Chief Impact Officer

Job description

Job Summary: The role provides unified strategic leadership across the Monitoring, Evidence & Learning (MEL) and Research functions, and is accountable for translating that combined evidence base into knowledge products, research partnerships, donor and policy narratives, and thought leadership that strengthen Village Enterprise’s positioning, funding, and influence. The role bridges technical rigor and organizational strategy: it sets the standards by which Village Enterprise measures and communicates what works, integrates evidence into decision-making at every level, and represents Village Enterprise’s evidence base externally to donors, governments, and the wider development sector.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Unified Impact & Evidence Strategy

• Set and lead Village Enterprise’s organization-wide impact and evidence strategy, integrating MEL and Research into a single coherent agenda aligned with organizational strategy.
• Partner with the Chief Programs Officer and Executive Leadership Team to ensure evidence, measurement, and learning priorities inform organizational strategy, annual planning, and major cross-functional decisions.
• Own the organization’s overarching learning agenda, ensuring the Global Head of MEL’s and Global Head of Research’s respective agendas are complementary, non-duplicative, and mutually reinforcing.
• Advise the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, on impact performance, evidence strength, and strategic trade-offs.

Leadership of the MEL and Research Functions

• Provide clear strategic direction, priorities, and performance expectations to the Global Head of MEL and Global Head of Research, holding both accountable for the quality, timeliness, and rigor of their respective functions.
• Approve organization-wide measurement frameworks, research priorities, and major changes to MEL or research methodology recommended by direct reports.
• Resolve trade-offs between monitoring, research, and analytics priorities where they compete for organizational resources or attention.
• Build a high-performing, collaborative Impact, Research & Learning leadership team, with clear roles and shared accountability for organization-wide evidence quality.

Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning

• Own Village Enterprise’s unified knowledge management and organizational learning strategy, integrating outputs from MEL and Research into a single, coherent knowledge architecture accessible across the organization.
• Institutionalize organization-wide learning mechanisms — such as evidence syntheses, cross-country learning forums, and leadership learning reviews — that connect field implementation, monitoring, research, and strategy.
• Build organizational capacity and culture for evidence use through coaching, training, and leadership engagement, ensuring evidence leads to documented decisions and adaptations.

Research Partnerships & Institutional Relationships

• Own Village Enterprise’s strategy for institutional research partnerships, including relationships with academic institutions, evaluation firms, and research networks, ensuring these partnerships align with organizational priorities and evidence gaps.
• Represent Village Enterprise in high-level research, evaluation, and academic partnership discussions, complementing the Head of Research’s operational management of individual partnerships.
• Identify strategic opportunities to strengthen Village Enterprise’s standing within the poverty graduation and livelihoods research community.

Evidence for Fundraising, Policy & Thought Leadership

• Partner with the Chief Development Officer and business development teams to translate Village Enterprise’s evidence base into compelling donor narratives and proposal content, owning the technical and evidence framing while Development owns the donor relationship and funding ask.
• Serve as Village Enterprise’s principal external voice on impact, evidence, and learning, representing the organization at sector conferences, policy forums, and donor and government engagements.
• Own the organization’s thought leadership agenda on evidence and impact, shaping publications and external positioning, in partnership with the Global Director of Strategy, Policy & Advocacy.
• Ensure evidence used in fundraising, policy, and external communications is accurate, appropriately caveated, and consistent with what MEL and Research can credibly support.

People, Partnership & Resource Management

• Lead, manage, coach, and develop the team, supporting their growth and the development of their respective teams.
• Own the Impact, Research & Learning department’s budget, workplans, and resource allocation across MEL and Research.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships with Programs, Finance, Development, Technology/Systems, Government Relations & Technical Assistance, and country teams.

Safeguarding

• Champion a culture where safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility by leading by example and promoting Village Enterprise’s commitment to safeguarding across the Kenya Country Programme.
• Ensure the effective implementation of and compliance with Village Enterprise’s safeguarding policies, standards, and procedures by staff, partners, contractors, and programme participants.
• Foster a safe and accountable environment by ensuring safeguarding risks are proactively identified, mitigated, and integrated into programme design, implementation, and organizational processes.
• Ensure that safeguarding concerns and incidents are promptly reported, managed, and escalated in accordance with Village Enterprise’s safeguarding policies, and support safeguarding investigations and disciplinary processes as required.

Key Performance Metrics

• Organization-wide evidence and learning strategy delivered against agreed milestones.
• Quality and consistency of evidence used in donor proposals and external communications, as assessed through internal review.
• Growth and health of institutional research partnerships (number, quality, and strategic fit).
• Knowledge management adoption: use of the centralized knowledge hub and learning products across country and functional teams.
• Engagement, retention, and development of the Head of MEL, Head of Research, and their teams.
• Village Enterprise’s evidence represented in sector, policy, or donor forums.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in economics, statistics, international development, public policy, or a related quantitative field.
• Direct experience in poverty graduation, livelihoods, or economic inclusion programming.
• Experience in building a department and integration in a matrix working structure
• Familiarity with results-based or outcomes-based financing and institutional donor evidence requirements
• 15+ years of progressively senior leadership experience in monitoring, evaluation, research, or evidence-related roles, including at least 4 years at senior director, vice-president, or equivalent executive level.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical evidence functions (MEL and/or research) and translating evidence into organizational strategy, funding, and external positioning.
• Proven track record managing senior technical leaders and multidisciplinary, geographically dispersed teams.
• Strong understanding of monitoring and evaluation methods, experimental and quasi-experimental research design, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
• Experience supporting major donor proposals and cultivating research or institutional partnerships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical findings into executive, donor, government, and Board-level messages.
• Experience representing an organization externally in sector, policy, or academic forums.
• Strategic & Systems Thinking: Connects evidence, research, operations, and funding into one coherent organizational narrative.
• Technical Credibility: Commands the respect of both MEL and Research specialists while operating at an executive, non-technical-audience level.
• Influence & Communication: Translates complexity into clear decisions and compelling external narratives for donors, policymakers, and partners.
• People Leadership: Builds and develops senior technical leaders, delegates effectively, and creates a culture of rigor and learning.
• Partnership Orientation: Builds durable institutional relationships with academic, research, and donor partners.
• Village Enterprise is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.
• We expect all employees, volunteers, Visitors, associates (consultants, service providers and suppliers) and partners to uphold this commitment and adhere to our safeguarding policies and code of conduct.
• Village Enterprise has zero tolerance for any form of abuse, exploitation, or harassment.
• All appointments are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks, which may include reference checks with previous employers, verification of qualifications, and criminal record or background screening where required by law.

About Organisation

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. Village Enterprise targets the poor, provides business training, seed capital/startup funds and on-going mentoring to over 10,000 new entrepreneurs to start 3,000 enterprises each year. Since its inception in 1987, Village Enterprise has started over 40,000 micro-enterprises.

Requirements

postgraduate degree 180