Job Opportunity for Lead, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting at Vision Spring in Noida

Are you a change maker who wants to play a pivotal role in restoring vision for millions of people in low-income settings across India? Would you like to work for a high-growth organisation that is a pioneer in social impact practices?

We are seeking a highly motivated, dynamic, and self-driven candidate who would like to have a challenging and meaningful career path in monitoring and evaluation, research, and social sector. Monitoring and evaluation and research are the key focus areas at our organisation and require a proactive and dynamic approach. The candidate should be dedicated and sincere towards her/his work and should always be open to learning new things. The candidate should have in-depth subject matter knowledge, expertise, and experience. Timely and high-quality delivery of goals would be essential and will be a key performance measurement criterion. S/he will primarily be responsible for implementing and quality assure the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, and Learning (MERL) strategy in alignment with VisionSpring’s mission and values. S/he will generate evidence demonstrating programmatic and organizational impact and is responsible for implementing VisionSpring’s MERL systems and frameworks to ensure routine and effective use of quality data and information to support program design and decision making. The person in this role ensures that the India program evolves based on evidential learning and adaptation and supports shared learning across the programs to increase scale and impact. S/he will develop and motivate the different teams and team members with direct and indirect reports. S/he will be based out of Delhi NCR (Noida), India.

About You

• You are passionate about improving the accessibility of affordable eyeglasses to earners and learners vulnerable to poverty.
• “Prove it.” Ideas are nice; evidence matters more. You are an objective and dispassionate evaluator of facts.
• You love running analysis on a data set that you just made sparkly clean.
• Evaluating projects to find out what worked, what didn’t, and what the team could be doing in the future motivates you.
• You have an investigative nature. You ask clarifying questions, and focus inquires to meet the expectations of intended audiences.
• You see patterns, linkages, and connections where others only see data points. This enables you to:
• Translate data into concise, compelling statements of VisionSpring’s work and impact.
• Develop readily understandable concepts to meet the needs of team members with different levels of expertise.
• You value order, which is why you insist on routines and timelines.
• You are equally comfortable working by yourself and with a team. 

About Us

• We are creating access to eyeglasses for low-income people. Clear vision creates opportunities for increased learning, work, safety, civic participation, and quality of life.
• As a social organisation, social change motivates us first. Our focus is on advancing our mission objectives – to increase functioning, productivity, and income earning potential for our low-income people by correcting impaired vision with eyeglasses.
• We are working to transform the systemic dysfunction which has failed to deliver eyeglasses – a 700-year-old technology – to approximately 55 Crore people in India in need of vision correction.
• We serve low-income people who are more than beneficiaries for us. Our beneficiaries expect high-quality eye-screenings and eyeglasses.
• To efficiently scale, we must deliver each new unit with less cost.
• We run our operations on metrics and social impact measures. We leverage a range of processes and practices to get the work done.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organisation. We are a lean team of doers. 

What You’ll Do

MERL Strategy and Framework

• Support the implementation of VisionSpring’s MERL strategy and framework, and related policies, guidelines, processes, and standard procedures, aligned with organizational strategic priorities and targeted outcomes throughout the country program.
• Implementation of effective MERL plans, design and implement MERL systems, and provide quality assurance for MERL activities to ensure high-quality design and execution, throughout the country program.
• Oversee and improve paper-based and electronic monitoring systems. 

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Coordinate data gathering for mission indicators across the India enterprise. Key deliverables include the cleaning and synthesis of core datasets.
• Develop and improve monitoring tools to track key performance indicators for all Vision Access Projects – spanning See to Earn, See to Learn, and See to be Safe initiatives.
• Serve as the M&E point-person on all Vision Access projects, communicating regularly with field teams and partners and providing direct M&E implementation support. Ensure data integrity and adherence to data collection and quality protocols. Coordinate with Project Managers to make changes where required.
• Clean, manage and analyze aggregate and project-specific datasets.
• Respond to data requests using a range of descriptive and causal statistical analyses regarding VisionSpring India programs, including:
• Ø Quantitative summaries for the Leadership team and Board to inform decision making
• Ø Quantitative and narrative summaries for fundraising and business development purposes, quarterly and annual reports, external communications, and marketing collateral.
• Ensure information is provided in a transparent, consistent, verifiable, and compelling manner to all stakeholders.
• Fact checks external marketing and communications materials to ensure data accuracy and interpretation. 

Research

• Support VisionSpring’s research agenda, of evaluation and research, comprising assessments, evaluations, action research, randomized controlled trials, etc., to generate evidence of impact resulting from VisionSpring’s operational models. 

Capacity Building

• Ensure team members have easy access to VisionSpring’s knowledge base. Assist program teams to develop learning agendas as appropriate.
• Assist programs teams in developing evidence-based interventions by developing and training team members and partners on monitoring and evaluation plans, tools, and data collection protocols.
• Support the uptake of best practices and M&E tools, among team members and partners, related to key project indicators, data collection systems, and reporting standards. 

Learning and Knowledge Management

• Embrace transparency and reveal hard truths, living daily into VisionSpring’s values, to create a culture of learning together which includes learning from both success and failure. Ensure fact-based evidence contributes to constant adaptation and relentless improvement.
• Work with program teams to document program results and lessons learned. Contribute to program knowledge management, including development and dissemination of tools, materials, reports, papers, and intervention-linked research.
• Advance understanding of program/project impact through presentation of learnings and program findings.
• Share findings with field teams and facilitate lessons learned and project improvement discussions.
• Prepare statistics and draft compelling narrative findings for all donor and CSR client reports.
• Support the roll out of the knowledge management strategy, address national knowledge-related challenges, and draw on internal and external knowledge.
• Suggest effective ways to achieve greater programmatic impact and innovation based on evidential learnings.
• Oversee the publication and dissemination of information on successful and promising approaches, lessons learned, and other program results to program partners, donors and CSR clients, India’s government, and other key stakeholders. 

Team Leadership and Development

• Recruit, manage, develop, and motivate MERL team members and the consultants and external research partners who support VisionSpring’s MERL agenda in India.
• Support field teams and project leads with direct M&E implementation support, data quality, and integrity and adherence to data collection and quality protocols. Make them excited about the potential of quality data for achieving their objectives.
• Provide support for learning and ongoing career development for team members. 

External Engagement

• Seek opportunities to present research findings in relevant national forums.
• Manage abstract submissions and represent VisionSpring in relevant conferences.

Business Development

• Support the development of VisionSpring’s business by contributing to donor and CSR proposals with evidence and data.

What’s Required

• 8 – 10 years of M&E experience in global health and/or development context.
• Master’s degree in related field such as public health, statistics, economics, or political science strongly preferred. Bachelor’s degree in related field such as public health, economics, political science, sociology, international relations, or public policy required.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with a high degree of proficiency in Excel or Access required; abilities in statistical analysis software preferred (e.g., SPSS, SAS, STATA, etc.).
• Previous experience with field programs and relationship building/management with multiple stakeholders.
• Donor or program reporting experience.
• Strong experience of managing, analyzing, and interpreting data, MIS, and report generation.
• Prior exposure to and knowledge of HMIS is preferred.
• Solid understanding of impact metrics and indicators.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both in speaking and writing. At least a reasonable proficiency in Hindi.
• Willingness to travel within India as needed.