Job Description

Job description
Use your evaluation skills and broader research experience to help high impact organisations working with children and young people learn faster and deliver better outcomes, by building and strengthening organisations that help young people thrive.


This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is passionate about evidence informed practice, experienced with quantitative analysis, and motivated to build and strengthen organisations that help young people thrive. You will join a small mixed methods evaluation team within Purposeful Ventures and work closely with portfolio colleagues, alongside our partner organisations - inspirational charities and social enterprises - to successfully grow and deliver systemic change.


You will be responsible for the day-to-day management, design and delivery of monitoring, evaluation and learning activities across three levels: individual interventions, groups of related interventions (programmes) and the overall portfolio level. Working with our portfolio team, you will scope and design proportionate approaches to track progress at intervention, programme and portfolio level, assess outcomes, and understand whether - and why - intended outcomes are being achieved, to support improvement. You will also help us better understand and report on Purposeful Ventures' organisational impact.


Successful candidates will have led evaluations end-to-end, including designing studies and analysing and reporting quantitative data (administrative and other monitoring/assessment data, plus surveys). Experience of research or evaluation relating to improving maths attainment, including via teaching-workforce initiatives and delivering evaluations for funders or charities (including in research agencies), is desirable.

Responsibilities and duties

1. Work closely with the Head of Evaluation to implement Purposeful Ventures' monitoring and evaluation framework, to ensure alignment with organisational objectives and sector standards.


Translate the framework into portfolio, programme and intervention level monitoring and evaluation plans with clear outcomes, indicators, baselines and reporting cycles. Establish proportionate evaluation ethics, privacy and safeguarding practices and ensure compliance across our three portfolio areas. Review and maintain templates, guidance and quality assurance processes; innovating to improve and use methods in line with sector best practice.

2. Strengthen programme design, delivery, monitoring and reporting across Purposeful Ventures and partner organisations.


Work in partnership with portfolio team colleagues and partner organisations to ensure that partner organisations have proportionate yet robust monitoring and evaluation plans. Ensure appropriate data quality and timely reporting by designing and setting up monitoring and evaluation systems, including specifying and managing data collection. Establish effective monitoring processes that improve programme design and delivery, and inform funder reporting, by providing hands-on support and guidance to partner organisations. Enable better decisions on design, delivery and grant-making by synthesising monitoring and evaluation evidence into clear, actionable insights. Ensure findings drive improvements in intervention, programme and portfolio design and delivery by embedding effective reflective processes, including facilitated learning sessions. Shape and define the strategy for monitoring and evaluation support, based on partner organisation needs and evaluation objectives. Contribute to partner organisation selection by assessing intervention design and the plausibility/strength of theory of change; making recommendations to strengthen monitoring, evaluation and learning. Ensure impact at portfolio, programme and partner organisation level is clearly understood, learned from and shared by leading the synthesis and communication of monitoring and evaluation findings.

3. Design, commission and manage high quality external evaluation and research activity to meet our objectives.


Select and onboard external research and evaluation partners by collaborating with colleagues to scope needs, prepare briefs, design research and run effective procurement. Manage external partners/projects to scope, budget and timelines, provide constructive technical reviews and assure methodological and reporting quality.

4. Support colleagues with advice and guidance about monitoring and evaluation for impact and broader research expertise.


Provide timely technical input to proposals, portfolio/programme design and communications. Build capability across portfolio teams and partner organisations through coaching, training and practical tools. Support portfolio design, delivery and reporting by conducting technical reviews of research studies, evaluation plans and reports. Keep up to date with evaluation and other relevant research methodological developments.

Who we are looking for

Key requirements


Commitment to Purposeful Ventures' mission and values, with a passion for transforming the life chances of children and young people through entrepreneurship and innovation in education and related fields. Advanced knowledge, skills and experience in a range of social research methods, including theory-based evaluation, quantitative data collection and analysis (e.g. outcomes analysis using monitoring/assessment data, survey design, validation, developmental and impact evaluation). Experience establishing and improving data systems (templates, validation/QA, dashboards) for programme/service improvement and reporting. Proven track record in evaluation or research roles, ideally in or with the not-for-profit and/or social enterprise sectors. Substantial experience of working with stakeholders to understand their programme theory, evidence needs and communicate formative and summative findings to strengthen programme and/or policy design and delivery. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information for diverse and lay audiences. Strong interpersonal and influencing skills; able to gain credibility with key internal and external stakeholders, including funders, academics, senior charity executives and social entrepreneurs. Excellent project and stakeholder management skills with the ability to hold people to account and achieve project outcomes. Experience overseeing compliance with ethical standards, data protection, and safeguarding in evaluation activities. A proactive, strategic thinker, who is comfortable working independently and able to solve complex problems and drive programme and organisational learning. Flexible, highly-organised and able to prioritise work to meet deadlines. Happy to work with a degree of ambiguity, creating processes and ways forwards where they might not yet exist.

Desirable


Experience working with funders, philanthropists, and policy audiences. Published thought leadership or research in relevant fields. Experience commissioning and managing large-scale, multi-partner research of evaluation projects. Experience of research and/or evaluation relating to improving attainment, including through teacher professional development and broader teaching workforce initiatives. * Experience working with Power BI.