Senior Evaluation Associate

University of Mississippi•Lexington, MA

9d•Onsite

About The Position

The Center for Research Evaluation at The University of Mississippi is seeking a full-time Senior Evaluation Associate to contribute to its Higher Education evaluation portfolio. This role involves designing and managing evaluation and applied research projects from inception to completion, fostering strong client relationships, and applying innovative evaluation designs to ensure high-quality, technically sound, and useful outcomes. The position also includes contributing to the Center's growth through proposal writing, grant development, and outreach activities such as workshops, social media, blog posts, and academic publications. The ideal candidate will be creative, analytical, possess strong quantitative and qualitative research skills, and be actively involved in the professional evaluation field. They should also excel at communicating complex findings to non-technical audiences and creating clear, insightful reports. The role requires managing 5-10 projects concurrently, working independently, and making evaluation decisions without direct supervision. Experience with higher education professionals, staff leadership/management, higher education evaluations/assessments, and facilitation is highly desirable.

Requirements

Master’s Degree in a relevant field (e.g., Education, Educational Measurement and Statistics, Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Public Health, etc.).
At least 3 years conducting evaluations for paying clients/in a revenue-for-service organization.
Demonstrated ability to lead multiple projects at a time.
Demonstrated ability to perform quantitative and qualitative design.
Demonstrated ability to design a wide range of evaluation approaches.
Demonstrated experience contributing to proposal development and grant writing.

Nice To Haves

Master’s or Doctoral Degree in Evaluation, Measurement and / or Statistics.
Demonstrated ability to work with higher education professionals.
Demonstrated ability leading, training, and / or managing staff.
Demonstrated ability conducting evaluation in higher education context.
Demonstrated ability conducting facilitation for a broad array of participants.
Actively involved in the professional evaluation field (e.g., American Evaluation Association, local affiliates, regional associations or other communities of practice).
People skills to build strong and trusting relationships.
Ability to talk about evaluation findings to nontechnical audiences.
Ability to create simple reports that translate complex data into meaningful insights for busy clients.
Ability to facilitate data-informed conversations in support of meaningful social change.

Responsibilities

Design and manage evaluation and applied research projects from start to finish.
Build strong trusting relationships with clients.
Apply creative and innovative evaluation designs to ensure high-quality, technically sound, and useful evaluations.
Contribute to building the Center's profile through proposal writing and grant development.
Contribute to CERE's outreach efforts such as capacity building workshops, social media, blog posts, academic publications, and other outreach activities.
Manage between 5-10 projects at any given time.
Work independently and be comfortable making evaluation decisions, managing projects, and working with clients without supervision.
Work with higher education professionals (faculty, upper administration, undergraduate and graduate students).
Lead or manage staff.
Conduct higher education evaluations and / or assessments.
Conduct facilitation (data workshops, trainings, presentations, etc.).