Lead Consultant, Program Evaluation

About Strength in Numbers Consulting Group
Strength in Numbers is a small LGBTQ-led research and evaluation firm founded in 2010. We do community-based evaluation, research projects, and philanthropic strategy. We pride ourselves on providing excellent opportunities to work on diverse projects that contribute to justice while maintaining a work-life balance. Our practice includes collaborations with a wide variety of historically excluded groups, particularly those with intersecting experiences of oppression (e.g., low-income youth of color, young children and ethnic minorities in the developing world, transgender people sex workers). We are a diverse, collegial community.

• We serve organizations and programs designed to benefit LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and other groups who experience marginalization and oppression.
• We have a shared value for producing on-time and excellent work, while also recognizing people as people. In practice, what that means is that we have predictable, reasonable working hours, excellent benefits and strive to always ensure that our workplace is equitable, just, and worker-focused.
•  We value existing expertise and want to help grow the knowledge and skills evaluators bring in new and unexpected directions.

Our work culture combines a commitment to efficiency, diligence, and focus while in the office and a strong respect for the importance of employees being able to “leave work at work.” We prize work/life balance as well as the ability to self-start and move work forward with and for our clients and in service of social justice. We are kind, helpful, and collaborative. 


About the Role - Lead Consultant, Program Evaluation
We are looking for a driven, entrepreneurial, passionate, and rigorous professional to join our collaborative and growing team. You will drive program evaluation projects for clients, manage complex client and stakeholder interactions, mentor and support other team members in evaluation design and data collection, and ensure the excellence of all client deliverables.

This role is designed to work with senior management to oversee discrete program evaluation projects across the life cycle of programs (needs assessment/formative evaluation, fidelity and process evaluation, and outcome evaluation). The Lead Consultant will supervise 2-3 staff and/or interns and act as a resource on evaluation design and data collection to other members of the Strength in Numbers Team. 
 

Your Responsibilities Will Include: 

• Independently designing program evaluation processes, including writing research questions, selecting, sequencing, and conducting appropriate methods, and designing and undertaking analysis plans.  
• Creating rigorous, effective surveys and working with others to improve their survey design
• Working with clients to help them articulate their goals, refine research questions that achieve those goals, and consult with them on the operationalization of surveys.
• Writing user-friendly reports and presentations for clients. 
• Writing reproducible, sharable code in R.
• Overseeing the work of other quantitative analysts and conducting rigorous data checking.
• Accurately and clearly documenting quantitative methodology for reports and for internal use. 

What You'll Need 

• 7+ years of overall professional experience.
• Consulting experience in the field of program evaluation, ideally related to public health, criminal justice, and/or training and capacity building.
• A proven track record of leading multiple client-facing projects, authoring and managing team production of high-quality deliverables, and building and training high-performing teams.
• Demonstrated ability to extract, clean, manage, and analyze data using R, Stata, or other programming languages,  including working with data that are poorly structured and include significant errors.
• Ability to integrate qualitative and quantitative program evaluation components, ideally including experience doing qualitative work as well as quantitative work
• Success in mentoring and coaching team members and fueling their professional growth.
• Recognition from peers, clients, leadership, and teams for superior active listening, stakeholder engagement, and communication skills.
• Ability to project expertise and gravitas to a wide variety of audiences. Collegial and constructive in approach, especially when working with marginalized people and those trying to serve them.
• Preferred Skills and Experience:
  • Knowledge of Qualtrics or similar survey data collection software.
  • Knowledge of the philanthropic context and/or evaluations of portfolios or projects driven by the needs of grantmakers (rather than governments or program implementers).
  • Understanding of and experience with advocacy evaluation, contribution analysis and/or collective impact measurement.
  • Spanish language fluency
• A passion for social change: you are driven by the desire to contribute to making change in our society. You’re interested in social change theories and putting those theories into practice. 

• Strategic Thinking: You’re a strong conceptual thinker, who can easily grasp and navigate a range of abstract concepts, relate them to one another, and translate those concepts into strategies and practical actions.
• Implementation of Complex Projects: You’re a confident project manager, leading and executing a portfolio of interconnected projects with high attention to detail across multiple stakeholders.
• Research and Data Synthesis: You have a strong ability to independently recognize learning opportunities, design and conduct research, gather data, structure quantitative and qualitative analyses, and draw and apply actionable recommendations.
• Written and Verbal Communications: Your written and verbal communication skills are excellent, with an ability to independently create original public content and deliver verbal presentations in multiple settings.
• Project Management. Deep project management experience with both cross-functional internal teams and external partners.
• Self-motivation: You proactively take initiative, identifying problems and opportunities across your portfolio, developing recommendations, and taking action on those recommendations.
• Adaptability: You thrive in an ambiguous environment where you have the autonomy to drive your work.

Strength in Numbers provides a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Employer-subsidized health, dental, and vision benefits effective the month following the hire date
• 10 paid holidays per calendar year
• 20 Vacation days + 10 Sick days
• 3% match for retirement plan effective immediately

This position is full-time, and you must already be based in, or be willing to relocate to, New York City. This role is expected to be in the office (1 Willoughby Square, Brooklyn) two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday). You are free to work from home during our regular office hours the rest of the week. 

The hiring range for this position is an annual salary range of $110,000-130,000  per year plus performance-based bonus potential. The final salary within this range will be determined based on relevant experience.

The Application Process
 Strength in Numbers has engaged Equitable Hiring Group to support this hiring process. To apply, please complete the short form to the right. 

Individuals who apply by Thursday, February 15, will be given priority; therefore, we encourage you to submit yours soon!

When you apply, we kindly ask you to remove your schools from your resume. There is no need to reformat your resume and leave your degree as is; simplify it to “B.A. Economics,” for example. Just remember to remove any undergraduate and graduate school name references where possible. This “bias-reduced” process is aimed at opening this opportunity to more candidates, reviewing applicants on performance assessments instead of resume proxies (e.g., where you went to school).

This evaluation process will follow practices shown to reduce bias in decision-making and may be different from other application processes you have experienced.

The overall evaluation process will look to follow this anticipated timeline:

• Mid-February: Selected candidates asked to complete short answer questions
  • Candidates will be asked to share a snippet of R code
• Late February: Video interview with Strength in Numbers staff
• Early March: Finalist candidates will be asked to complete a paid, timed, trial assignment
• Mid-March: Finalists will participate in a multi-team member panel
  • Candidate references will also be checked at this step
• Late March: Offer extended

If you have any questions about the opportunity, please feel free to email [email protected].