Senior Specialists in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)
The LEGO Foundation is looking for Senior Specialists in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) to play a key role in how we measure our portfolio’s impact for children and use emerging insights to drive further improvement.
You will engage at a strategic level and enjoy striking the balance between robust methodologies, contextual realities, and the diverse capacity and resources of our grantees. You will be a key influence on the evolution of our portfolio MEL approach, including our global results framework and capacity building approach. Your role will also include leading the design and management of major MEL partnerships and undertaking internal studies that drive learning and improvement. Overall, your contributions will be pivotal in deepening our understanding of impact at the portfolio, programme, and grant levels, providing insights that shape our grant making strategies.
This role sits in the Strategic Portfolio Impact team, alongside specialists in data analysis and portfolio management. The Senior Specialist will work collaboratively with programme teams across the LEGO Foundation.
Key Responsibilities & Tasks
Portfolio MEL approach
- Shape the LEGO Foundation's portfolio MEL approach and its alignment with our strategic priorities and goals, with an emphasis on how we achieve and measure child outcomes.
- Drive the implementation and shape the evolution of essential MEL products, such as our organisational theory of change and global outcome framework.
- Collaborate with other MEL Specialists and colleagues specialising in Data and Reporting to design and quality assure outcome data aggregation, summarization, and reporting processes, so that diverse data is transformed into strategic insights.
- Strategic engagement with the LEGO Foundation Leadership Team and Board of Directors to support insight driven decision-making.
Develop and manage MEL strategies
- Design and manage comprehensive multiyear MEL strategies for the LEGO Foundation’s core programming, including key partnerships with MEL vendors.
- Work closely with programme teams to support insight driven decision-making.
- Undertake and/or oversee in-house studies in response to key strategic questions.
- Collaborate with colleagues specialising in portfolio management to ensure emerging insights are used to inform the evolution of the LEGO Foundation’s portfolio.
Building MEL capacity and capabilities
- Maintain and deliver in-house MEL capacity building programs to raise MEL standards across the LEGO Foundation, enhancing the quality and consistency of outcome measurements.
About You
Your heart and mind are aligned with the LEGO Foundation purpose and values. You thrive in playful environments, readily integrating fun, imagination, and creativity in the workplace. In addition to this passion for our work, we are seeking a range of experiences and skills:
Work Experience & Education
- 10+ years in the design and delivery of MEL strategies. This should include (a) at the portfolio level where the emphasis is on assessing the collective impact of interventions in the portfolio towards achieving strategic goals, and (b) where the core thematic focus included early childhood care development or primary education.
- Experience working closely with programme teams to design and deliver MEL plans that are used by stakeholders to reflect and improve.
- Experience in Denmark, South Africa, humanitarian settings, or working on programmes focused on neurodivergence are an advantage.
Skills & Style:
- You are a team-player with an inclusive, value-based, and playful approach.
- A creative, engaged life-long learner who is curious, collaborative, and open-minded in their approach to all tasks and activities.
- Broad knowledge of MEL methods and approaches, along with their potential strengths and weaknesses in diverse situations. This includes an understanding of when it is most appropriate to aggregate or summarise across a portfolio, especially considering the different contexts where the LEGO Foundation makes grants.
- Ability to build relationships and understand the needs of diverse stakeholders within a portfolio MEL system.
- Ability to engage with the different elements of a portfolio MEL system, and ensure adaptation as required to serve both internal and external purposes.
- Ability to undertake robust analysis of diverse data and deliver impactful presentation of insights to support understanding and decision-making.
The position is based in Billund, Denmark, at the headquarters of the LEGO Foundation (and the broader LEGO Eco-system). Shortlisting and interviews will be held on ongoing basis, and this advert will be removed when we have suitable candidates.
About The LEGO Foundation
In 1986, The LEGO Foundation was created by the founders of the LEGO Group to enable all children to reach their full potential by learning through play. The Foundation enables playful child-centered learning for millions of children around the world, including children in extremely vulnerable environments as well as children with special educational needs and disabilities. The Foundation supports activities carried out by partners in 64 countries on all continents
The LEGO Foundation believe that children are agents of change and protagonists of their own learning. The LEGO Foundation places children at the centre of its work and supports system actors, social activists, community leaders, families and children who believe in the power of learning through play.
We care for a work environment that’s diverse and inclusive and we value the uniqueness of all our employees, while focusing on equal opportunities. We love to be physically together, though working remotely some days each week has become part of our ways of working.
For more inspiration visit https://learningthroughplay.com/
- Locations
- Billund
Senior Specialists in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)
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