ALG Head of Impact

The role

The Head of Impact will build a rigorous, scalable evidence and impact engine for the African Leadership Group. This leader will own impact methodologies, lead research and evaluation agendas, and turn data into actionable insights for learning, fundraising, and thought leadership.

What you will do

• Build the trust infrastructure including methodologies, systems, and validation partnerships
• Develop and own ALG's impact methodology including data collection, sampling, and attribution
• Define standards for internal claims, donor sharing, and external publication
• Design and lead a research and evaluation agenda including RCTs and longitudinal studies
• Build partnerships with external validators, researchers, and academic institutions
• Partner with Data, Product, and Engineering teams to embed impact measurement across the learner journey
• Build QA and governance systems to make impact data audit-ready
• Develop donor-facing and public-facing collateral explaining evidence standards
• Partner with Fundraising and Partnerships to create impact assets for major donors
• Lead and strengthen the Impact Team

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant experience in impact evaluation, applied research, economics, workforce development, education outcomes, labor market analytics, social impact strategy, data science, or a relate
• Deep expertise in rigorous impact methodology including RCTs, quasi-experimental methods, causal inference, longitudinal studies, tracer studies, sampling, survey design, mixed-methods research, and e
• Experience designing, managing, commissioning, or partnering on external evaluations
• Strong understanding of education-to-employment, workforce development, economic mobility, youth employment, entrepreneurship, income lift, household outcomes, or labor market transitions
• Strong data fluency including comfort with dashboards, data pipelines, data warehouses, CRM systems, survey platforms, and product analytics
• Ability to translate complex research and methodology into clear materials for donors, boards, and executives
• Experience working cross-functionally with product, data, engineering, operations, learning, fundraising, and communications teams
• Strong written communication skills for producing methodology notes, donor briefs, and white papers
• Excellent judgment on evidence quality and communicating uncertainty or limitations
• Proven ability to lead teams, build systems, manage ambiguity, and operate in entrepreneurial environments
• Strong ethical grounding around data privacy, consent, responsible AI, equity, and transparency

Nice to have

• Experience at or with organizations such as J-PAL, IDInsight, Opportunity Insights, Jobs for the Future, Burning Glass / Lightcast, One Acre Fund, GiveDirectly, 60 Decibels, IPA, MDRC, Mathematica, Wo
• Advanced degree in economics, public policy, statistics, education, data science, development studies, social science, or another quantitative or evaluation-focused field
• Experience in Africa or other emerging markets
• Experience building or scaling an impact, MERL, research, data, evidence, or learning function inside a growing organization
• Experience supporting major fundraising, donor diligence, institutional reporting, or evidence-building for large funders
• Experience with labor market data, employer-reported outcomes, wage data, financial transaction data, LinkedIn or other digital trace data, and/or longitudinal learner tracking
• Familiarity with AI-enabled data systems, product analytics, data governance, or impact intelligence platforms
• Experience publishing or contributing to externally credible research, white papers, or policy briefs
• Experience translating evaluation findings into program design or strategic decisions
• Familiarity with workforce credentials, skills-based hiring, digital skilling, AI-era labor market shifts, or education-to-employment pathways

About the company

The African Leadership Group is a family of mission-aligned institutions building one of the world’s most ambitious pipelines of ethical, entrepreneurial talent. The Group is working toward a bold mission of developing 3 million leaders by 2035.