Director, Program Innovation & Evidence

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

📋 Description

• Take ownership of forecast message testing through A/B testing across various formats, framing, and delivery methods.

• Explore and initiate new delivery channels for forecasts such as chatbots, WhatsApp, SMS, and social media.

• Evaluate channel reach, costs, and effectiveness in comparison to current channels.

• Supervise the creation of innovative forecasts in collaboration with academic partners.

• Manage a strategic roadmap for prioritizing, developing, and benchmarking new forecasts.

• Potentially recruit and supervise post-doctoral students to assist with model benchmarking or dataset development.

• Coordinate monitoring and evaluation activities with in-country teams.

• Identify program enhancements based on insights from monitoring and evaluation.

• Lead and revise cost-effectiveness analyses for agricultural programs.

• Analyze new directions for the agriculture portfolio, including benchmarking, advisory services, and new types of interventions.

• Establish and nurture relationships with academic institutions, research organizations, delivery partners, and agricultural entities.

• Create best practices and replicable public-good toolkits.

• Disseminate insights through toolkits, blogs, and various public-good resources.

• Report directly to the VP of Agriculture.

• Provide leadership to personnel, including managing at least one senior manager.

⛳️ Requirements

• 7-10+ years of experience as a builder in international development, consulting, or a related agricultural organization.

• Proven experience in designing and conducting randomized or quasi-experimental evaluations (RCTs, A/B tests, or similar), particularly to assess behavior change.

• A strong history of translating evaluation findings into product or program improvements.

• Demonstrated ability to significantly scale organizations and/or programs to achieve impact at scale, ideally in close collaboration with national governments.

• Training or early career experience in a rigorous environment, such as top-tier management consulting, high-growth NGO program leadership, or strategy/economic research.

• Ability to quickly familiarize oneself with new technical areas, including AI/ML forecasting concepts.

• Proven success in leading international development programs from concept to large-scale implementation.

• Experience managing coalitions involving multiple stakeholders, including governments, research institutions, NGO implementers, and private sector partners.

• A track record of being an effective people manager and team builder.

• High emotional intelligence (EQ) and the capacity to influence diverse partners.

• Strong proficiency with AI tools.

• Comfort with uncertainty and rapid iteration.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

• Ability to distill complex technical concepts, including AI/ML weather forecasting language, into concise narratives.

• Willingness and ability to travel extensively internationally (~20%) to India and other low- and middle-income countries.

• A passion for ensuring that cutting-edge AI benefits reach the world's poorest populations while minimizing potential risks.

• Role location is flexible and can be anywhere within the United States for fully remote candidates.

• Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S.; Evidence Action cannot sponsor or assume sponsorship of a U.S. employment visa.

🏝️ Benefits

• International healthcare.

• HSA/FSA options.

• Life insurance.

• Disability coverage.

• Retirement plans with a matching component.

• Generous and flexible leave options.

• Additional employee perks on a reimbursement basis.