Senior Evidence & Insights Manager(maternity cover)

Who we are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need.

From chat-bots to chat-shows and TV dramas to tech, our content is reaching millions of girls in Africa and Asia to make choices and changes in their lives. Igniting their confidence to act differently at a time that can define their future.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts, and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, relationships and so much more. And we use innovative technology so we can reach girls at scale. We arm girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible, so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and livelihood.

When a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, her community, her country. That’s the Girl Effect. 

What you will do

The Senior Evidence and Insights Manager will provide direct support to Girl Effect’s Global Evidence and Insights team during a period of maternity cover. The team plays a pivotal role in shaping and delivering Girl Effect’s global and country-level programme strategy. This maternity cover will ensure continued delivery of high-quality measurement, evaluation, and learning, and will help ensure evidence is effectively used to inform programme design, donor engagement, and organisational learning.

The role has two primary areas of responsibility:

1. Programme MERL delivery across priority countries, and
2. Strengthening organisational systems for data integration and use.

You will lead key Evidence and Insight workstreams in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Kenya, and also provide surge capacity to other country teams managing multiple concurrent programmes. In Ethiopia, the work will include testing, monitoring, and evaluation of our Mastercard Foundation partnership focused on economic readiness and employment/entrepreneurial outcomes. In Kenya, this is expected to include multiple studies related to economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, child marriage, and adolescent pregnancy. 

Organisational data integration will include managing and enhancing the Knowledge Management System to ensure that key data, reports, and insights are accessible and communicated and used across the organisation and externally. You will also collaborate closely with fundraising teams to embed data and evidence in proposal development—strengthening our ability to be “ready with evidence” through literature reviews, evidence summaries, and positioning materials. You will work closely with teams to enhance publication and stronger communication of our data and evidence, we are targeting a couple of publications in the 2026 calendar year. 

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of high-quality research and evaluation studies—formative, monitoring, and impact evaluations—primarily in Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria ensuring methodological rigor, strong data quality, and clear, actionable analysis.
• Provide technical review of tools, protocols, sampling frames, ToR for research partners, and analysis plans.
• Partner with the Development and Communications team to strengthen Girl Effect’s funding pipeline by ensuring timely access to relevant, credible evidence for proposal development and donor engagement. Serve as a thought partner on how evidence should shape programme adaptation, scale pathways, and donor positioning. 
• Support teams to deliver high-quality media reach and service uptake data by working closely with country teams to refine and strengthen existing data collection and reporting processes.
• Identify gaps in evidence generation, data use, and organisational learning and proactively lead solutions that strengthen coherence across global and country teams as well as maintaining and enhancing the Evidence and Insights Knowledge Management System to expand the breadth and use of available evidence across teams within GE and externally through more publication of knowledge products.
• Develop, refine, and promote a standardised Evidence and Insights toolkit, drawing on recent projects, best practices, and team learnings to support consistent, high-quality MERL delivery.

Who You Are

Technical skills 

• Strong theoretical knowledge and practical experience of applying a wide range of MERL approaches, including qualitative and quantitative methods to programme MERL.
• General expertise in defining and reporting media reach measurement across a wide range of platforms, including digital, social media, TV, Radio, and in-person events 
• Extensive experience conducting research with girls or youth on one or more of our core thematics; economic empowerment, SRH, child marriage, teen pregnancy, mental health Strong credibility in research ethics and oversight, including navigating sensitive topics with adolescents.
• An understanding of behavior change theory and practical application across diverse contexts, with a track record of delivering measurable outcomes with youth and gender-focused audiences. 
• Interest and experience applying digital and mobile technologies to SBCC and measurement.
• Experience in adaptive programming and/or human centered design demonstrating innovative approaches to programming, including developing new approaches/frameworks for driving change especially in complex programmes.
• Exceptional organisational skills, with the ability to consolidate multiple existing projects into coherent guidance and practical tools and systems for the E&I team and the wider organisation.
• Strong emotional intelligence, collaborative style, and ability to inspire, mentor, and motivate teams delivering in fast-paced environments across time zones and cultural contexts.

Minimum experience required

• Post-grad degree(s) in social sciences; monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL); public/global health, international development, gender or a related field. 
• 10+ years of relevant experience in research, public health or international development
•  Strong communicator; both written and verbal
•  Experience working in international development or non-profit sector.

What else you should know

As we continue to scale and grow - we are hugely ambitious for our future, and we are looking for people who are driven to change the world for girls.

Our teams are a diverse mix across sectors (non-profit and commercial) and specialisms (from Brand and Creative through to Gender and Insight). You’ll learn and grow in an environment that will challenge you to think and work with a fresh perspective. In turn, you can expect to work somewhere where you will be stretched and developed in your role, a place where you can build your career and work with talented, engaged people committed to our cause.

Girl Effect is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to recruiting candidates with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

The Senior Evidence & Insights Manager will be based in Kenya and will support our teams across all the geographies that we operate in which include Ethiopia, Nigeria and Kenya.

This role is subject to a standard background disclosure.

This role is being recruited for on a 12 month contract basis.

Application closing date –17th December 2025