Senior Associate Partner, Evaluation

Use your expertise in empirical research and success in leading diverse, mission-oriented teams to strengthen the ability of programs and organizations working to eliminate opportunity gaps for students across the country to leverage evidence to support continuous improvement and achieve outstanding results.

We are seeking a Senior Associate Partner, Evaluation to leverage their expertise in evaluation to promote equity and excellence in opportunities and outcomes for all students. In addition to providing day-to-day leadership and management of Evaluation projects and teams, the Senior Associate Partner will bring a “business owner” mindset to the organization.

Our work spans early childhood through postsecondary education and the transition to the workforce, aiming to improve access, opportunities, and outcomes for young people at every stage of their educational journey. 

We are a remote-first team, and our work is national in scope, which means this role can be based anywhere in the United States. This enables us to hire the best person for the role, regardless of geography. For this role, we are specifically seeking a candidate who brings previous evaluation experience from within the education sector. Travel up to approximately 20% to 30% may be required. 

About Bellwether 

We are a national nonprofit that exists to transform education to ensure that systemically marginalized young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities. We work hand-in-hand with a diverse range of education organizations to accelerate their impact, inform and influence policy and program design, and share what we learn along the way. 

Our Evaluation team is one arm of Bellwether’s broader Policy and Evaluation (P&E) practice. The P&E team provides high-quality analysis, advising, evaluation, and support services to help organizations and leaders at every level of the system better understand how policies affect and inform their work, so they can create better results for students, especially those with the least access to opportunities. Our Evaluation team brings a wide range of training, coursework, and experience in designing, conducting, and supporting research at all levels of the ESSA evidence pyramid (e.g., experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, and descriptive). We typically deploy a mixed-methods approach to our designs to customize each project to the client and the questions they seek to answer. Our evaluation assignments tend to cluster into the following categories: program evaluation, survey research, and evaluation capacity-building.

Our team members have experience as evaluators, analysts, and researchers at the federal, state, and local levels and expertise spanning a wide variety of issues. Bellwether staff members have served in roles at the White House, the U.S. Department of Education, and state education agencies, and as senior leaders in school districts and charter networks. Additionally, because our team includes many former teachers and school leaders, we have seen firsthand how policy and policy implementation shape school systems all the way down to the classroom level.

Responsibilities

This role will include the following key responsibilities:

Team Leadership

• Foster a culture that supports our core values, especially our evaluation equity commitments* and viewpoint diversity. 
• Lead and manage project teams as they work through the technical and consultative aspects of evaluation work, including design and execution of statistical analysis, research, and evaluation capacity-building, and ensure that deliverables reflect Bellwether’s standards for rigor and quality.
• Manage complex Evaluation projects, leveraging strong project management skills to successful outcomes, while ensuring a common understanding of goals, objectives, and processes across project teams and the client. 
• Supervise, manage, and develop the P&E team’s managers and analysts to ensure the strong functioning of project teams.
• Coach and mentor staff by setting clear and consistent expectations that encourage all team members to embody situational leadership, give and receive feedback regularly, protect space for feedback, and align goals and opportunities to their unique strengths and opportunities for growth.

Client Development, Business Development, and Network Cultivation

• Work with other members of Bellwether’s leadership teams on client development efforts, eventually increasing self-directed business development.
• Tell Bellwether’s story in compelling ways, describing who we are, what makes us unique, and why our work is meaningful to organizations and the field.
• Initiate, cultivate, and extend strategic relationships, with an emphasis on developing new partnerships.
• Leverage and expand your personal network with senior executives, funders, and other leaders in the field at the local, state, and federal levels (as appropriate to the focus of the projects you lead). 
• Represent Bellwether externally (as appropriate to your expertise), including but not limited to speaking at conferences, participating on panels, and writing articles and opinion pieces.

Client and Funder Engagement

• Build, sustain, and cultivate strong relationships with our clients and funders in partnership with project team members.
• Serve as a trusted resource and adviser, helping our clients solve research and evaluation challenges and build their internal evaluative capacity.
• Lead iterative processes that enable joint problem-solving and inclusive decision-making with clients and teams.
• Invest in cultural competence and equitable evaluation, supporting clients and colleagues to understand community context and key issues important to stakeholders, with a focus on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic issues that play an especially acute role in the education sector and, consequently, our work.
• Ensure that clients’ needs are met from the beginning to the end of each engagement and intervene if needed to course-correct during a project.
• Build and sustain strong relationships in the philanthropic sector, particularly as relevant to your areas of focus, in alignment with Bellwether’s development strategy and in collaboration with other organizational leaders.

Leadership Capacity

• Serve as a member of the Bellwether leadership team, supporting the development of high-impact business strategies and their implementation, with a focus on exceptional quality.
• Guide the strategic direction of the Policy and Evaluation practice area, including participating in annual planning and goal setting, leading critical internal initiatives, and engaging in hiring and onboarding to build a diverse team.
• Serve as a steward of the organization’s culture and shared values.

Qualifications

Bellwether is a good fit for professionals who have a strong personal drive and motivation and are resourceful, responsible, tenacious, independent, and self-confident. 

You will bring the following skills and mindsets to this role: 

Research and Evaluation Wonk

• You apply cutting-edge methodological approaches to evaluating changes throughout complex and diverse organizations within the education sector. 
• You leverage a wide range of quantitative data analytic techniques, including propensity score matching, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), quasi-experimental and/or experimental designs, and capability using statistical software (e.g., R, Stata, SPSS) to perform analyses.
• You bring experience in qualitative data analysis and reporting, as well as capability using software such as ATLAS.ti to analyze qualitative data.
• You have expertise in data visualization and dashboarding.
• You have supported organizations in building their capacity for evaluation to drive systems change and improvement.

Strategic Thinker and Project Manager

• You enjoy developing innovative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.
• You take an empirical approach, and you like to roll up your sleeves and work hard to understand what the evidence and data tell you about the current state of your clients’ work or a challenge in the field.
• You are a self-starter who likes to have several things going on at once. You can balance competing priorities, manage up to senior leaders, and juggle multiple timelines without sacrificing the quality of a deliverable.  
• You are a nuanced thinker, able to grapple with complexity, quickly take in new information, and adjust your perspective in response to evidence.
• You are a learner first, striving to fully understand clients’ issues, seeking new areas in the field, and keeping abreast of challenges that people are trying to solve. You are on a constant journey to expand your knowledge base.
• You demonstrate excellent execution and project management skills, including acute attention to detail, and you can balance overarching goals with detailed steps to achieve your objectives.

Extraordinary Influencer and Connector

• You connect purposefully and intentionally with others as an executive and leader. You express yourself with clarity, respect, and awareness in conversations and interactions with others.
• You build trust and credibility through transparency and authenticity in your communications with staff and clients.
• You listen compassionately and with an open mind — seeking to fully understand clients’ needs before recommending any direction forward.
• Your focus on cultivating relationships has been consistent at every stage of your leadership journey. You recognize the power and exponential nature of connections.

Inclusive and Reflective Leader

• You model cultural fluency and sensitivity to establish a culture and mindset of growth to help meet the needs of diverse staff and clients.
• Either through personal experience or empathy, you solicit, elevate, understand, and value the perspectives of a wide variety of stakeholders.
• You pursue and build authentic relationships across lines of difference (race, age, political viewpoint, socioeconomic background, gender identity, etc.) through self-reflection and empathy.
• You are always reflecting on your work and development as a leader, assessing your strengths and growth areas and openly seeking feedback.
• You are confident in your ability to address matters of equity, race, and bias in decision-making with clarity, confidence, openness, empathy, situational awareness, and an understanding of historical context.

Culture Keeper

• As a leader, your words and actions are consistent. You demonstrate trust in and respect for others no matter what. You understand deeply that trust must be earned.
• You keep confidences, accept responsibility, maintain transparency, and lead by example.
• You astutely assess team strengths and challenges and foster a working environment where all voices are valued, team members’ strengths are elevated, and team members can enjoy work while making a positive impact.
• You are known for your impeccable work ethic, accountability, and follow-through.

Excited? We are too. You should apply if you have:

• Experience with the challenges and disparities in pre-K to postsecondary education in the United States, especially regarding students denied opportunities based on race, ethnicity, or income. Candidates with specific expertise in quantitative methodologies are particularly encouraged to apply. 
• A commitment to Bellwether’s core values, including diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as viewpoint diversity. Experience with equitable evaluation approaches is strongly preferred, in keeping with our evaluation equity commitments.*
• Experience with and commitment to building capacity for evaluation within organizations to drive systems change and improvement, preferably within the education sector.
• At least seven years of professional experience in which you designed and implemented mixed-methods evaluation and research studies, including experimental and/or quasi-experimental studies and work that leveraged quantitative data analysis techniques.
• A proven ability to effectively lead and motivate diverse teams to achieve collective goals, fostering an inclusive and collaborative work environment.
• Client-facing experience in an advising or consulting role, ideally within the education, philanthropy, or nonprofit sectors.
• Experience translating recommendations into action, well-developed persuasion skills, and a sense of comfort working with others across lines of difference.
• A strong network of relationships with senior executives of education organizations, funders, and/or policymakers in education at the local, state, and federal levels. Bonus points for experience in business or client development.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to tailor communication to various stakeholders’ needs.
• The ability to model a high degree of reflection and self-awareness, build trusted relationships across lines of difference and positional power, and seek and respond to perspectives different from your own.
• A highly self-motivated work style and a willingness to proactively take on a leadership role on project teams and within the organization.
• A learning mindset and the ability to seek and synthesize new information.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $165,250 to $177,625 annually, with the opportunity for compensation to increase over time commensurate with performance. While the final offer amount will be determined by multiple factors — including previous experience and content knowledge — and may vary from the stated range, Bellwether is committed to transparency, and all offers align with our compensation philosophy.

Bellwether provides competitive compensation and an attractive benefits package that includes a performance bonus based on individual and firm success, health care coverage, and a 401(k) plan with matching employer contributions.

To Apply

Use your online application — a custom letter of interest and a current resume — to show us you have the skills listed here or why the skills you have are the ones we actually need. Your letter of interest should be addressed to Melissa Steel King, Partner and Team Lead for the Evaluation practice, and should speak to how your experience and approach to work align with our evaluation equity commitments.* This role has a priority application deadline of July 24, 2024. While we prioritize applications received on or before that date, we will review applications as we receive them until the position is filled. Note: Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

Bellwether is committed to building a team that reflects the varied backgrounds and experiences of the students we seek to serve. It is important to us that you use your application materials to clearly highlight ways in which your background and experience align with Bellwether’s core values, including our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as viewpoint diversity.

Bellwether is committed to providing equal opportunities. It is our policy to ensure that all individuals with whom we are in contact are not discriminated against based on age, race, ethnicity, color, disability, gender identity, gender expression, political viewpoint, marital status, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Further, as described above, Bellwether is committed to building a diverse team and strongly encourages individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

*Bellwether’s Evaluation Equity Commitments 

Too often, evaluation perpetuates systemic inequity. Our intention is to leverage evaluation as a tool in service of equity.

We have committed to centering equity in every part of our work, including how we show up as individuals and as a team, how we design and do our work, and how we interact with clients, communities, and the field. Our commitments to this end include: 

• Identify and interrupt bias. We consciously reflect on how our individual and team identities intersect with our work. We build structured opportunities for identifying (and, when necessary, interrupting) bias and the ways our beliefs, mindsets, and behavior may help or harm our pursuit of equity.
• Acknowledge power and positionality. We acknowledge that evaluation is not a neutral activity and understand that we hold a position of power as evaluators. We explicitly name the assumptions, values, and context in which our perspectives and recommendations are grounded. We cultivate decision-making practices that prioritize inclusivity and equity and look for opportunities to share power and address power imbalances.
• Use inclusive methods and approaches. We prioritize the use of methods and approaches that are responsive to community contexts and incorporate expanded definitions of truth, knowledge, and evidence. We elevate and center the perspectives and experiences of systemically marginalized individuals and communities in our research, analysis, insights, and recommendations.
• Acknowledge the past, understand the present, and design for the future. We help our partners and clients examine how past and present systemic drivers of inequity at the local and national level affect their strategy and results. We also support them in leveraging equitable evaluation to reimagine systems and structures in ways that accelerate their impact.