MEL Advisor/Senior MEL Advisor MarketShare Associates

Who we want:
MSA seeks a driven professional with strong economic development, private sector development, or market systems experience to join the team in the position of Advisor/Senior Advisor, with a preference for candidates located in Denver, Colorado; Toronto, Canada; or Kampala, Uganda. Candidates not in one of these locations will also be considered.

MSA is growing – this opportunity offers significant potential for the successful candidate to grow with us.

The nature of the role:
The Advisor/Senior Advisor will join our growing global team. This role is integral in providing technical leadership on complex, multi-country MEL projects, particularly those focused on systems change. The Advisor will bring 7+ years of relevant experience; and the Senior Advisor will bring 10+ years, with a strong preference for candidates who have led MEL efforts for large-scale, complex USAID-funded projects. The position requires a blend of strategic thinking, technical expertise, and experience managing MEL for systemic change. The successful candidate will collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality MEL solutions for MSA’s diverse global clients.

Key Areas of Responsibility:
• Push forward innovative learning and evaluation work, such as MSA’s work on catalyzing private sector learning considering different ecosystems and conditions; and leveraging the Disrupting System Dynamics framework to understand pathways of systemic change.
• Develop and implement tools that support actionable insights for some of the largest systems-focused projects in the private sector and market systems development space across geographies. This includes working directly with private sector actors to harvest and directly apply learning to improve decision-making and strategy. The Senior MEL Advisor will be expected to systematically look for ways and opportunities for continuous innovation and improvement towards more appropriate, robust, credible and right-sized methods for different client engagements.
• Build the evidence base on what works in systems-focused projects through designing and implementing rigorous and right-sized evaluations in collaboration with in-country research firms and teams, and MSA technical team members, ensuring that MSA’s quality standards are met across all stages.
• Actionable insights and report writing. The Senior MEL Advisor will write reports that synthesize findings and present actionable recommendations to enable evidence-based decision-making in line with MSA’s mission. They will integrate best in class learning and implementation knowledge into recommendations to improve uptake.
• Thought leadership and institutional guidance. One of the Research Team’s main mandates is to cultivate a learning practice and excellence in evaluation and learning through leading on learning products, organizing learning convenings, and producing trainings and guides. The Senior MEL Advisor will produce learning products for internal and external learning products and thought pieces that improve MSA’s work and / or our clients, as well as more broadly in the field.
• Business development. The Senior MEL Advisor will play a role in the growth of the MEL portfolio at MSA. They will serve as technical lead on proposals, helping to shape new initiatives as part of business development. They will represent MSA at external convenings and prospective client engagement.
• Engagement leadership on MEL-focused projects. On select projects, the Senior MEL Advisor can be an Engagement Lead on MERL-focused engagements, which includes leading communication with the client, designing the workplan and resourcing allocation and being responsible for the research process from design to delivery.
• Effective organization and collaboration. The Senior MEL Advisor is expected to be able to prioritize, implement and deliver high-quality work within tight timelines with minimal supervision. They will also be expected to provide guidance and mentorship to other team members. They will need to effectively allocate their time across multiple engagements that they are involved in and collaborate extensively as this is one of our core values that drives our mission and growth.

Requirements:
• Bachelor’s degree in economics, international development, decision sciences, business, or a related field.
• At least seven years (Advisor) and ten years (Senior Advisor) of significant experience designing and conducting qualitative and quantitative evaluation and learning studies, including multi-country, in an international development or consulting context.
• Expertise in MEL for systems change, with demonstrated experience in market systems development, private sector engagement, or economic empowerment.
• Experience working in global roles and supporting global technical teams and projects remotely.
• Experience developing and implementing measurement and learning plans, particularly to measure challenging concepts in practical ways and applying systems approaches.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including experience in writing reports, and presenting actionable recommendations in a concise way that maximizes uptake.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to work and build relationships with team members and clients from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to prioritize, implement, and deliver high-quality work within tight timelines and with minimal supervision.

Other desired characteristics:
• Masters’s degree in economics, international development, decision sciences, business, or a related field.
• Experience with leading private foundations, or USAID specifically in learning initiatives and/or evaluations for market systems development, economic development, and/or private sector engagement projects.
• Experience with USAID MERL activities, such as designing and implementing Monitoring and Evaluation Plans and Collaboration Learning and Adaptation plans is preferred.
• Experience working for a consulting firm and managing consulting projects.
• Proficiency in another language, preferably written and oral French.
• Experience working and living in developing countries.