The DIV Fund
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Position description
THE ROLE
The Director of Evidence and Impact Analytics is responsible for shaping and stewarding the DIV Fund’s Evidence and Analysis approach. The DIV Fund aims to maximize impact on people’s lives, and assessing the potential and expected social returns of different investments is central to our mission. This role sits at the intersection of evidence use, evidence generation, investment decision-making, and organizational learning: leading the implementation and refinement of the DIV Fund’s approach to modeling and assessing the expected social returns of high-potential proposals, supporting the consistent Application of the DIV Fund’s evidence standards in due diligence and portfolio management, and guiding how results are interpreted and used.
While our core funding criteria are clear, the tools and methods that our team uses to operationalize them in diligence will be continually refined. As part of an open innovation fund, this work requires comfort with ambiguity and the judgment to identify gaps early, suggest pivots, and recommend decisions, without waiting for perfect information.
This is a key leadership position at the DIV Fund that will play a central role in shaping how we assess, select, and learn from investments as we launch our first Request for Proposals and continue to build our portfolio of innovations. The Director will report directly to the CEO of the DIV Fund and work across the DIV Fund team to put into practice the key responsibilities of this work. They will also consult with the DIV Fund’s Scientific Director on key technical questions and to ensure alignment on the application and evolution of the DIV Fund’s evidence and research standards.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Pipeline Development and Evidence Standards
- Lead the ongoing design, implementation, and refinement of the DIV Fund’s Evidence & Analysis approach, including supporting consistent application of the approach in how we assess and select innovations for funding.
- Quantitatively model the expected returns of potential investments, right-sized to proposal amounts and time constraints. This will require using microeconomic tools and concepts to predict the behaviors of firms, individuals, and governments, and to determine how to value different types of benefits, as well as good judgment to assess real potential for impact at scale.
- Develop and support the use of practical guidance and quantitative tools for diligence that incorporate the DIV Fund’s expected returns framework, including assessing prior evidence, identifying key uncertainties, and evaluating potential for impact, cost-effectiveness, and scale.
- Partner with Investment Managers during diligence to assess the strength of existing evidence and ensure proposals articulate clear hypotheses, have credible pathways to impact and scale, and include stage-appropriate evaluation plans.
Leading Proposal Review and Due Diligence
- Serve as an expert reviewer of proposals, bringing forward key findings and insights from the relevant academic literature.
- Proactively identify, cultivate, and collaborate with a network of external experts, including academic researchers, sector specialists, and practitioners, to select the highest-potential projects and solutions for funding.
- Participate in screening and run the review process on select applications for funding. As appropriate, engage with promising applicants on evaluation designs.
Portfolio Management and Research
- Actively partner with the DIV Fund team to design grants and to monitor grantees’ progress, ensuring that grants are structured and implemented to answer key questions and generate policy-relevant findings.
- Design and lead the approach for capturing and synthesizing grant results, using insights to inform the DIV Fund’s future funding and grant management decisions, and ensuring that all findings – positive, negative, or inconclusive – are captured and responsibly shared with the global development field to advance learning, promote highly cost-effective models, and prevent duplication of failed approaches. Promote an appropriate response to failures.
- Ensure that evidence of impacts generated across the portfolio is systematically incorporated into decisions about follow-on funding, scaling, and prioritization.
- Shape internal and external messaging to clearly communicate the DIV Fund’s evidence expectations and tiered funding model to applicants and partners.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of professional work experience, which may include an advanced degree.
- Training in microeconomics and econometrics, with a demonstrated ability to interpret rigorous research with a clear understanding of the practicalities of implementation.
- Prior experience fostering teamwork by driving engagement, collaboration, and a shared mindset.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical findings for non-specialist audiences.
- Team player with a sense of humor rated at least 7.8 out of 10.
- Preferred:
- experience conducting research with randomized evaluations;
- experience modeling expected private or social returns; and
- experience advising senior leaders, senior government officials or influencing organizational strategy based on evidence and data.
COMPENSATION
United States-Based Candidates
Global Candidates (outside the United States)
What we offer
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Comprehensive health coverage — Medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family as well as pre-tax FSA and Dependent Care FSA accounts, and access to whole-person care and wellness support.
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Retirement, life, and disability — 401(k) with a 100% company match on the first 5% of contributions, plus life insurance and short-term disability, with options to add supplemental life, short-term and long-term disability coverage.
Application instructions
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