Director of Impact

About the role

Nia Tero is a global bridging organization that brings Indigenous Peoples and allies together to advance Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship. Our partnerships with Indigenous Peoples are explicitly structured to honor self-determination, respect time-honed knowledge and ways of being, and build trust while upholding the sacred value of reciprocity. To achieve this, we work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples to safeguard their ancestral thriving territories and ways of being, collaborating on essential global efforts towards a vibrant and habitable future Earth.

Our vision is that Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship is enabled everywhere possible on Earth as part of a just and vibrant future. Our mission is to directly support Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship and elevate the role and influence of Indigenous Peoples as essential to ensuring planetary health and habitability.

Nia Tero is in year two of our five-year strategy and is seeking candidates who thrive in a fast-paced environment, adapt quickly to change, and seek to strengthen the impact of a mission-driven organization.

The Director of Impact will lead Nia Tero’s efforts to measure and describe its impact, reporting initially to the CEO. This role leads the organization-wide approach to learning, impact evaluation, information management, and progress reporting, serving as a key cross-functional leader who supports, facilitates, and drives alignment and coordination on the evaluation of organizational strategy and the impact of programs, partnerships, and field-building efforts.

The successful candidate will bring strong experience in strategy implementation, evaluation, information management, data visualization, learning systems, facilitation, and values-aligned communication. In all areas of work, this role will be rooted in Nia Tero’s organizational strategy and values of reciprocity, mutual exchange, accountability, and respect for Indigenous knowledge systems, sovereignty, and community-defined measures of success.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development, implementation, and continuous refinement of Nia Tero’s impact evaluation and learning approach in alignment with the organization’s five-year strategy, values, and annual plans.
• Design and facilitate strategy reviews, learning processes, and decision-making rhythms that integrate progress tracking, dashboards, partner insights, risks, tradeoffs, and emerging opportunities.
• Partner with senior leadership and cross-functional colleagues to define shared learning priorities, outcomes, indicators, information needs, and evaluation practices that strengthen accountability and adaptation.
• Coordinate and support organization-wide tracking and evaluation of strategy implementation, program progress, resource deployment, partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, and field-strengthening efforts, developing clear recommendations for leadership.
• Guide ethical, secure, culturally respectful, and appropriately scoped data collection, analysis, synthesis, reporting, and information management practices, with attention to confidentiality, consent, and data sovereignty.
• Develop, coordinate, and maintain accessible dashboards, visualizations, mapping tools, impact narratives, reports, briefings, learning products, and executive summaries in collaboration with cross-functional colleagues for internal and external audiences.
• Collaborate across teams to ensure reports, proposals, public materials, systems, and workflows accurately and respectfully convey Nia Tero’s impact.
• Build organizational capacity for impact learning through facilitation, coaching, templates, shared routines, cross-team coordination, and a culture of inquiry, humility, reflection, and responsible use of information.
• Serve as an individual leader and collaborative thought partner to leadership, staff, consultants, evaluators, funders, partners, and peer organizations on impact, learning, adaptive strategy, continuous improvement, and organizational effectiveness.

People and Resource Management Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of staff and consultants supporting impact evaluation and related functions, fostering a culture of collaboration and creativity.
• Optimize the productivity and effectiveness of the team through hands-on management, an open-door policy, and regular coaching and feedback.
• Direct, counsel, and coach team members, meeting regularly to discuss objectives, observations, progress, and results.
• Monitor work performance to ensure productivity and alignment with organizational needs.

Qualifications

• Education and Experience Requirements:
  • 7+ years of relevant experience in organizational strategy, impact evaluation, evaluation and learning, information management, organizational development, research, and/or related fields.
  • Experience working with Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous-led organizations, community-based organizations, environmental justice, human rights, conservation, philanthropy, or global nonprofit contexts.
  • Deep knowledge of strategy development, strategy implementation, performance management, and evaluation systems that support organizational learning and adaptation.
  • Demonstrated experience designing and facilitating strategy reviews, learning processes, dashboards, progress tracking systems, or impact reporting for complex, mission-driven organizations.
  • Experience defining data management needs and supporting information management systems that enable accurate reporting, analysis, visualization, and decision-making.
  • Demonstrated understanding of ethical data practices, community accountability, consent, confidentiality, data sovereignty, and culturally respectful approaches to knowledge stewardship.
  • Experience facilitating cross-functional collaboration, synthesizing complex information, and influencing leaders across diverse cultures, identities, functions, and geographies.
  • Bachelor’s degree preferred, or equivalent combination of education, training, lived experience, and professional experience.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Strong strategic thinking skills with the ability to connect strategy implementation, evaluation, storytelling, information management, and decision-making.
  • Excellent facilitation, collaboration, and relationship-building skills across cultures, disciplines, geographies, identities, and organizational levels.
  • Exceptional presentation, written, and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to write clearly for executive, Board, funder, partner, and public audiences.
  • Ability to bring independent, thoughtful analysis to complex organizational dynamics, program strategies, data, and learning questions.
  • Ability to hold complexity and nuance while producing practical tools, recommendations, dashboards, summaries, and deliverables.
  • Strong organizational, time management, and project management skills, including the ability to manage multiple work streams, timelines, collaborators, and competing priorities in a fast-paced, global work environment.
  • Demonstrated ability to use qualitative and quantitative information responsibly and communicate findings in accessible, actionable ways.
  • High level of discretion, humility, cultural sensitivity, self-awareness, and sound judgment when handling sensitive information.
  • Fluency with Microsoft Office, including PowerPoint and Excel, and familiarity with project management platforms, data visualization tools, mapping tools, databases, survey tools, or knowledge management systems.

Working Conditions and Travel

• This full-time position is based in Seattle, WA, or Honolulu, HI with flexibility for hybrid work consistent with organizational policy.
• Evening and weekend hours may be required to support global collaboration across time zones.
• Domestic and international travel is a requirement of this role.

Pay

The salary for this position is USD $136,000–$185,000 based on experience. Our compensation program is U.S.-based and pay ranges are representative of compensation in the U.S. market. For positions outside of the U.S., pay rates are determined based on the applicable local regional market.

Benefits

• Healthcare benefits (medical, dental, and vision)
• 401K
• Paid time off, including vacation leave, sick leave, and personal days