Director of Strategic Insights

Director of Strategic Insights

Department:  Strategic Impact
Reports to:  Vice President of Impact and Planning
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Indianapolis, USA
All staff located near a Lumina office work in the office at least three days per week.
Salary Range: $152,000- $180,000
Final pay is commensurate with experience.
Benefits: Include, but are not limited to, health insurance (medical, dental, and vision), 401(k), pension, vacation and sick time, paid leave, employer-paid group life, and long-term disability insurance.

Purpose

Lumina Foundation is invested in advancing post-high school attainment, value, and equity for historically underserved individuals and in complex systems change that is complicated to measure, track, and understand. Thus, it is critical that we successfully develop and deploy a devoted infrastructure to help us track our impact in real-time, connect the dots and make sense of our work across various strategies and concentration areas, and identify challenges, lessons learned, and questions to inform, align, and hone our work along the way.

The role of the director of strategic insights is to develop and implement a strong internal infrastructure for impact measurement and learning across the foundation, to help facilitate collaborative and ongoing measurement and learning, to “tell the story” of Lumina’s work across the theory of change primarily to internal audiences; and to make sense of how the work is being operationalized across the matrix of Lumina’s departments and the concentration areas. This work will encourage a culture of learning at Lumina by keeping the foundation informed about the impact and interconnections of Lumina’s work across all strategies and concentration areas, and it will keep staff and leadership engaged and informed about what Lumina is doing and what we are learning along the way. It will help to elevate our achievements, challenges, lessons learned, questions and concerns to continuously improve our work and advance progress toward our goals.

Responsibilities

The core responsibilities of this position are described below; these pieces are intended to build a strong foundation for the impact measurement and learning infrastructure at Lumina Foundation and to help facilitate Lumina’s commitment to being a learning organization.  Beyond the given guidelines, the director has creative freedom to determine how best to operationalize their work to meet the objectives of this role.

Racial Justice and Equity

• Advance Lumina’s commitment to improving post-high school educational outcomes and increasing the proportion of working-age adults in the United States with quality learning credentials, particularly Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American individuals.
• Promote racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in hiring, contracting, grantmaking, and decision-making and achieve fair and just outcomes arising from the department’s exercise of its duties and responsibilities.
• Effectively communicate Lumina’s commitment to equity in education across race, ethnicity, income, and geography to internal and external partners.

Internal Impact Measurement Leadership

Provide leadership for Lumina’s internal impact measurement and related data collection.

In particular, the person in this role will lead the development, implementation, and reporting on a quantitative and qualitative metrics framework to track the impact of Lumina’s grants and contracts at the strategy and concentration area levels and to learn from and continuously improve the work. Successfully managing the metrics will require the person in this role to do the following:

• deliver frequent and clear messaging regarding expectations and requirements to Lumina staff, grantees, and contractors;

• collaborate regularly with staff to ensure alignment and use of metrics data;
• leverage the strengths of team members while also providing development opportunities within the team;
• work in collaboration with directors and officers across the foundation to develop methodologies and strategies to inform grant and contract development across departments and concentration areas;
• Work with Lumina’s partners and grantees to ensure that data collection activities are being implemented with integrity and produce results with high internal validity;
• Oversee and manage the process of extracting, synthesizing, sharing, organizing, and applying key data results and lessons;
• Develop and manage relationships across the foundation to advance the utilization of findings and results for ongoing strategy refinement, development of new work, and decision-making;
• Make interpretive judgments about data, targets, and trends to provide recommendations and assist in decision-making at the strategy and executive levels.

Internal Learning, Sensemaking, and Storytelling

Develop and implement a coordinated cross-foundation strategy and plans to make sense of and tell the story of Lumina’s work, impact, and lessons learned (primarily to internal audiences). This includes:

• Steward the vision and implementation of a learning and collaboration agenda that aligns with Lumina’s strategic plan in collaboration with Strategic Impact & Planning and Strategy Directors. This will help guide decisions about what content and topics to prioritize for learning sessions and other meetings.
• Create and implement strategies for engaging Lumina staff sensemaking and learning from work in ways that are relevant, timely, and applicable to their work.
• Create the tools and processes to operationalize how we understand the impact of and learn from our work across the foundation.
• Effectively surface and synthesize relevant insights using various quantitative and qualitative data sources related to the metrics, grantee input via reports and conversations, and other information.
• Produce written narratives, dashboards, and other reports that synthesize the work, impact, challenges, and lessons learned in a way that aligns with the strategic cycle and critical decision points, the learning and collaboration agenda, and on an ad hoc basis.
• Regularly plan and facilitate staff and leadership meetings related to measurement and learning.
• Maintain a dynamic learning environment for conducting sensemaking and storytelling related to our impact and learning, including building infrastructure and processes and integrating staff feedback to support continuous improvement in approach to impact measurement and learning.

Strategic Planning and Reporting

Support the vice president of strategic impact’s efforts related to strategic planning and regular reporting on progress toward goals and objectives.

• Develop a theory of change/theory of action and a matrix (i.e., a map that aligns the strategy level work to concentration areas and various stages of the theory of change/action).
• Develop, monitor, and report progress on the annual work plan incorporating multiple Foundation tools to demonstrate impact and lessons from Lumina’s grantmaking that can inform the foundation’s strategic approaches.

May perform other duties not fundamental to the job’s overall purpose and strategic impact.

Formal Education or Equivalent

Graduate degree or demonstrated competency required in data analysis, philanthropic administration, program analysis, planning, higher education, organizational development, social and behavior sciences, or other related content area.

Relevant Experience

At least eight years of experience in evaluation, analysis, organizational development, grantmaking, and strategy development, preferably in the higher education, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. Broad exposure to organizational effectiveness.

Required Qualities, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Servant Leader disposition with a strong desire to help others succeed;
• Ability to be both a long-term strategic visionary and to understand current on-the-ground realities;
• Proficient in developing and implementing strategies, frameworks, and tools to facilitate impact measurement and learning;
• Proficient in integrating work across various strategies and bodies of work;
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate concepts, roles, and priorities clearly and in ways that translate effectively to the foundation’s varied stakeholders;
• Highly effective interpersonal, relational, and conflict-management skills, including a demonstrated ability to work successfully across complex, matrixed teams and with roles at multiple levels;
• High degree of emotional intelligence with the knowledge and ability to build trust and confidence across diverse team cultures and priorities;
• Intellectual curiosity with internal motivation to understand and untangle complex issues and dynamics;
• Strong self-awareness, humility, and diplomacy;
• Keen listening skills and a strong sense of humor;
• Strong work ethic with a blend of entrepreneurial spirit and the capacity to work within a team;
• Ability to embrace ambiguity and find a path forward amid change;
• Sense of humor and skillful listener;
• Superior analytical and problem-solving skills exercised with sound judgment; ability to present issues clearly and concisely;
• Experience in data analysis and data visualization
• Strong facilitation, public speaking, and moderation skills
• Exceptional prioritization and time management skills with demonstrated ability to manage a diverse and demanding workload in a fast-paced environment;
• Commitment to advancing equity in postsecondary education and the workforce;
• Ability to exercise sound judgment in handling sensitive or confidential information.
• Ability to use technology effectively.

Physical Demands/Work Environment

• Work is performed in an office environment, primarily sedentary.
• Visual and auditory acuity for extensive use of various forms of technology.
• Travel approximately 15-20 percent, including overnight stays.

This job description summarizes typical job functions. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible responsibilities. It may be subject to change at any time.