Senior Director of Strategy & Impact

DRS is looking, on behalf of our client, an international NGO, for a skilled Senior Director of Strategy & Impact, responsible for helping to shape our client’s strategic initiatives. In particular, the NGO is committing to an ambitious three-year Equity Action Plan starting in 2022 to improve the access and impact of work in the communities we serve. The Senior Director of Strategy & Impact plays a critical role in our ability to deliver on this plan. This role will be accountable to redefine organizational success and impact such that it is directly responsive to the needs and experiences of communities of color facing systemic barriers to entrepreneurship.

Job Title: Senior Director of Strategy & Impact

Starting date: 1^st April 2022

Contract duration: unlimited

Location: This role will work remotely, out of the NYC office.

Reporting to: Chief Operating Officer

The Senior Director of Strategy & Impact will accelerate impact for our clients in our target communities by reframing our data collection and evaluation processes from an equity perspective to ensure our service models and programs are designed to align with our commitments while also able to meet our goals to scale. The position will support small business ecosystems at a macro level by supporting the organization in shaping thought leadership strategies and initiatives and contributing to the NGO’s long-term success by helping to lead our strategic planning processes at the organizational level. The ideal candidate is process and systems-driven who can assess patterns in data, drive creative solutions, and execute on new opportunities with an eye towards scale and sustainability.

In addition, this role wears a critical senior leadership hat across the entire organization. You will be charged with helping to build and sustain an equitable and inclusive organization, drive accountability in our work, and create an inclusive culture where all identities and lived experiences are honored.

Key Focus Areas:

Data-Informed Approaches to Advance Racial Equity (top priority over first 12-18 months)

How do we build a stronger equity and inclusion lens to our Impact function to ensure we are achieving critical outcomes across our key communities?

What organizational structures do we need to support a culture of data and learning?

• Co-lead (in partnership with Director, Equity and Inclusion) an organizational effort to develop a meaningful, responsive approach to evaluating and improving client access and impact overall and to close disparities across key population segments such as race and language. Develop new logic models to assess program activities and consider how outputs and outcomes center racial equity.
• Build and oversee new (and revamp existing) data collection tools and procedures, including surveys, interviews, focus groups or observational data to capture the efficacy of programs for achieving client outputs and outcomes.
• Partner with Director, Equity and Inclusion to assess for and address bias in data analysis with the understanding of the impact of race and ethnicity on outcomes related to small business ownership and success
• Work closely with Program teams to translate data findings into programmatic interventions and success metrics that are compelling to our key communities.

Program Strategy, Impact, and Management

How do we define organizational impact with a racial equity lens? How do we innovate to ensure our programs accelerate impact for clients?

How do we evolve our service models as we scale out to new locations, offer new services, and embed an intentional equity lens?

How do we manage, measure, and understand what is happening across our programs, clients, volunteers, funders, and partners to drive new initiatives and strategies?

Key Responsibilities:

• Actively participate in program design and strategic planning with Executive & leadership teams. Work closely with program staff to build measurement and evaluation frameworks and harmonize program design work across our Marketing & Sales, Finance, and Legal Programs.
• Collaborate with the Leadership Team in the development & deployment of the tiered-service model approach as we scale our work nationally. Identify opportunities to improve the quality and efficiency of our work. Drive the development of growth indicators, staffing & resourcing frameworks, and project planning across the organization.
• Leverage internal and external research & analysis to identify gaps in programming, partnerships, and volunteerism. Generate & incubate new ideas for programming, service delivery, and measurement that create exponential impact opportunities for our clients.

Thought Leadership

How do we create compelling data-driven stories that support our small businesses, organizational development, communication, and marketing initiatives?

How do we share our experience & shape the pathways for small business development in Black and Latinx communities?

How do we effectively build collaborative ecosystems with community partners that center trust, authentic listening, and equity?

How do we develop models, frameworks, and engagement strategies to accelerate grant-making activities?

Key Responsibilities

• Build capacity on our Impact Assessment team to support macro-level thought leadership work in the small business ecosystem. This includes guiding research, investigation, data collection & analysis with internal and external data to build case studies, white papers, convenings, or other relevant materials to showcase our work and the needs of our small businesses to external stakeholders and partners.
• Develop data and impact partnerships with community organizations, government agencies, and other interested organizations to further research and development of thought leadership.
• Develop stories, impact statements, and engagement strategies around program strategy, outcomes, and growth initiatives to support grant-making activities.
• Contribute to NGO’s long-term sustainability by developing compelling funder reports, proposals, engagement strategies, and identification of new funding opportunities.
• Own all funder reports & proposals to ensure timely review of grant-making activities.
• Collaborate with the Executive team to prepare Board reporting for regular meetings. Participate in Committee meetings to bring to light our successes, challenges, and goals, distilling complex data into actionable insights.
• Stay current on critical issues and new opportunities and present guidance to ED/COO and others.

Strategic planning

How to build systemic strategic planning structures to support quarterly, annual, and multi-year strategic plans for the organization that accommodate periods of rapid growth and iterative change?

How to provide support and guidance to the leadership team in developing functional area plans and accountability tools?

• In collaboration with COO, help share strategic planning vision and methods for the organization that touches on quarterly, annual, and multi-year planning needs. Provide support in creating processes, tools, and resources to aid in developing and deploying our plans.
• Provide data, research, and analysis to help shape a 30,000 foot view of organizational opportunities and key objectives. Collaborate with Executive and Senior Leadership to put communication strategies in place to bring plans and objectives to light for Board, Staff, and key community members.
• Own the development of growth models & strategic planning indicators in collaboration with COO and Director of Finance.
• Collaborate with our CFO to build appropriate fiscal evaluation metrics for our program and our key resourcing inputs to manage our resourcing plan for scale.
• Ensure the organization has reporting and tools to help manage progress towards goals and drive accountability inside functional teams.

Team Management

How to build a world-class, data-savvy Impact Assessment & Research team that is equipped to deal with identifying our key challenges and opportunities?

Key Responsibilities

• Direct management of Senior Manager, Impact, and indirect management for other team members as the team and department grows. Provide ongoing professional development support through meetings, one-on-ones, performance reviews. Advance the skills of this team to take on bigger projects and challenges.
• Build a data-rich culture across our teams. Contribute to team-wide learning and knowledge management; communicate data insights and analysis. Bring insight on “why” and “where do we go from here” into day-to-day work across teams. Ensure all teams are equipped with the necessary data and analysis to drive our work forward.
• Collaborate with technology teams to design data infrastructure, products, or reporting tools that allow the team to respond to needs across the organization.

Knowledge, education, experience:

• 7-10 years of increasing responsibility and innovation in program strategy, strategic planning, and impact assessment. Strong preference for candidates with backgrounds spanning both nonprofit and the public and private sector, and exposure to policy initiatives;
• Demonstrated understanding of the role of structural racism and other biases in our society and a strong commitment to addressing these impacts within the context of this role;
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing quantitative and qualitative tools and data collection methods that can inform impact and evaluation frameworks program strategy and identify the “why” behind our work and outcomes. Experience in bringing equity-oriented practices into data evaluation projects and spaces. Understanding of research methodologies and human-centered design practices;
• Experience with program design, particularly working to scale programs, taking ideas to the next stage of impact and influence;
• Thrives in both big picture strategy and execution;
• Data-driven storyteller who can distill complex data into clear stories and insights and communicate learnings across diverse audiences;
• Excellent computer skills and experience with Salesforce and BI software (Tableau, etc.) are strongly preferred;
• Entrepreneurial acumen and drive, ability to see and respond to opportunities to strengthen and/or course correct program plan to increase impact and drive for policy and systems change;
• Strong relationship-building, communication, and conflict resolution skills, including the ability to work effectively across cultural differences and a demonstrated commitment to ongoing learning and reflection on one’s personal identity;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively influence and communicate with diverse stakeholders and colleagues while always maintaining a strong level of professionalism and tact. High emotional intelligence, understanding, humility, and ability to develop deep relationships and respect with diverse leaders, organizations that cross sectors, geographies, class, power, and race and ethnicity.Strong writing and editing skills, track record of effective communication that engages audiences from public, private, and nonprofit sectors;
• Demonstrated ability to attract, develop, and motivate culturally diverse teams with a high level of collaboration and accountability to organizational values in action;
• Deep commitment to building a positive work culture that encourages feedback related to practices including but not limited to equity and inclusion.

Benefits:

• 4 Day Work Week – Monday – Thursday
• Generous PTO package (25 days) and all federal holidays
• Sick time separate from PTO
• Paid parental leave
• Paid volunteering days
• Competitive health insurance package
• 401k with employer contributions
• Life AD&D insurance
• Access to various other benefits including pre-tax commuter plan, tuition reimbursement, dental and vision insurance.