Senior Director Consulting

About the Job – Overview

ORS Impact provides critical insights and learning to philanthropic and nonprofit clients working to create meaningful social change. We are currently seeking an experienced Senior Director who brings significant expertise in evaluation and complex social change efforts to help grow our consulting practice. Senior Directors provide high-level client consultation, lead large teams and projects, as well as mentor and supervise senior staff.  Working across our lines of business, the Senior Director will give life to ORS Impact’s consultative approach and values, both internally and externally. This position offers exciting opportunities to engage in evaluation field-building, support leaders and funders of social change efforts, as well as contribute to building an internal culture where staff can thrive.

Location - This role is remote and can be performed anywhere in the US, with some in-person time expected at our Seattle, WA, headquarters and occasional travel (5%-10%) to client sites.

Compensation range – $198,191 to $201,164. The final compensation package will be determined by experience and education.

• The primary focus of this role will be to lead client projects and supervise/mentor senior-level staff. More specifically, this includes…
  • Developing responsive evaluation designs (including developmental evaluations) for clients engaging in complex social change initiatives
  • Providing expertise and thought partnership – serving as a "critical friend" – to clients, facilitating learning, pushing thinking to advance equity and meaningful impact, applying frameworks to help clients better conceptualize and improve their work
  • Providing expert facilitation and meeting design to support project goals and learning agendas
  • Leading the development of actionable and utilization-focused client-facing products such as reports and presentations, as well as engaging in the development of field-facing publications.
  • Developing and overseeing project plans, schedules, and milestones; leading a team in project implementation; managing project budgets
  • Cultivating relationships and an effective team culture across highly matrixed and remote team members
  • Providing supervision, coaching, and mentorship to Senior Consultants and Directors, as well as providing some training and supporting the growth of more junior staff on your project teams
• A secondary focus of this role will be field building – helping to strengthen the field of systems-level evaluation. To achieve goals of advance racial equity and social justice, our theory of change includes both consulting and field building work. ORS aims to stay on the leading edge of innovative ideas and practices, and you would be a significant contributor to that.
  • The Sr Director would be able to identify gaps in current field knowledge or practice and, through client work or collaborations with other field members, develop new conceptual frameworks and ways of thinking about or assessing how change happens that move the field collectively forward.
  • You would also be expected to serve as a thought leader by presenting at conferences; conducting webinars; writing blogs, papers, or publications as resources for the field.  
• Finally, a third focus of the role will be to bring in new business by leveraging your existing network as well as ORS’s, and regularly responding to requests for proposals, including developing scopes of work and budgets

• At least 15 years of client engagement and consulting experience
• 15 years of experience designing and leading complex, multi-stakeholder, evaluations of large-scale social change efforts, applying a range of system and social change frameworks
• Deep expertise in a wide range of qualitative research and analysis best practices, tools, and current approaches
• Established network of connections and peers in the fields of evaluation and philanthropy
• Knowledge and experience using culturally responsive and equitable evaluation frameworks and approaches in project design and implementation
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills.
• Demonstrated passion for field building and leadership in a relevant area of expertise (such as evaluation of advocacy efforts, narrative change, systems change, etc.) as demonstrated by presentations, publications, professional leadership roles, etc.
• 15 years of experience managing teams for efficiency, quality and team member growth
• At least 15 years of supervisory experience
• Demonstrable success in securing new business through contracts and grants, and ability to leverage own professional and ORS relationships to build new business and strengthen existing lines of business.
• Experience managing a project portfolio of $1 million or more

• A flexible mindset and comfort with complexity, ambiguity, and emergence
• Collaborative spirit and desire to cultivate relationships with others in the field
• Excitement for ideas, concepts, and deep thinking
• Desire to be in the work and support others as growing professionals
• Personal and professional commitment to social justice and ORS Impact values

• Ph.D. with 20 years, or Master’s degree with 25 years, of related experience and/or training in social science or similar field and; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• A deep understanding of complex social systems and social change
• Extensive experience with philanthropy and large intermediaries
• Experience overseeing quality of practice and products across projects
• Proficiency using technological tools and approaches for qualitative data analysis such as Dedoose, Nvivo, Atlas.ti
• Experience applying AI to research methods
• Proficiency in another language

ORS Impact (ORS) is a woman-led and owned evaluation and strategy consultancy based in Seattle, WA, with ~30 staff members. We are not program evaluators. At ORS Impact, we specialize in systems-level evaluation and strategic thought partnership. We work in close partnership with our clients to make meaning of data and measure progress within the complicated, messy, and complex systems that characterize so much of the work our clients do to support social change. While we work in a wide range of sectors, we specialize in hard-to-measure areas like advocacy, policy, systems and narrative change; and advise funders in supporting coalitions, ecosystems, and social movements.

“Impact” is not just part of our name, it is a core value for why we do this work. Implicit in this value is the belief that the world can be more equitable, that accelerating social progress will lead to better lives for everyone. We also know that, without critical and intentional analysis, racist systems can be perpetuated and strengthened even as well-intentioned people seek to make positive social change. We are continually working to increase our conscious competence around the ways in which we advance equity and anti-racism through our work with clients and to create an internal culture that enables diverse colleagues to thrive.