Director of Evaluation and Research

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Conduct analysis of attendance data at the national, state, and district levels to pinpoint trends, disparities, and areas for potential impact.

• Create reliable frameworks to evaluate attribution, contribution, and influence when direct causality is challenging to determine.

• Spearhead the development of an impact evaluation plan for the organization, in line with Attendance Works’ strategic objectives and our aim to reduce chronic absence by 50%.

• Set standards for evidence claims utilized in external communications, fundraising efforts, board materials, and thought leadership initiatives.

• Ensure that impact statements are robust, defensible, and effectively convey limitations.

• Collaborate with program staff to guarantee that research findings are integrated into technical assistance activities and motivate action.

• Design and supervise formative and outcome evaluations of Attendance Works programs, tools, and technical assistance projects in alignment with Attendance Works’ Strategic Plan.

• Based on the analysis of findings, provide recommendations for enhancements to program strategies and practices that align with broader organizational objectives.

• Regularly review findings with the advisory board, leadership team, and all staff members.

• Foster an inclusive research culture that prioritizes the voices and experiences of students and families most affected by chronic absence.

• Offer expert feedback to organizational leadership on continuous improvement, including support for process evaluations of new and existing initiatives to assess quality of implementation, reach, fidelity, participant engagement, and operational efficacy.

• Integrate both quantitative and qualitative evidence.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in research, evaluation, data analytics, impact measurement, or related fields.

• Demonstrated success in developing organization-wide evaluation plans and frameworks.

• Proven experience in creating data dashboards.

• Background in analyzing large-scale education, youth, or public-sector datasets and translating findings into actionable practice, policy, and strategy.

• Preferred experience working within education, nonprofit, public-sector, philanthropy, or systems-change contexts.

• Experience in producing reports, briefs, board materials, or public-facing thought leadership for diverse audiences.

• Experience in managing multiple projects, budgets, timelines, and cross-functional stakeholders.

• A Master’s degree is required; a relevant Doctorate degree is strongly preferred.

🏝️ Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage fully paid.

• 401k plan with a 5% employee match.

• Basic Life Insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D), Short-Term Disability (STD), and Long-Term Disability (LTD) coverage.

• Four weeks of paid vacation.

• Twelve days of paid sick leave.

• Fourteen paid holidays.

• Four floating holidays.