Senior Impact Assessment & Learner Officer

The role can be based in Los Angeles, CA or San Francisco, CA.

About the Foundation

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California. The Foundation’s current focus is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. Since 1937, the Foundation has provided more than $2.92 billion in grants to organizations throughout California. The Foundation ended 2025 with $3.6 billion in assets and provided $160.2 million in grants.

Impact Assessment and Learning (IA&L) at the Foundation supports assessment and learning efforts to guide strategy and enhance impact; advance accountability and transparency about what the Foundation is doing and learning as well as how that learning is being applied; and, where relevant, uplift these experiences so that they can be leveraged by others. The Foundation seeks to ensure that evaluation is done equitably and in service of equity with those we seek to serve at the center of our work.

About the Role

Reporting to the Director of Impact Assessment & Learning, Kim Ammann Howard, the Senior Impact Assessment & Learning (IA&L) Officer will serve as a collaborative learning strategist. This role will help facilitate strategic learning within grantmaking initiatives, across grantmaking teams, and more broadly in the organization to inform grantee, staff, and board insights and decision-making. Guided by the Foundation’s Impact Assessment and Learning Framework, the Senior IA&L Officer will work across different teams to build multiple spaces and modalities for Foundation staff, grantees, and partners to interrogate and evolve their practices.

The Senior IA&L Officer will advise Initiative Directors and their teams throughout their learning journey, understanding and navigating both the potential and challenges for the Foundation and its key stakeholders. They will facilitate learning by building capacity, providing tailored learning tools and methodologies, and working deftly with a range of personalities and professional types. The role requires serving as a trusted advisor, sense maker, and learning concierge for Foundation constituencies, helping to select resources and facilitate learning in appropriate contexts while exploring pathways for emergent and cross-portfolio learning.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate strategic learning within grantmaking initiatives, across teams, and organization-wide to inform insights and decision-making.
• Advise Initiative Directors and their teams on their learning journey, providing tailored tools and methodologies.
• Build capacity and facilitate learning by creating spaces and modalities for staff, grantees, and partners to evolve practices.
• Serve as a trusted advisor, sense maker, and learning concierge for Foundation constituencies.
• Support the development of learning agendas, materials, and products that advance learning and adaptation.
• Collaborate with IA&L team members, program staff, and foundation leadership around institutional learning and impact.
• Facilitate convenings, workshops, and peer learning with an explicit focus on equity and inclusion.
• Explore pathways for emergent and cross-portfolio learning.

Requirements

• Experience facilitating convenings, workshops, and peer learning across issues with a focus on equity and inclusion.
• Proficiency in developing learning agendas, materials, and products that advance learning and adaptation.
• Understanding of principles, strategies, and mindsets required to organize individuals to influence institutions and broader fields.
• Extensive experience in applied social science activities, preferably in philanthropic contexts.
• Previous experience working in a complex organization and ability to navigate multi-directional power dynamics.
• Strong relationship-building skills and a consultative, facilitative posture.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Personal and professional commitment to equity and inclusiveness, with an understanding of how identity and lived experiences inform work.

Qualifications

• Highly motivated, capable of self-directed work, and detail-oriented.
• Able to work collaboratively across teams and departments.
• Comfortable with multiple demands, shifting priorities, and ongoing change.
• Appreciation for how learning and evaluative practices drive reflection and inform strategic decision-making at all levels.
• Keen appetite for creativity and ability to support the curiosity of others.
• Experience working with a diverse range of organizations, consultants, and sector leaders.