Chief Impact Officer

Role Puorpose:




• The Chief Impact Officer is accountable to the CEO for Village Enterprise's organization-wide evidence agenda — ensuring that monitoring, evaluation, research, knowledge management, and cost-effectiveness work as one coherent system that credibly demonstrates and improves the organization's impact.


• The role provides unified strategic leadership across the Monitoring, Evidence & Learning (MEL) and Research functions, and is accountable for translating that combined evidence base into knowledge products, research partnerships, donor and policy narratives, and thought leadership that strengthen Village Enterprise's positioning, funding, and influence.


• The role bridges technical rigor and organizational strategy: it sets the standards by which Village Enterprise measures and communicates what works, integrates evidence into decision-making at every level, and represents Village Enterprise's evidence base externally to donors, governments, and the wider development sector.



Responsibilities


Unified Impact & Evidence Strategy




• Set and lead Village Enterprise's organization-wide impact and evidence strategy, integrating MEL and Research into a single coherent agenda aligned with organizational strategy.


• Partner with the Chief Programs Officer and Executive Leadership Team to ensure evidence, measurement, and learning priorities inform organizational strategy, annual planning, and major cross-functional decisions.


• Own the organization's overarching learning agenda, ensuring the Global Head of MEL's and Global Head of Research's respective agendas are complementary, non-duplicative, and mutually reinforcing.


• Advise the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, on impact performance, evidence strength, and strategic trade-offs.



Leadership of the MEL and Research Functions




• Provide clear strategic direction, priorities, and performance expectations to the Global Head of MEL and Global Head of Research, holding both accountable for the quality, timeliness, and rigor of their respective functions.


• Approve organization-wide measurement frameworks, research priorities, and major changes to MEL or research methodology recommended by direct reports.


• Resolve trade-offs between monitoring, research, and analytics priorities where they compete for organizational resources or attention.


• Build a high-performing, collaborative Impact, Research & Learning leadership team, with clear roles and shared accountability for organization-wide evidence quality.



Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning




• Own Village Enterprise's unified knowledge management and organizational learning strategy, integrating outputs from MEL and Research into a single, coherent knowledge architecture accessible across the organization.


• Institutionalize organization-wide learning mechanisms — such as evidence syntheses, cross-country learning forums, and leadership learning reviews — that connect field implementation, monitoring, research, and strategy.


• Build organizational capacity and culture for evidence use through coaching, training, and leadership engagement, ensuring evidence leads to documented decisions and adaptations.



Research Partnerships & Institutional Relationships




• Own Village Enterprise's strategy for institutional research partnerships, including relationships with academic institutions, evaluation firms, and research networks, ensuring these partnerships align with organizational priorities and evidence gaps.


• Represent Village Enterprise in high-level research, evaluation, and academic partnership discussions, complementing the Head of Research's operational management of individual partnerships.


• Identify strategic opportunities to strengthen Village Enterprise's standing within the poverty graduation and livelihoods research community.



Evidence for Fundraising, Policy & Thought Leadership




• Partner with the Chief Development Officer and business development teams to translate Village Enterprise's evidence base into compelling donor narratives and proposal content, owning the technical and evidence framing while Development owns the donor relationship and funding ask.


• Serve as Village Enterprise's principal external voice on impact, evidence, and learning, representing the organization at sector conferences, policy forums, and donor and government engagements.


• Own the organization's thought leadership agenda on evidence and impact, shaping publications and external positioning, in partnership with the Global Director of Strategy, Policy & Advocacy.


• Ensure evidence used in fundraising, policy, and external communications is accurate, appropriately caveated, and consistent with what MEL and Research can credibly support.



People, Partnership & Resource Management




• Lead, manage, coach, and develop the team, supporting their growth and the development of their respective teams.


• Own the Impact, Research & Learning department's budget, workplans, and resource allocation across MEL and Research.


• Build strong cross-functional relationships with Programs, Finance, Development, Technology/Systems, Government Relations & Technical Assistance, and country teams.



Safeguarding




• Champion a culture where safeguarding is everyone's responsibility by leading by example and promoting Village Enterprise's commitment to safeguarding across the Kenya Country Programme.


• Ensure the effective implementation of and compliance with Village Enterprise's safeguarding policies, standards, and procedures by staff, partners, contractors, and programme participants.


• Foster a safe and accountable environment by ensuring safeguarding risks are proactively identified, mitigated, and integrated into programme design, implementation, and organizational processes.


• Ensure that safeguarding concerns and incidents are promptly reported, manag...