Job Opportunity for Senior Associate – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) – REVIVE at Samhita in New Delhi / Mumbai

About Samhita

Samhita is a social impact consulting firm, with a vision to build a ‘better normal’. The better normal reimagines business environments where social value is an integral aspect of growth, putting stakeholders and environmental guardianship at the centre of business strategy, a strategy that evolves from inputs to outcomes, from individuals to ecosystem, and from delivering services to building capacity and enabling the market.

To do this, we support companies to align their core competencies with the needs of the social sector, and build catalytic partnerships with stakeholders with in-depth knowledge and networks to execute sustainable, outcome-oriented social impact initiatives. This approach bridges the gap between purpose and action, and forges business responsibility strategies that balance people, profit and planet, thereby creating a better normal for communities, environments and businesses.

About REVIVE

REVIVE leverages CSR and philanthropic capital to plug the gap around timely, affordable and accessible capital, through returnable grants, for semi and unskilled workers, entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises that form the backbone of businesses and the national economy. The provision of grants is complemented by interventions such as job placements, reskilling and upskilling to find additional income sources and visibility to access further loans.

Innovative and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation is a core feature of the project where we are building research infrastructure to understand the impact of returnable grants and other intervention through robust primary data collection, experimentation, and ongoing monitoring. Alongside this, there is an in-depth third-party evaluator to test the efficacy and fidelity of the program’s impact.

Role Overview:

The Associate, MEL at REVIVE will execute the MEL plan for individual REVIVE cohorts from start to finish. The success of the role lies in the ability to work together with the MEL team and all other relevant stakeholders – Implementation team and other internal teams within Samhita, clients, partner agencies to seamlessly execute the MEL team’s vision for REVIVE. 

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Support the development of the overall MEL and knowledge strategy for REVIVE 
• Work closely with REVIVE’s implementation to execute the MEL strategy of individual cohorts under the REVIVE program
• Execute research projects end-to-end – developing research design, sampling strategies, designing cohort-specific survey instruments, digitization of survey instruments (SurveyCTO), training of enumerators, testing survey instruments, conducting high-frequency checks, cleaning and analysis (STATA, R, Python), creation of reports and insights based on analysis and data visualization, conduct qualitative interviews to develop case studies and triangulate findings.  
• Support the MEL team to design quasi-experiments and test certain hypotheses with respect to returnable grants and other blended finance models.
• Work closely with all stakeholders to implement experiments – hypothesis creation, getting stakeholder buy-in, creating random samples, designing treatment (intervention), executing timely data collection, and trouble-shooting challenges. 
• Support efforts to enhance agency M&E systems and standards by developing SoPs and technical guidelines.
• Provide timely and robust information to promote the dissemination of learning, better project cycle management, and facilitate evidence-based decision-making through the provision of technical analysis, both internally within Samhita and externally with partners and donors.
• Engage regularly with different clients that support REVIVE’s individual cohorts with the aim of fulfilling the MEL team’s vision 
• Work closely with MEL teams/personnel of REVIVE’s funders such as USAID, MSDF, ONI, UNDP, FCDO, to understand their focus areas and incorporate them into REVIVE’s MEL strategy and execution. Provide them with regular updates and thought partner with them to troubleshoot challenges. 
• Support knowledge creation and dissemination of insights in a regular and innovative manner for a variety of digital platforms, including Samhita’s website, blogs, videos, email newsletters, social media, publications, and more

Qualifications, Skills & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree required (economics, statistics, econometrics, public policy, or other related disciplines)
• 1+ years of experience working with on-ground social impact research projects and managing their end-to-end execution (including research design, sampling, tool creation and data collection and analysis)
• Excellent understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods (econometrics, statistics, and research design) 
• Strong ability to balance the study design and rigour with implementation practicalities 
• Demonstrated experience working on statistics software (Excel, STATA, R, Python, MATLAB, Julia)
• Demonstrated experience working on data visualisation tools (Google Data Studio, Flourish, Tableau) 
• Excellent writing and presentation skills 
• Excellent project management and organizational skills
• Excellent team management skills 
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English (and fluency in other local Indian languages – Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi desirable) 
• Excellent interpersonal skills 
• A flexible work style. Someone that can work easily with ambiguity in a fast-paced environment with short timelines.  
• Emotionally intelligent. Work with a variety of colleagues with empathy, an open mind, and self-awareness.

Work Location: Mumbai/New Delhi (Remote at the moment)

Why Samhita?

We believe that great companies are built by great teams. So we value and nurture our people, and recruit those who share our passion for impact and excellence. 

We are young and dynamic, and believe in creating opportunity for individuals and ideas to grow. At Samhita, we invite initiative and innovation, and solve problems through collaborative action. You can make a difference in this mission-driven organisation, by using your skills to solve some of the toughest challenges facing modern India. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas.

How to apply:

Send us your resume with a one-page cover letter telling us what excites you about joining Samhita to careers@samhita.org