About the Role
Evidence Action seeks an Executive Vice President of Evidence to lead the strategic growth and transformation of our evidence function at a pivotal organizational moment. You will own accountability for the reliability of evidence guiding how we design, deliver, and scale programs proven to improve lives. This role sits at the intersection of technical rigor, organizational leadership, and external credibility, reporting directly to the CEO and serving on our Global Leadership Team.
Key Responsibilities- Lead a holistic evidence function integrating Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation, Cost-Effectiveness modeling, and Epidemiology into a coherent strategy that informs program improvement and major organizational decisions
- Set cross-program evidence strategy in collaboration with leadership and program teams, defining questions Evidence Action answers and matching appropriate methodological approaches
- Establish and enforce minimum standards for addressing weak evidence, uncertainty, and assumptions in impact modeling across our portfolio
- Design systems for consistent evidence review, including program stage gates and structured reviews at key decision points
- Own independent data quality assurance with structural independence from evidence generation, setting methodology standards and surfacing issues transparently
- Build internal technical management capacity and lead multi-disciplinary teams through consolidation and organizational change
- Represent Evidence Action externally, engaging donors, boards, and technical partners on our evidence philosophy and methodological choices
- Champion transparent culture sharing learning from both successes and failures with internal and external stakeholders
- PhD or equivalent quantitative expertise with background in cost-effectiveness, health economics, or demonstrated judgment to lead technical experts
- Proven experience leading similar technical teams in low- and middle-income country contexts with operational rigor
- Strong program-implementation grounding combining academic research expertise with genuine operational experience
- Demonstrated courage to surface uncomfortable findings to senior leadership and recommend course changes based on evidence
- Exceptional leadership and change management skills with ability to build trust across diverse teams and cultures
- Field presence and proximity to implementation required—not a remote role