MEL Associate

Who we are:

The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until they’re fair for all. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. We develop just, antiracist solutions so that money doesn’t determine freedom; fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and everyone is treated with dignity. For more information, visit vera.org.

Vera has a staff of 224 people, is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York and has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New Orleans. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We expect our staff to embody respect, independence, collaboration, commitment, anti-racism, and equity—both in our outward-facing work and the internal culture of our workplace. We value a range of experiences in people’s educational backgrounds and encourage people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to apply.

About the team:

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team is a part of Vera’s Impact Pipeline, ensuring that strategic learning and continuous improvement are integrated into how projects and initiatives operate. The MEL team partners with colleagues across Vera to define meaningful impact goals and milestones, co-create measurement and assessment tools, and provide regular and actionable feedback to inform and refine strategies. Our approach to MEL is collaborative and equitable: we strive to evaluate and learn in partnership with colleagues across the institute, community partners, and people directly impacted by our work. We support an internal culture of learning, reflection, and strategic decision-making and help build MEL capacity and adaptive learning skills across the institute.

The MEL associate supports the development and implementation of MEL plans, frameworks, tools and processes that support initiatives and projects at all stages to integrate strategic learning and continuous improvement into their work while strengthening Vera’s learning culture. MEL Associates take ownership of discrete components of broader projects, including coordinating with other Verans to draft MEL plans, frameworks, tools, and processes; collect data and produce analyses; and provides feedback to teams under the supervision of a more experienced evaluator. The MEL Associate has emerging fluency, and over time, specialization and growth of skills, that would allow them to manage projects and serve as a strategic thought partner to projects and initiatives as they continually refine their strategies, theories of changes, and workplans based on MEL findings. In this role, evaluators begin to develop mentorship skills and increasingly provide methodological guidance and advice to other Verans across the institute, with support and guidance from senior evaluation staff. The MEL associate  collaborates with team members to advance Impact Pipeline Team goals, by actively engaging in team meetings and program activities, and supports efforts to ensure Vera’s race equity and inclusion priorities are a core aspect of Vera’s MEL, including in methodological approaches, publications, hiring and staffing, and external and internal research communications.

About the role:

Support the development of MEL tools and facilitate the strategic learning based on MEL data 

• Collaborate with initiative teams to develop and refine meaningful and measurable impact goals, markers of progress, indicators, data collection tools, and frameworks, in alignment with their theories of change and work plans, with support from senior evaluators
• Draft MEL tools, templates, and processes for data collection that build on and complement existing processes and help initiatives understand their outcomes and impact
• Support and co-facilitate opportunities (e.g. workshops, data parties) for reflection and learning from MEL findings and the development of recommendations for course corrections and strategy/theory of change refinements

Collect, analyze, and communicate MEL data and support data and knowledge management 

• Conduct data collection and lead analyses of qualitative and/or quantitative MEL data
• Support the documentation of learning from the ideas and initiatives that are tested through the impact pipeline and contribute to building the Impact Pipeline knowledge pool
• Support the development and refinement of systems and processes to manage and report on MEL data
• Communicate MEL data and results, including drafting reports, presentations, dashboards, and other materials, with support from senior evaluators
• Support the development and refinement of systems and processes to manage and report on MEL data, including providing actionable and timely feedback to initiatives based on MEL data and findings, presentations, dashboards, and other approaches
• Lead background research and literature reviews and integrate into public-facing products, including reports, advocacy documents, or other publications

Build MEL capacity and promote a culture of strategic learning within Vera 

• Coordinate with Impact Pipeline, research, communications, and advocacy colleagues to ensure that MEL activities are aligned with work across the institute and support efforts to ensure that work across Vera is mutually reinforcing
• Identify patterns across different pieces of work and identify opportunities for cross-initiative learning
• Plan and facilitate MEL workshops and learning events and present at department-wide meetings, “brown-bag” discussions, and other internal Vera events, in partnership with MEL and Impact Pipeline team colleagues
• Create reference materials to support MEL activities and processes
• Model learning and evaluative thinking by reflecting on how the MEL/Impact Pipeline teams can continuously improve our ways of working

Other duties as assigned

What qualifications are we looking for?

• Bachelor’s degree + 3 – 5 years of relevant experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning. In lieu of a bachelor’s degree applicable work or life experience may be considered
• Relevant work experience in measurement and evaluation, or related fields such as data-driven policy implementation or advocacy or implementation research
• Familiarity with evaluating advocacy and complex social change initiatives, theory of change, and participatory and/or community-based approaches to MEL
• Proficient in qualitative and quantitative analysis and data management
• Excellent communication skills and experience communicating MEL concepts and insights in accessible ways with diverse audiences
• Experience facilitating for evaluation-related meetings, dialogues, and capacity building sessions
• Demonstrated commitment to racial equity and its intersections and experience engaging in conversations about race, equity, and inclusion, including as part of MEL
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work on multiple projects effectively and efficiently, both independently and collaboratively with a team
• Emotional intelligence, attention to power dynamics, and interest or experience with change management/organizational culture change

Preferred:

• Candidates with direct, lived experience of the criminal legal and/or immigration systems are encouraged to apply. 

Location:

Please note this role will report to our Brooklyn, NY, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, LA, Los Angeles, CA, office, or will be located remotely. Vera employees adhere to a hybrid schedule and are in-office on an alternating schedule that generally amounts to 10 days per month.

Compensation and Benefits:

The compensation range for this position is $82,000 - $85,000. Actual salaries will vary depending on factors including but not limited to experience and performance. The salary range listed is just one component of Vera Institute’s total compensation package for employees. As an employer of choice in our field, supporting Vera staff - both personally and professionally - is a priority. To do this, we invest in the well-being of our staff through other rewards including merit pay, generous paid time off, a comprehensive health insurance plan, student loan repayment benefits, professional development training opportunities and up to $2,000 annual for education costs and fees relevant to Vera work, employer-funded retirement plan, and flexible time. To learn more about Vera’s benefits offerings, click here. In addition, this position is part of a bargaining unit represented by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) UAW 2325.

Application Process:

To receive further consideration for this career opportunity, applicants are asked preliminary questions about logistics, their interest and qualifications. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional details about their experience via a phone screen/form in advance of an invitation for a virtual or in-person interview with the team. Some searches may explore scenarios during the interview process and/or an assessment prior to reference checks and a hiring decision.

Applications may also be faxed to:

ATTN: People, Place, and Culture / MEL Associate
Vera Institute of Justice
34 35th St, Suite 4-2A, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Fax: (212) 941-9407
Please use only one method (online, mail or fax) of submission.
No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

Vera is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status. 

Vera works to advance justice, particularly racial justice, in an increasingly multicultural country and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact, and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission. 

For more information about Vera, please visit www.vera.org.

Apply