Director of Impact, Learning & Strategy

Canal Alliance • San Rafael, CA

15h • Hybrid

About The Position

Canal Alliance is a nonprofit champion of immigrants, working to break the generational cycle of poverty for Latino immigrants and their families by lifting barriers to success. The Director of Impact, Learning & Strategy strengthens the organization’s ability to understand its impact, learn from experience, and make informed decisions. Working across teams, the Director combines measurement expertise with facilitation to help colleagues agree on priorities, interpret evidence, and act on findings. The role connects program fidelity, cross-program integration, and strategic decision-making, building on existing Salesforce systems and measurement practices while bringing together data, staff knowledge, and community experience. Department Directors retain ownership of their outcomes and decisions; this role supports them with evidence and practical guidance.

The position leads organizational learning and facilitation, impact and outcome measurement, and methods for incorporating client and community voice. First-year priorities include assessing existing measures and practices, clarifying shared and program-level measures, establishing a learning agenda and three learning cycles with documented decisions and adaptations, and creating a lasting feedback mechanism that informs a program decision. Priorities are sequenced with the supervisor and Program Directors.

This is a full-time, exempt position on a four-day, 32-hour workweek. Canal Alliance offers a hybrid workplace for most positions and invests in professional development, trust, relationships, and work-life balance.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of progressive experience in impact measurement, program evaluation, organizational learning, or a closely related field, including hands-on outcome measurement and analysis.
• Master’s or bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent combination of related experience and education.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating collaborative work with leaders and staff to agree on meaningful measures, interpret findings, and use evidence to improve practice.
• Experience working with underserved or immigrant communities.
• Strong knowledge of impact measurement, program evaluation, logic models, theories of change, and organizational learning in a nonprofit or social sector setting.
• Skill in quantitative and qualitative analysis, survey and interview design, and careful interpretation of evidence and its limitations.
• Ability to build trust across differences in role, language, experience, and comfort with data.
• Ability to facilitate difficult discussions warmly, listen to different perspectives, and help groups reach clear decisions.
• Ability to turn broad questions into answerable ones, select meaningful measures, and communicate findings in plain language.
• Ability to work independently, manage cross-team projects, and set realistic priorities.
• Confidence working with CRM reports and dashboards and Microsoft 365.

Nice To Haves

• Bilingual in Spanish and English (strongly preferred).
• Familiarity with Salesforce and Asana.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted relationships and learn about programs, workflows, and staff experience.
• Help colleagues share knowledge, work through differing perspectives, and reach agreement.
• Partner with leaders on continuous improvement and a culture of inquiry and adaptability, tracking adoption alongside client outcomes.
• Facilitate agreement with the Executive Team and department leaders on an annual learning agenda.
• Maintain the organizational Theory of Change as strategy and learning evolve.
• Prepare evidence and facilitate discussions that combine findings with staff experience to examine what changed, why, and what needs further inquiry.
• Facilitate three learning cycles each year to review findings, weigh options, and agree on responses; document decisions, follow-through, and changes, and use feedback to improve the process.
• Prepare impact analyses three times each year for leadership and Board decisions, presenting organizational impact, progress, and emerging questions across teams.
• Facilitate agreement on meaningful organizational and program outcomes, shared measures, and how findings will inform decisions.
• Align measures with the Theory of Change, Vision 2028, and organizational priorities.
• Review existing data, reports, logic models, and collection practices with Program Directors and Information Systems; identify useful measures and recommend focused improvements that preserve meaningful comparisons over time.
• Help teams agree on baselines, targets, and collection expectations, and coach them in consistent collection and use of measures.
• Analyze outcomes and client pathways across services, including intake, referral, navigation, and case management.
• Develop measures for place-based and civic engagement work, including voter engagement, Leadership Academy participation, and community leadership pathways.
• Partner with Information Systems to translate learning questions into reporting and collection requirements, jointly assessing proposed changes for usefulness, feasibility, staff workload, and data continuity.
• Partner with staff, clients, and residents to identify questions about client experience and community priorities.
• Design accessible surveys, interviews, focus groups, and participatory listening methods.
• Interpret qualitative evidence alongside existing data to inform service improvements, including the Navigation Hub.
• Partner with Information Systems on collection methods and responsible handling of information.
• Help teams communicate what they heard and how it shaped decisions, clarifying the purpose, use, and community benefit of client questions and measures.
• In the first year, assess existing measures, data, and collection practices; clarify shared and program-level measures through Program Charters; facilitate three learning cycles; and establish one lasting feedback mechanism that informs a program decision.

Benefits

• Three weeks of paid vacation per year.
• 12 days of sick leave per year.
• Paid birthday each year.
• 13 paid holidays per year.
• 100% paid employee medical and dental insurance.
• Life insurance.
• Long-term disability insurance.
• Employee assistance program (EAP).
• Up to 24 fully paid online mental health therapy sessions and other mental health benefits.
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer match of up to 4% after 3 months of employment.
• Voluntary benefits include FSA, vision, life, and pet insurance, as well as dependent coverage.
• Hybrid workplace.
• Four-day workweek with 32 regular hours per week.
• Professional development.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director