Executive Vice President, Evidence at Evidence Action – Abuja

Evidence Action seeks an Executive Vice President, Evidence, to lead its global monitoring, learning and evaluation, cost-effectiveness and epidemiology functions. The executive reports to the CEO and serves on the Global Leadership Team, bringing rigorous evidence and independent quality assurance into programme decisions. Abuja is identified as a location; the role also allows placement in an Evidence Action office country, particularly Nigeria, India or Kenya, and requires approximately 20% travel.

Strategic and technical leadership

• Unify monitoring, learning and evaluation, cost-effectiveness modelling and epidemiology into a coordinated evidence function.
• Set a cross-programme evidence strategy with organisational leaders and programme teams, selecting rigorous and practical methods.
• Make evidence useful throughout the programme lifecycle, from design and testing to operational improvements, scale-up and wind-down.
• Improve cost-effectiveness tools so leadership can understand realised costs, impact and underlying drivers.
• Embed ongoing monitoring, learning and experiments, including A/B testing, into programme operations.
• Determine where internal evidence generation adds value and where external research partners are better placed.

Independent quality assurance

• Establish standards for modelling uncertainty, incomplete evidence and assumptions, including structured programme stage gates and reviews.
• Make data quality assurance independent of evidence production, commissioning integrity checks and repeat surveys as needed.
• Present clear, independent recommendations when evidence supports a change of course, working with programme and regional leaders.

People and external engagement

• Lead multidisciplinary teams through organisational change and strengthen technical management capacity.
• Assess ways to apply AI and modern data tools to evidence generation and decisions.
• Represent Evidence Action with donors, the board and research partners on methodological standards and evaluation practice.
• Promote transparent sharing of learning, including findings that challenge prior assumptions.

Essential profile

• Senior technical leader with practical implementation experience in low- and middle-income countries.
• PhD or equivalent advanced quantitative expertise and the ability to judge diverse methods and evidence quality.
• Background in cost-effectiveness or health economics, or sound judgement in engaging those specialists.
• Track record leading and developing large technical teams through change while maintaining independence and operational rigour.
• Willingness to be close to field implementation and travel nationally and internationally for roughly 20% of working time.