The posting
Role: Senior Manager MEL, Hyderabad Experience: 6 to 8 years Salary: 13 to 15 LPA
Employment type: Consultant contract renewable every year ________________________________________________________________ About the Organization
We are an international non-profit organization dedicated to equipping adolescent girls with the skills, agency, and support required to access economic opportunities and break intergenerational cycles of poverty and inequality. Through our flagship initiatives, we support young women in carving out their own paths across entrepreneurship, formal employment, and higher education. Operating across multiple countries with a diverse network of local partners, our programs impact thousands of adolescent girls globally.
Role Summary
As our organization expands across South Asia and Africa, we are seeking a dynamic Senior Manager – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) to drive our overarching MEL function. In this role, you will shape our strategic approach to measuring impact, generating actionable insights, and leveraging evidence to refine program design and operations.
Working closely with internal Program and Operations teams, you will strengthen measurement frameworks, build partner and team capacities, and cultivate a strong organizational culture of continuous learning, reflection, and accountability. This role requires a blend of strategic thinking with hands-on expertise in evaluation design, data systems, analysis, and evidence application within the development or education sectors.
Key Responsibilities
1. Monitoring, Evaluation & Research
- Lead the design, refinement, and rollout of comprehensive monitoring frameworks, logical frameworks, and outcome/output indicators.
- Design and oversee qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods evaluation approaches and measurement tools.
- Drive MEL strategies for program pilots and experimentation to enable iterative learning, adaptation, and scale.
- Lead and oversee priority research initiatives focusing on women's and adolescent girls' economic agency.
2. Data Management, Analysis & Evidence
- Strengthen data management, quality assurance, and tech-enabled monitoring tools (including digital dashboards integrated with internal and government platforms).
- Lead quantitative and qualitative data analysis, translating complex metrics into actionable insights for leadership and program teams.
- Establish organizational standards for data quality, consistency, accessibility, and ethical usage.
3. Team Capacity & Data Culture
- Foster an organizational culture where data and evidence actively inform day-to-day program decisions and operations.
- Build and lead the internal MEL team structure, defining clear roles and responsibilities to achieve functional goals.
- Enhance MEL capabilities among program staff, operations teams, and implementation partners through targeted training and mentoring.
4. Stakeholder Engagement
- Prepare high-quality, credible impact reports and evidence summaries for executive leadership, donors, government bodies, and external partners.
- Collaborate with Communications and Fundraising units to translate MEL insights into donor proposals, impact stories, and external communications.
- Represent the organization at relevant sector forums, research conferences, and MEL networks.
5. Government Reporting, Systems & Accountability
- Design and maintain systems for accurate, timely, and compliant reporting aligned with government frameworks and platforms.
- Harmonize internal indicator definitions and tools with public sector reporting formats and data quality requirements.
- Coordinate across regional and field teams to validate data, resolve discrepancies, and maintain rigorous documentation.
- Develop government-facing dashboards, evidence briefs, and progress reports detailing implementation, challenges, and corrective actions.
- Utilize government administrative data to optimize targeting, delivery quality, and scale decisions.
Qualifications & Relevant Experience
Required:
- Education: Master's degree in Development Studies, Economics, Statistics, Social Research, Public Policy, Education, Data Science, or a related field.
- Experience: 6–8 years of experience in MEL within the development or education sector, including leadership of MEL functions or major evaluation/research projects.
- Technical Skills: Hands-on experience with data software and platforms such as Power BI, Tableau, SurveyCTO, KoboToolbox, ODK, SPSS, Stata, or R.
- Research & Evaluation: Demonstrated experience designing and executing end-to-end evaluations using quantitative, qualitative, experimental, or quasi-experimental methodologies.
- Data Systems: Deep expertise in MIS, data visualization, digital monitoring systems, and end-to-end data pipelines.
- Government Alignment: Experience developing reporting, compliance documentation, or dashboards for government bodies or public systems.
- Data Ethics & Governance: Practical understanding of data safeguarding, informed consent, confidentiality, and responsible handling of adolescent girls' data.
- Communication & Leadership: Strong track record of distilling technical findings into decision-oriented communications for non-technical stakeholders, donors, and leadership.
- Values Alignment: Strong commitment to gender equality, youth agency, and social inclusion.
Good to Have:
- Prior experience working with public education systems, government MIS, or EdTech ecosystems (specifically in India).
- Advanced Excel capabilities (pivot tables, data cleaning/reconciliation, automated visualization).
- Fluency in Telugu or Kannada.
- Project management experience coordinating complex reporting cycles across multiple partners and geographies.
- Experience managing external research agencies, evaluators, or technical consultants.
Key Benefits
- High ownership and strategic impact in a values-driven, collaborative work culture.
- Generous leave package, including parental leave.
- Mentorship and professional growth opportunities with executive leadership.
- Opportunity to shape high-impact initiatives that define economic participation for adolescent girls.
