Executive Vice President, Evidence

Evidence Action

3d•$210,000 - $230,000•Remote

About The Position

Evidence Action is a global health organization that deploys proven, data-driven interventions to transform lives at scale. They identify neglected global health issues and implement effective solutions, working closely with governments in 11 countries to reach over 500 million people. Their key programs include Deworm the World, which has delivered over 2 billion treatments, and Safe Water Now, which has saved thousands of children's lives. The organization fosters a culture of innovation, autonomy, and teamwork, emphasizing measurable change and flexible work arrangements. The role of Executive Vice President, Evidence is central to Evidence Action's mission, focusing on the strategic growth and transformation of their Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation (MLE) teams, Cost-Effectiveness arm, and epidemiology capability. This position is crucial for maintaining the organization's credibility and distinctiveness with partners and donors by ensuring evidence and cost-effectiveness drive all decisions. The EVP will lead the generation and use of evidence throughout the program lifecycle, collaborating with program teams while maintaining independence in assessments. Reporting directly to the CEO, this role ensures evidence has an empowered voice in organizational decision-making. The EVP will be part of the Global Leadership Team (GLT), influencing organizational strategy and driving measurable improvements in millions of lives.

Requirements

Rigorous technical training with significant career experience as a user and steward of evidence in real implementation settings, not primarily as an academic researcher.
Courage to act on evidence and surface uncomfortable findings to senior leadership, recommending changes when necessary.
Technical leadership and management experience at scale, including upholding quality assurance in low- and middle-income country contexts with operational rigor.
Program-implementation grounding, pairing academic research expertise with genuine operational experience.
Technical credibility and range, with a PhD or equivalent quantitative expertise to judge evidence quality, hold teams to a high technical bar, and draw on a range of analytical methods.
Background in cost-effectiveness or health economics, or the judgment to bring in the right experts.
Strong leadership skills in managing teams and change, including conceptualizing change management, delegating across a large scope, and building trust across teams and cultures.

Nice To Haves

Preference for a country where Evidence Action has an office, with India, Kenya, and Nigeria of particular interest.

Responsibilities

Lead a holistic evidence function, overseeing the technical and strategic aspects of MLE, cost-effectiveness modeling, and epidemiology to create a coherent picture for program improvement and decision-making.
Set a cross-program evidence strategy in collaboration with GLT and program leads, defining key questions, matching methodological approaches, and connecting evidence to delivery and organizational learning.
Serve as a technical thought partner, making evidence more visible and actionable, and evolving cost-effectiveness tooling to enhance visibility into drivers of cost-effectiveness and shorten feedback loops.
Champion evidence across the program lifecycle, ensuring evidence generation informs scaling decisions and evolving cost-effectiveness tools for leaders.
Institutionalize monitoring and learning (e.g., A/B testing) in programs to ensure continuous performance improvement.
Sharpen Evidence Action's unique value in evidence generation versus identifying better-placed partners.
Own independent quality assurance, understanding how evidence sources combine to model impact, and establishing standards for addressing weak evidence, uncertainty, and assumptions.
Design and implement systems for consistent evidence review across the portfolio, including program stage gates and structured reviews at key decision points.
Own data quality assurance, ensuring structural independence from evidence generation, setting methodology standards, commissioning re-surveys, and surfacing issues transparently.
Provide evidence-based recommendations for program scale-up, iteration, and wind-down decisions, holding a strong voice while partnering with program and regional leaders.
Build internal technical management capacity to benefit programs.
Lead a multi-disciplinary function through consolidation and change, building trust and managing transitions across MLE, cost-effectiveness, and epidemiology teams.
Identify opportunities for AI and modern data tools to strengthen evidence generation and decision-making.
Represent Evidence Action externally as a senior voice on evidence, engaging donors, the board, and technical partners.
Champion a transparent culture that shares learning, including lessons from failures, both internally and externally.