Head of Insights & Impact

About the Role

The Head of Insights & Impact will own the Foundation's insights and impact function end-to-end—and be responsible for evolving it based on the Foundation's needs. This is fundamentally a partnership role: Programs drives the business and sets the strategic direction; Insights & Impact partners alongside by providing expertise and leadership to build the best possible evidence, data, and tools for that direction. That means this leader and their team will get out into the field alongside Programs and their partners — understanding the environments grantees and communities operate in, so that measurement and technology genuinely serve the people using them, not just the enterprise reporting on them. Effective use of AI and analytics will be critical to Insights & Impact supporting the Foundation's next chapter. This leader will start from a clear question: what does Programs need to make, execute, and track great decisions—and how do we build an organization capable of delivering it? You will be expected to:

Responsibilities

• Determine Enterprise Insights & Impact Strategy
  • Define and execute the strategy for the Insights & Impact function—analytics, AI, evaluation, and enterprise data—in service of Programs' priorities and the Foundation's goals.
  • Build an integrated operating model that connects evaluation, analytics, data engineering, and program strategy, with Programs' priorities as the starting point.
  • Partner with Program and executive leadership to ensure their strategic planning and investment decisions are strengthened by strong evidence and data.
  • Spend meaningful time with Programs and their partners to understand real operating environments, beneficiaries' needs, incentives, and constraints – ensuring strategy and measurement reflect the realities of the people they're meant to serve.
  • Serve as a trusted thought partner to Programs on partners' organizational performance, emerging trends, and opportunities to increase impact.
• Lead Evidence, Learning & Analytics
  • Lead enterprise Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning across all portfolios.
  • Develop clear frameworks for outcomes, impact measurement, and evidence generation—designing KPIs that motivate the teams who use them, not just track outputs.
  • Translate evaluation findings and analytical insights into clear, actionable recommendations that support Programs' grantmaking and strategic decisions.
  • Define and advance the analytics roadmap, including executive reporting, portfolio reporting, predictive analytics, and decision-support tools.
• Advance Data Science, AI & Innovation
  • Develop the Foundation's approach to data science, machine learning, and AI—with practical applications in predictive analytics, causal inference, natural language processing, and geospatial analysis—to strengthen impact measurement and learning.
  • Champion AI utilization to improve knowledge discovery, evidence synthesis, portfolio analysis, and strategic decision-making.
• Lead Enterprise Data Platform Strategy
  • Establish the long-term vision for enterprise data and governance, ensuring the platform is trusted, secure, scalable, and aligned to decision-making needs.
  • Align investments in data engineering, architecture, governance, and AI with Foundation priorities.
  • Partner with Technology to modernize the data environment and enable self-service analytics, enterprise reporting, and efficient AI utilization.
• Lead and Develop the Team
  • Lead an integrated team across MEL, analytics, data science, AI innovation, enterprise data, engineering, and governance.
  • Develop and mentor high-performing, multidisciplinary staff, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, technical excellence, humility and genuine care for one another and the communities we serve.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive leadership spanning analytics, impact measurement, evaluation, data science, and/or digital transformation.
• Led multidisciplinary teams across Analytics, Data Science, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Enterprise Data, with experience building enterprise strategies that integrate all four with modern data platforms and AI.
• Designed KPIs and measurement systems that teams actually want to use—metrics that motivate action, not just compliance.
• Demonstrated success leading teams across analytics, data science, evaluation, and enterprise data, creating environments where technical experts and evaluators do their best work together, with accountability paired with genuine development.
• Strong technical fluency in data architecture, governance, cloud-based analytics platforms, and AI-enabled technologies.
• Experience in public sector, technology, social impact, or management consulting is highly valued.

Skills

• Deep knowledge of impact measurement, evaluation, analytics, and enterprise data strategy.
• Exceptional leadership and people management, with a track record of developing strong, multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong outcomes orientation—builds systems for continuous learning and adaptive, evidence-informed decision-making that reflects what motivates the people using it.
• Outstanding executive communication and storytelling, able to distill complexity for senior leaders, Boards, and diverse audiences.
• Comfort with data architecture, governance, cloud-based analytics platforms, and AI-enabled technologies.
• Highest standards of integrity, stewardship, and accountability.