Job Description

Young Americans want to make a difference, but many are navigating today’s cultural and political divides without the tools and support to be effective in doing so. At C&S, we work directly with young people, colleges, employers, and community partners to equip developing leaders with three core civic skills: the ability to engage across differences, use credible information, and collaborate to solve problems. As Chief Impact and Evaluation Officer, you will define and lead C&S’s cross-portfolio strategy for how these core civic skills are assessed and validated, ultimately informing a national standard trusted by educators, employers, and mission-aligned partners. This is a unique opportunity to lead work that cuts across sectors at a level of depth and rigor that hasn’t been done before, in an organization that is taking a leadership role in this space.

Reporting to the President, you will serve as an organization-wide leader who mobilizes staff across teams to drive this work forward. Building on our program-level measurement efforts and partnering with a network of experts who have advised on our measurement work to date, you will develop a cohesive strategy for assessing C&S’s three core civic skills across our On Campus, In Community, and At Work initiatives. You will connect with more than 140 colleges and universities, as well as youth organizations, researchers, business partners, and thousands of fellows nationwide, digging into how programs define success and how they know whether they are achieving it. You’ll surface what is working and where evidence falls short and translate those insights into a set of measures that can be used across education, workforce, and community contexts. You will also explore ways for young people who demonstrate these skills to show what they are able to do, and for employers and institutions to understand and value those capabilities in real-world settings.

A key part of your role will be working externally to align diverse stakeholders—researchers, nonprofits, credentialing bodies, and funders—around an approach that is viewed as highly credible and something organizations are motivated to put into practice. This will require strong methodological judgment and the ability to build trust, manage competing incentives, and lead organizations with differing perspectives toward a common goal.

How You’ll Make an Impact

There is no single, established approach to measuring civic skills at the scale we aim to achieve. You will help build it. You’ll develop a cross-portfolio strategy for assessing C&S’s three core civic skills, including a focused set of measures that move beyond self-report. You’ll pilot approaches in priority settings, generating evidence to inform and refine the framework. And you’ll guide partner institutions and others in the market toward consensus around how outcomes are defined and understood.

At the same time, you will be deepening relationships with funders, credentialing bodies, mission-aligned organizations, and researchers, establishing C&S’s reputation as a “must-have” voice at major convenings on these issues. This work is complex and consequential, with real implications for how people engage across differences and contribute to the future of our democracy.

Work Environment, Salary, and Benefits

• C&S is a remote workplace with staff across the country. We gather in person 2-3 times each year at our headquarters at the Carnegie Center in Princeton, NJ, for events that build trust and teamwork. Travel is required to attend C&S convenings, field-wide conferences, and meetings with partners.
• The budgeted salary range for this position is $210K - $225K with an outstanding benefits package including 22 days of PTO plus 12 days of sick leave, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans with FSA options, a 10% employer retirement contribution (with a 5% employee contribution), and more.
• The C&S team is made up of educators, designers, researchers, strategists, project managers, and civic leaders. We value constant learning, belonging, gratitude, attentiveness, and a willingness to roll up our sleeves. Here, everyone has a role in shaping a strong and thriving America.

Key Focus Areas

Cross-Portfolio Measurement and Evaluation Strategy

• Partner with senior leaders to shape program strategy, synthesizing insights across portfolios to identify patterns, risks, opportunities, and implications for growth.
• Establish and steward a framework for defining and measuring C&S’s three core civic skills and associated outcomes across programs and portfolios, building on existing internal work.
• Develop priority learning and evaluation questions that surface strategic choices, test core assumptions, and guide where C&S invests time and resources.
• Set the direction for measurement approaches, tools, and methodologies across programs, establishing standards to ensure measurement approaches are credible, consistent, and appropriate for diverse program models, populations, and contexts.
• Build and maintain an evidence base that distinguishes outputs, outcomes, and longer-term impact across portfolios, analyzing findings to identify what is working, for whom, and under what conditions, and to inform decisions about what to scale, adapt, or stop.
• Design and oversee the piloting of assessment approaches, generating evidence to inform an iterative path toward a scalable and credible measurement model.

External Engagement & Field Adoption

• Represent C&S externally at major convenings, in funder relationships, and in cross-sector partnerships, while building strategic partnerships that strengthen the credibility and reach of C&S’s measurement work.
• Engage employers, researchers, funders, and intermediaries to ensure outcomes are understandable, trusted, and usable across education, workforce, and community contexts.
• Align diverse external stakeholders around a shared approach to defining and measuring civic skills, building toward common standards and widespread adoption.
• Explore and develop viable pathways for formally recognizing civic skill development (such as credentials, badges, or other signaling mechanisms), evaluating options based on credibility, scalability, and value to young people, employers, and institutions.

Qualifications

• Senior-level experience in education research, measurement, evaluation, or a related field with experience working across multiple education contexts (e.g., K–12, higher education, community-based or nonprofit programs).
• PhD preferred in a social or behavioral science field (e.g., educational psychology, political science, sociology, public policy, or related discipline).
• Demonstrated ability to define and measure outcomes and build credible evaluation approaches.
• Experience facilitating and building alignment among diverse stakeholders across the nonprofit or education sectors.
• Ability to communicate complex ideas and evidence clearly and persuasively, building buy-in with institutional leaders, external partners, and organizations involved in assessment and credentialing.

About C&S

C&S sparks young people to create bold, fresh civic solutions that move our country forward. The mission of C&S is to cultivate talent, ideas, and networks that develop young people as effective, lifelong citizens. Our vision is a strong American democracy and a flourishing civil society where all people can thrive. We collaborate with leaders in higher education, business, and philanthropy to transform colleges, workplaces, and communities into hubs for civic development. In each of these spaces, we develop and implement programs that equip young people with the civic skills needed to address the divisive issues facing our country. Our offerings include co-designed programs, digital products, convenings, trainings, fellowships, and coalition networks – all with clear success metrics to measure real progress.

Staffing Advisors is committed to reducing bias in every aspect of the hiring process. We have long recommended a competency-driven approach to hiring. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. We encourage you to apply even if your experience is not a 100% match with the position description; we will consider people from a variety of backgrounds and career experiences.

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