Manager, Learning & Impact

What You'll Do

The Manager, Learning and Impact is a newly created role at Imaginable Futures and has a mandate to cultivate a shared strategic practice - establishing a culture of learning and impact - that unites Imaginable Futures internal ways of working with its aspirations for impact at the field and systems levels. The role will work collaboratively across program teams, and with external senior advisors and evaluators, to build the routines, rituals, and practices that help IF's program teams hone their strategies in service of catalyzing fields, building partnerships and coalitions, and contributing to systems change.

With the COO and external advisors, the role will steward the iteration and implementation of an equity-informed Systems & Impact Framework to assess the three levels of impact that IF holds itself accountable to - (1) its direct actions, (2) the immediate and direct impact of its partners and (3) the durable shifts in the fields and systems of learning that enable learners, especially Black, Brown and Indigenous learners, to thrive.

The role will also work in partnership with the CEO, COO, and leadership to implement the organizational strategic plan and learning agenda, supporting the firm in mobilizing, reflecting, and pivoting as needed. Likewise, the role will provide strategic support to program teams, as needed, to refine strategy, surface insights and elevate common themes. Note: the internal title for this position is Lead Manager.

Key Responsibilities

Steward a culture of learning leadership

• Hone and continue to codify an organization-wide shared strategic practice (including field catalyzing framework) and culture of learning in support of strategic decision making.
• Identify, develop and share knowledge development tools that build the strategic and learning capacity of colleagues, in particular, our Learning Core Team (read more here) as well as with our grantees, where relevant.
• Steward and evolve our Learning Core Team to advance this vision.
• Help disseminate IF's insights and approaches to learning and impact through original publications, presentations and other forms of field engagement with partners and the broader philanthropic community.
• Work in close partnership with the COO, Director of Strategic Communications, and Program Leadership to assess program strategies and activities and draw out insights to disseminate across the organization and beyond.

Ownership of IF's Systems & Impact Framework

• Iterate and implement, with COO and external advisors as well as Program Teams, a learning and evaluation framework for assessing systemic change and impact.
  • Be responsible for maintaining the framework tools and protocols in support of the Systems & Impact Framework.
  • Project manage, contribute directly to and convene and support a team of internal and external stakeholders in the completion of grantee interviews, AI-driven analysis and results synthesis.
  • Create the data infrastructure required for ongoing monitoring, evaluation and learning to strengthen strategy and implementation.
  • Aggregate, synthesize and communicate results to support learning and decision-making across program areas.
  • Aggregate, synthesize and communicate results to support annual impact reporting for the Board and external constituents.
• Manage a regular (every 2 or 3 years) grantee perception report survey in partnership with Center for Effective Philanthropy including analysis of results and recommended actions.
• Serve as an internal advisor to staff and liaise with external evaluators to ensure quality and effectiveness of assessment activities; manage a portfolio of evaluation contracts and grants, including developing SOWs and selecting evaluators and researchers.

Support IF's Strategic Plan and Annual Priorities

• Support the Managing Partner and COO to translate IF's strategic plan into annual priorities and develop an operating rhythm to support the organization to collaboratively define outcomes and regular points of reflection and action planning.
• Collaborate with the Managing Partner and COO to ensure that IF is looking around corners and forecasting into the future by identifying and leveraging intersections across program areas.

Provide strategic programmatic support

• Serve as an in-house support to individual program strategies to ensure alignment of impact and outcomes.
• Help to guide program strategy by bringing a lens of learning, impact, complexity and emergence.
• Collaborate with program staff to analyze learnings across impact and partnership, synthesize lessons learned and disseminate results in ways that are valuable to internal and external audiences and to their own strategic decision-making.
• Other duties that advance learning, impact, strategy and culture as assigned.

Who You'll Work With

You will report to the Chief Operating Officer. You will frequently collaborate across teams and work with the Managing Partner, COO, Director of Strategic Communications, and program team.

• Undergraduate degree required.
• 7 years professional work experience with a minimum of 5 years of non-profit work experience. Experience in education and/or philanthropic sectors or other areas related or relevant to IF's focus are preferred.
• Deep measurement and learning background with at least 5 years working regularly with quantitative and qualitative evaluation and research methods, tool design, and validation.
• An in depth understanding of learning and evaluation practices; systems, complexity and emergence; and qualitative data analysis including across culture and contexts.
• A passion for equity in evaluation and education and commitment to JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) overall.
• A desire and ability to work across geographies, languages, time zones and continents. An ability to speak Portuguese in addition to English is a plus.
• Excellent data analysis and writing skills; familiarity with (or willingness to learn quickly) AI for data synthesis and analysis.
• Comfort and skill with facilitation a plus.
• Demonstrated commitment to learning and ability to turn insights into action, and a high tolerance for ambiguity and ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Demonstrated self-starter who is comfortable designing their agenda and time in support of others. Proven ability to develop deep trust with partners and a variety of stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel across IF's geographies to build internal and external relationships (approx. 5-7 trips per year).

Note: we view this section as a guide, not a checklist. We encourage you to apply even if you don't satisfy every single bullet on this list.

Location

This is a remote (work from home) role with the opportunity to be based in certain regions in the United States where Imaginable Futures is a registered employer, or São Paulo, Brazil. The role requires 5-7 trips per year across IF's geographies to build internal and external relationships. Locations:

• Washington, DC and surrounding counties in Maryland
• New York, NY and surrounding cities
• Boston, MA and surrounding cities
• Wilmington, DE
• Bay Area, CA
• Detroit, MI and surrounding cities
• Charlotte, NC and surrounding cities
• São Paulo, Brazil and surrounding cities

Compensation

• United States: The estimated annual salary range for this role is $143,000 - $178,800, however the exact salary will vary, based on location and experience. The full range is posted for compliance and to share salary potential over time. New hires typically start towards the bottom of the salary range.
• São Paulo, Brazil: R$547.000 (Brazilian currency; inclusive of 13th month).
• In addition to the salary, employees of Imaginable Futures also enjoy a strong total rewards package (highlighted below).

Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles inform what we do and what we aspire to achieve. Our website provides more information on how we define and implement each of these principles.