy development.

Supporting Network-Wide Adaptive Learning and Innovation

· Co-create the conditions for network-wide rapid learning, iterative experimentation, and collective intelligence.

· Drive the use of insights from MERL activities to inform programme design, scaling decisions, and innovation.

· Develop feedback mechanisms to ensure that insights from experiments and evaluations are used to improve programme models.

· Foster a culture of disciplined innovation and structured experimentation across the network.

· Develop and implement mechanisms for capturing and sharing lessons learned across the organization and network.

· Facilitate learning exchanges and peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing to build collective intelligence.

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

· Collaboration: Work closely with the Innovation & Learning Portfolio, Programme Teams, and Development & Partnerships to align MERL activities with strategic priorities.

· Capacity Building: Develop and deliver training on MERL methodologies, adaptive management, and data interpretation.

· Ethics and Integrity: Ensure that MERL activities adhere to data governance, ethical standards, and regulatory requirements.

· Change Management: Support teams and partners in adopting MERL tools, frameworks, and practices.

Key Indicators of Success

TBD over time, broad areas would include -

· Improved Evaluation and Learning: Increased use of evaluation findings and rapid experiment results to inform decision-making, strategy and successful adoption of programme innovations.

· Enhanced Organizational Learning: Greater engagement in reflective practices, learning loops, and adaptive management.

· Strategic Decision-Making: Higher integration of data-driven insights into programme adaptation and strategic planning.

· Stronger Network Learning: Increases in peer-to-peer learning, knowledge-sharing, and collective problem-solving across the network.

Requirements

Key Person Specifications

Qualifications and Experience

· Minimum master’s degree or equivalent in Monitoring & Evaluation, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or a related field.

· At least 5 years of experience in MERL, developmental evaluation, and/or adaptive management in complex organizational contexts.

· Experience conducting experiments/studies/evaluations (e.g. developmental evaluations, rapid-cycle experiments, etc.)

· Excellent English writing skills, with a proven ability to synthesize complex data into actionable insights for strategic decision-making.

· Experience working with social impact organisations, programmes, or networks.

· Advantageous: Fluency in one or more African languages.

Specific Knowledge and Skills

· Expertise in developmental evaluation, adaptive management, and rapid-cycle learning.

· Strong analytical and synthesis skills, with the ability to generate insights from complex data.

· Knowledge of monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks and tools.

· Capacity to design and facilitate reflective practices, learning loops, and adaptive strategies.

· Familiarity with systems thinking and strategic coherence approaches.

· Advantageous: Proficiency with data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI) and Microsoft Dynamics 365 and/or similar CRM software.

General Knowledge & Understanding and/or Skills & Abilities

Behaving & Learning

• Behaving truthfully: being reliable, accepting, open, congruent (i.e., integrity)
• Learning curiously, including learning how by doing differently

o Clear curiosity (asking questions, questioning assumptions, doing differently, trying things)

o Track record of learning

o Openness to and appetite for feedback

• Familiarity with and curiosity about

o Societal scale

o Systems doing-and-thinking

o Design thinking & iterative designing

o Driving to succeed

• Commitment to SmartStart’s purpose and social justice internationally
• Advantageous: experience in, or familiarity with, early learning, ECD, education, public health, etc.

Relating & Adapting

• Building trusting relationships
• Playing role(s)-across-contexts adaptively
• Creating the conditions for and facilitating people’s thinking diversely and doing good work together
• Co-building & communicating coherence unendingly