Director, Measurement & Impact

Job description

Director, Measurement & Impact Location : Remote (Preference for candidates within +/- 3 hours GMT) Reports to: Senior Director, Measurement & Impact Job type : 0.8 to full-time Start date: October 2026 About Caribou Caribou is a global, remote-first consultancy working at the intersection of technology, inclusion, and impact. With a team of 50+ people across 20+ countries, we partner with ambitious foundations, companies, and governments to reimagine and deliver impact in a digital age. We design strategies, manage funds, uncover insights, and measure impact to help organisations mobilise technology for inclusive and sustainable growth. Core to our culture is supporting staff autonomy over where, how, and when they work, with our annual in-person retreat bringing the full-time team together (recent locations include Kenya and Cape Town). About the role The Director will join the Measurement & Impact (M&I) team. Our team is multidisciplinary, and our approach is pluralist: we combine evaluation and evidence synthesis with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods; impact and economic modelling; and theory-based approaches, tailoring them to the context rather than defaulting to a single doctrine. Our work is adaptive, evidence-led, and grounded in practical decision-use. We aim to bring rigour without rigidity, challenging conventional MEL approaches when they limit insight or compromise our values. Our M&I services span strategy, implementation support, evidence synthesis, evaluation, and learning across a wide range of digital economy, livelihoods, financial inclusion, and climate programs. We are looking for a Director who can manage a portfolio of projects and teams while also engaging directly in delivery when necessary. You will also work with colleagues across our service areas, Funds & Programs and Research & Insights, to help design and implement measurement and impact services. Key Responsibilities The key responsibilities for this engagement include, but are not limited to, the following. The balance will vary depending on the project mix, but this includes both delivery and oversight, and will be reviewed and adjusted with support from the Senior Director for M&I on an ongoing basis. Project leadership and delivery Lead M&I projects from initial scoping through to final outputs. Steward the client relationships across your portfolio, owning some directly and working through the team on others, including shaping commercial and technical scopes, managing expectations, and cultivating the next engagement.. Anticipate risks across your portfolio and resolve them before they become problems. Oversee project staffing and resource planning in coordination with the M&I team leadership and other Project Leads. Own commercial health for your portfolio of projects, balancing quality, margin, and mission. Step into hands-on delivery when needed, for strategic, M&I-led projects. For example, selecting and applying fit-for-purpose methods and approaches aligned with Caribou's M&I practice principles, facilitating learning or sensemaking processes, synthesising evidence, developing frameworks or models, producing insights or communication outputs, or strengthening measurement systems. Ensure strong technical and editorial quality assurance across all work products. Team leadership Manage and support M&I team members across your portfolio, providing day-to-day guidance, structured support, and feedback. Monitor team health closely and intervene early if any issues arise. Identify team strengths and gaps, and inform recruitment and staffing decisions. Foster a team culture aligned with Caribou's values, and provide coaching and technical support on Caribou's M&I approaches, tools, and ways of working. Practice strengthening Support the Senior Director in developing the M&I practice, raising the standard the team works to beyond your own projects. Develop practice assets such as briefs, methodological notes, and insights products, updating service standards, guidance, and tools. Identify opportunities to test or refine new measurement approaches within ongoing projects. Business development Represent and speak on behalf of Caribou and its supported projects in external forums (including online), networks, and partnerships. Strengthen relationships with clients and find ways to deepen or expand collaborations. Lead or support relevant business development efforts, including complex or high-stakes bids and win strategy, alongside proposal writing, lead generation, promotion, and thought leadership articles. About you Required Skills & Experience You are an experienced measurement and impact practitioner, comfortable working across disciplines, methods, and evidence types. You do not adhere to a single methodological identity, though you have your own strengths. You are fluent across qualitative, quantitative, participatory, and analytical approaches, enabling you to interrogate a design and choose what fits, without needing to be the deepest specialist in any one. You are adaptive, context-led, and attentive to how findings will be used. You think and work like a consultant, with the commercial instinct that comes with it. You have built direct trust with clients, converted leads, won proposals, and taken responsibility for delivering work well and profitably. You are comfortable with the ambiguity and pace of client work, read a room and a relationship well, and keep sight of where the next engagement might come from without losing focus on the one in front of you. You are hands-on and quick to act. You are as ready to build the work as to direct it; you take real satisfaction in doing it well, and you keep things moving, shifting easily between strategy and delivery as the work needs. You combine strong analytical skills with excellent communication . You frame insights clearly, craft compelling narratives, and use visuals to bring evidence to life, caring as much about how findings are understood as about how they are produced. You lead teams with clarity . You build trust quickly, create the conditions for others to deliver, and know when to step in and when to back your people to lead. You work well in distributed teams, communicate proactively across time zones, and bring sensitivity, humility, and an awareness of power dynamics to your work with others. You value learning, both your own and others'. You are curious about new approaches, methods, and tools, open to feedback, and able to work within a shared practice. You respect the need for consistency and standards in client-facing work while contributing ideas that strengthen our teams and practice. Essential experience 12+ years across measurement, evaluation, learning, or adjacent fields, within international development or impact-oriented work. A track record running a portfolio of client engagements end-to-end, from scoping through delivery, at pace, owning the client relationships, technical quality and the commercial health of the work. A track record of winning work: shaping opportunities, converting leads, and leading proposals to a successful close. A background in consulting, or a comparable client-facing, delivery-accountable environment, comfortable with ambiguity and pace. 5+ years leading and developing teams, creating the conditions for others to thrive, across remote or multi-country contexts. Comfort putting new technology to work , including AI and automation, with a self-directed, experimental approach. Preferred experience Fluency across diverse methods (qualitative, quantitative, participatory, analytical), enough to select, adapt, and interrogate approaches without being the deepest specialist in any one. Experience representing organisations externally through speaking, writing, or facilitation, or the appetite to grow into it. Familiarity with sectors relevant to Caribou's work, such as digital financial services, MSME growth, digital transformation, climate and clean energy, agri-food systems, or workforce development. What We Offer Genuine thought partnership with some of the sharpest minds in the sector. You will be surrounded by deeply knowledgeable, curious colleagues who are genuinely excited to engage on the questions you care about A culture that keeps you sharp. We push and challenge each other, ask the questions that matter, and hold a high bar — then commit together. And we do it with care: it is genuinely safe to raise tensions, admit what you don't yet know, and disagree well. Everyday Integrity, Committed to Better, Thoughtful Connections, and Purposeful Inquiry are lived values here, not posters on a wall. Autonomy and flexibility by design. Fully remote and flexible about where, how, and when you work, with our annual in-person retreat and other moments to connect as a team. A mission that matters. Meaningful work at the intersection of technology, inclusion, and impact, alongside a global, values-driven team that cares as much about how we show up as what we deliver. Find out more: How to Apply Cover letter addressing: Your experience as it relates to this position profile A client relationship you're proud of and why? Why this role and Caribou's M&I practice appeal to you. CV/Resume What to expect from the selection process If you are shortlisted, the first step is a 45-minute conversation covering your experience relevant to this position. If that goes well, you can expect: A practical task of around 60 minutes, based on a realistic brief, followed by a 60-minute conversation to talk it through. A final alignment conversation on values, ways of working, and team fit. Reference checks, including at least one person who has reported to you. All offers are provisional until references are completed. We review applications on a rolling basis , though only those shortlisted will be contacted directly. We follow the same process for all shortlisted candidates, and we'll tell you what each step involves and how long it takes.