Director of Impact & Evaluation

the USO•Arlington, VA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Impact & Evaluation builds and leads the USO’s enterprise capability to measure, understand, and communicate its impact on service members and their families. Reporting to the Vice President, Strategy, Innovation & Program Management Office (SIPMO), the Director establishes the methods, evidence standards, and evaluation practices used to show where the USO creates value, where it can improve, and where it should invest. The role turns quantitative and qualitative evidence into clear insights that inform strategy execution, program and investment choices, and organizational learning, while ensuring the USO’s impact claims are compelling and credible. The Director partners across enterprise functions to strengthen impact storytelling and advance the USO as an evidence-based thought leader in the military-serving nonprofit community. The role leads the impact and evaluation function, including hiring, developing, and managing the Data & Impact Analytics Lead. This is an in-person position located in Arlington, Virginia.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as public policy, social science, statistics, or evaluation.
At least 8 years of progressive experience in impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation, or applied research, including at least 3 years leading measurement or evaluation functions.
Demonstrated success designing outcome measurement frameworks in complex, multi-site organizations, ideally in constrained data environments such as military, healthcare, government, or international settings.
Fluency in quantitative and qualitative methods, survey design, and data quality management.
Ability to explain methodology credibly to executives, boards, and funders.
Experience overseeing external vendors or consultants delivering data systems or evaluation work.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce board- and funder-ready reporting.
Proven ability to connect insights across complex and ambiguous data environments.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in a related field.
Familiarity with the military community and Department of War data and privacy constraints.
Experience with Salesforce-based outcome management tools, BI platforms such as Tableau or Power BI, and CRM-integrated data environments.
Experience supporting institutional grant reporting and funder relationships.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the USO’s enterprise impact measurement, evaluation, research, and learning framework.
Translate the USO’s Theory of Change and logic models into outcome frameworks, indicators, evaluation questions, and learning agendas aligned with the enterprise strategic plan.
Establish enterprise standards for outcome definitions; survey and non-survey methods; data quality and evaluation rigor; documentation; and appropriate use of evidence.
Design credible, proportionate, and feasible measurement approaches for diverse programs, locations, and constrained military operating environments.
Develop and execute a sequenced evaluation plan for the program portfolio and priority initiatives.
Coordinate internal and external studies to inform decisions about scaling, sustaining, redesigning, or discontinuing investments.
Build evaluation into pilots and innovation initiatives, including hypotheses, success measures, evidence thresholds, feedback loops, and scale-or-stop criteria.
Identify patterns across programs, populations, and locations, and explain where the USO is creating value, where evidence is limited, and where strategy or execution should adapt.
Synthesize evidence into implications, options, and recommendations for the VP of SIPMO, senior leadership, and the Board of Governors.
Integrate evaluation findings into portfolio reviews, governance discussions, initiative decisions, and performance reporting.
Align outcome measures with enterprise KPIs, scorecards, and the three-year execution horizon while retaining ownership of impact methodology.
Produce recurring impact reports and executive briefings for senior leadership, the Board, institutional funders, military partners, and other stakeholders.
Serve as enterprise steward for impact claims by clarifying what evidence supports, distinguishing outputs from outcomes, and surfacing limitations and uncertainty.
Define business requirements and methodological standards for impact data collection, Salesforce Outcome Management workflows, dashboards, and related data products; partner with IT and technical owners on implementation and sustainment.
Lead impact and evaluation workstreams in consultant engagements, including scope, requirements, deliverable quality, knowledge transfer, adoption, and transition to USO ownership.
Partner with Operations, Marketing, Development, and others to build impact storytelling that combines validated evidence, lived experience, and program insights accurately and in proportion to the evidence.
Work with SIPMO, Programs, Marketing, Development, and external research partners to advance the USO’s evidence-based thought leadership by setting research priorities, publishing credible insights, contributing to convenings, and building research partnerships.
Support fundraising, grant compliance, and funder reporting by defining appropriate outcomes, measures, evaluation plans, and evidence of organizational learning.
Build organizational capability in impact measurement and learning through guidance, tools, training, communities of practice, and coaching for program, field, and shared-services teams.
Hire, develop, and lead the Data & Impact Analytics Lead, establishing accountability for analysis, dashboards, data quality, and evidence-based insights within the Impact function.