Senior Evidence to Scale Manager - J-PAL Global

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 1,100 top researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts innovative research and builds powerful partnerships to solve the world’s greatest challenges. J-PAL was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2003 and is directed by Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, along with Ben Olken. It has over 500 research, policy, scale, training, and operations staff across Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. For more information visit povertyactionlab.org

Position overview

J-PAL Global’s Evidence to Scale (E2S) vertical plays a key role in supporting the J-PAL network and our partners in this process of translating rigorous evidence into policy and practice at scale. To date, over 850 million people have been reached by programs or policies that have been informed by evaluations by J-PAL affiliated researchers.

As a key member of the E2S vertical, the Senior E2S Manager will work closely with J-PAL Global leadership to support the J-PAL network (affiliated and invited researchers) and partners (NGOs, governments, and funders) in the process of translating rigorous evidence into policy and practice at scale, to reach even more people.

E2S has multiple ways to support the scale up of evidence-informed programs to reduce poverty, and we expect the Senior Manager will work with E2S to contribute to continued “evidence to policy” innovation. Several current activities that the Senior E2S Manager will take on include:

• Collaborating with J-PAL’s Regional Offices to strategize and build teams to support the scale up of particular programs.
  • Recent examples in India include working with ASPIRE (a coalition hosted by J-PAL South Asia) to create frameworks to identify potential programs to scale, support the Ministry of Rural Development and partners to adapt and scale the graduation approach, and working in two Indian states to scale a gender equity curriculum across public schools, reaching over three million students per year.
  • Working with J-PAL Africa to support piloting and scaling access to safe water in multiple countries in Africa.
  • Supporting J-PAL LAC to catalyze the adoption of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs across Latin America.
• Developing implementation toolkits to help promote the piloting and scaling of particular evidence-informed programs with governments, NGOs, and funders, such as the Every Child Counts toolkit, launched in November 2025.
• Working closely with leading foundations and evidence-aligned donors, such as GiveWell, Founders Pledge, and the Livelihood Impact Fund, to identify, assess, secure funding for, and support the scale up of impactful programs and partnerships.

The Senior E2S Manager will bring exceptional experience directly scaling – or supporting others (such as governments) to scale – evidence-based social policies and programs in low- or middle-income country contexts. And you’ll be motivated to stay abreast of the latest thinking on both the art and science of scaling and embedded evidence partnerships with governments, to bring the best of that thinking to J-PAL, and to share what J-PAL is learning about scaling and systems change with the broader community.

You’ll receive exceptional coaching from senior E2S leadership and have the opportunity to engage with J-PAL’s dynamic network of researchers, regional offices, and policymaker and practitioner partners around the world.

The Senior Evidence to Scale Manager role represents an exciting opportunity to shape the future of this work at J-PAL. We are looking for candidates who can commit to the role for at least three years and ideally would be investing in J-PAL for the medium-to-long term.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

The primary responsibilities of the Senior E2S Manager include co-developing and executing E2S’s strategy, providing flexible strategic support of J-PAL regional office and J-PAL affiliate scaling projects, and supervising a E2S Manager and Senior E2S Associate in their work, including managing E2S’s Innovation in Government Initiative (IGI). Specifically, this will involve:

• Strategy: Work closely with the E2S Director (also J-PAL’s Global Deputy Executive Director) and Senior Advisor to contribute to the strategy of the E2S vertical and the broader organizational E2S vision and strategy.
• Advising J-PAL Regional Offices: Draw on your prior experience scaling evidence-based interventions to serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to J-PAL regional offices on adapting evidence-based interventions to new contexts, piloting and scaling evidence-based interventions, and designing new interventions with scalability in mind from the beginning. This could further involve participating and leading sessions in strategic meetings with regional offices, working closely with regional office senior staff to frame and draft scaling plans and funding proposals, and engaging with scaling funders in their due diligence process.
• Advising J-PAL Research Affiliates: Serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to affiliates in J-PAL’s research network to frame, advise, and help refine scaling funding proposals of evidence-based interventions. Through this process, communicate donor priorities and respond quickly and proactively to research affiliates requests for support.
• Supervising the Innovation in Government Initiative: Supervise the E2S Manager and Senior Associate who will be managing the execution of E2S’s Initiative, the Innovation in Government Initiative (IGI), J-PAL’s primary funding initiative focused on scale and evidence use. Ensure the proper organization of the funding competition rounds, coordination of review processes, ongoing communication with J-PAL Finance & Operations team to manage grants funded by the initiative, engagement with applicants and grantees on the substance and logistics of their proposals/projects and reporting to the initiative donors.
• Supervising E2S Manager and Senior E2S Associate: Coach and mentor junior staff, perform performance reviews of subordinates, carry out recruitment duties including representing J-PAL at job fairs and making presentations at conferences and universities.
• Partnerships: Support, develop, and, in certain cases, manage partnerships with global organizations around strategic E2S-related topics and opportunities. For example, with the support and alignment of J-PAL Global leadership and research affiliates, lead a team of J-PAL global staff in advising Gavi, the vaccine alliance, and their grantees, on aligning specific immunization projects with rigorous evidence developed by J-PAL affiliates.
• Tools and resources: Identify, develop, and refine tools and resources to enable J-PAL colleagues and practitioner and policymakers partners to better use evidence and support our research network to more effectively connect with policymakers and practitioners, including toolkits and cost-effectiveness modeling of evidence-informed programs.
• Learning and thought leadership: Facilitate organizational learning at J-PAL on evidence use and scale and contribute to the organization’s external thought leadership on these topics. For example, launch and manage efforts to align J-PAL staff involved with scaling programs with the latest frameworks. Ensure J-PAL is learning from other actors focused on catalyzing the scale of evidence-based interventions.
• Donor engagement: Support, develop, and, in certain cases, lead efforts to mobilize funding to support J-PAL’s E2S efforts, with philanthropies, bilateral and multilateral donors, and high net worth individuals. Share lessons from J-PAL’s E2S work with donors to inform their strategies and thinking.

Because the Evidence to Scale vertical is a relatively new team, this role will be fluid and will evolve over time; we therefore seek candidates who are excited about, and able to operate effectively within, that fluid environment.

Supervision received: This role will report into and work closely with John Floretta, Global Deputy Executive Director and Director of Evidence to Scale.

Supervision exercised: The role will supervise the E2S Manager and Senior E2S Associate roles.

Qualifications and skills

• Education: You hold a Master’s degree in public policy, public administration, international development, international affairs, economics, or a related field and have demonstrated academic interest in rigorous evidence about poverty alleviation.
• Experience: You have 7 or more years of relevant and substantial work experience. This experience should include at least two years of experience working in a low- or middle-income country, applying rigorous evidence to program or policy design and implementation, and scaling one or more evidence-informed development intervention(s). Ideally, in this work, you have either worked for or with governments and collaborated with coalitions of organizations and people including researchers. You have experience getting things done even in contexts where you lack direct control and are adept at using advice, influence, and support to enable the work of others. Note: If you have slightly less total experience, please apply and we may be able to consider you for other roles in the near future.
  • Proven ability to multitask and successfully complete projects on tight deadlines with little supervision is required.
  • A willingness to work hard and learn will be essential for doing well in this position.
  • Experience in working with teams, including both working with peers and also leading and managing teams. Recruiting and mentoring staff and managing them with good humor and responsibility.
• Mindset and management: You are hypothesis-driven, thrive in navigating situations and workstreams with no ‘one right answer,’ adept at identifying and weighing trade-offs relating to time, funding, and other scarce resources, and able to juggle multiple projects simultaneously. You are passionate about international development policy and the rigorous research that informs it. You are self-motivated, work hard, and enjoy managing others.

You are analytical and can strategize and collaborate to build useful tools and frameworks to support time-constrained colleagues make better decisions, from identifying potential programs to scale to cost effectiveness models to help align donor interest.

• Skills: You are very comfortable using Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) and learning computer applications that J-PAL staff more broadly need to use, including Salesforce. Experience using Slack to communicate across team and office silos and to communicate within distributed teams is a plus. Knowledge of French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia, or other languages spoken in our regions of work is a plus.
• Communication: You are an exceptional communicator, able to communicate clearly in writing and orally with diverse audiences from around the world; writing experience and skills should cover policy briefs, fundraising proposals, and other program documents. Ideally, you are a skilled presenter, adept at using well-developed slides, when appropriate.
• Organization: You are a strategic thinker. You can handle managing multiple projects at once with little supervision, meet deadlines, and effectively manage your time, as well as others’. You are a strong upward communicator and manager, proactively sharing updates, escalating concerns, and teeing up recommendations or decisions on which you need senior leadership engagement.
• Cultural competencies: You are comfortable and adept at working in a diverse and multicultural work environment, with colleagues, partners, and policymakers from around the world. You display sensitivity, adaptability, and inclusivity in your engagement with people from diverse backgrounds including age, ability, culture, gender, nationality, race and ethnicity, religion, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and other identities. We appreciate candidates who have familiarity with concepts and frameworks such as racial equity or gender analyses.
• Attitude: You love learning. You thrive thinking in a cross-sectoral and cross-regional way. You stay up-to-date on the latest thinking on both the art and science of scaling social policies and programs and are motivated to bring the best of that thinking to J-PAL. You are self-motivated, work hard, and enjoy working in teams. You value and are comfortable receiving feedback, providing feedback, and supporting the growth and development of others.
• Travel: Ability and willingness to travel 15-25% of the time.

Compensation

Information about the pay range and pay grade for this position can be found here.

Timing: The role is slated to begin in the spring of 2026 (March / April). If you are currently in graduate school and not available to begin work until May or June 2026, please apply.

Location: This preferred location for this role is based in Cambridge, MA, at the J-PAL Global Office at MIT. Cambridge based employees are required to come to the office, in-person at least two days every week (currently those days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays for all staff). Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. As a secondary preference, it is also possible for this position to be based in one of J-PAL’s locations in Bangalore, Cairo, Cape Town, Jakarta, Marrakesh, Nairobi, New Delhi, Paris, Sao Paulo, or Santiago, if the candidate has relevant work authorization.

Staff based in the United States will be employed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Staff based in other countries will be employed by local institutions, whose benefits may vary.

J-PAL hires highly qualified staff and rewards them accordingly. Total compensation packages are competitive for the non-profit international development field with excellent MIT benefits, including comprehensive health insurance, a 401(k) match and pension-based retirement plan, tuition assistance, commuter benefits, MIT community discounts, a generous vacation policy, and more.

We like working at MIT and think you will too. J-PAL also values work-life balance and offers flexible work days throughout the year; Cambridge-based staff are required to work in-person at least two days per week. We like working at MIT and think you will too.