Ethiopia Jobs in Reston, VA (NOW HIRING)

Integrated Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI), a U.S.-based international development consulting company established in 1987, has worked in over 100 countries and implemented over 300 projects. IBTCI serves government agencies, private-sector companies, and donor organizations. IBTCI specializes in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) and institutional support across sectors including conflict and crisis, democracy and governance, agriculture, economic growth, food security, education, environment, and global health.

Assignment Title: Team Leader / Senior Evaluation Specialist

Department/Location: Remote, with potential travel to Ethiopia, Ukraine, Haiti, the Philippines, and/or Türkiye

Technical Point of Contact: Project Director

Type: Consultant, Short-term / Intermittent

Classification: Consultancy

Overview: IBTCI is seeking a Team Leader / Senior Evaluation Specialist for a proposed assignment to develop and test a standardized livelihoods MEAL framework and evaluate 13 humanitarian livelihoods projects in Ethiopia, Ukraine, Haiti, the Philippines, and Türkiye. The Team Leader will provide overall technical and managerial leadership for the portfolio-level Theory of Change, project logic-model framework, evaluation toolsets, and concurrent mixed-methods evaluations. The ideal candidate combines senior MERL and evaluation leadership with livelihoods subject-matter knowledge, project-design expertise, and experience working in one or more target countries or comparable humanitarian and fragile contexts. This is an intermittent, part-time consultancy anticipated to begin in October 2026 and continue through completion of assigned deliverables, subject to project implementation schedules.

Essential Duties/Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Provide overall technical direction, quality assurance, work planning, and team coordination across framework development and all assigned project evaluations.
• Lead stakeholder consultations and the development and validation of a single portfolio-level livelihoods Theory of Change and a project-level logic-model framework linking inputs, activities, outputs, short-term outcomes, and long-term outcomes.
• Direct development and field testing of the pre-project vetting toolset, monitoring checklist, short- and long-term outcome toolsets, cost-effectiveness toolset, user guides, and common indicator menu, ensuring practical use by professional evaluators and non-evaluator personnel.
• Ensure the framework and tools support cross-country comparability, culturally appropriate application, high inter-rater reliability, and ethical identification of comparison populations where feasible.
• Lead or approve cluster and project evaluation plans, including evaluation questions, mixed-methods designs, sampling, data sources, instrument packages, analysis plans, limitations, and appropriate tiers of rigor based on project size, data availability, security, and feasibility.
• Oversee independent primary data collection where required; validation of implementing-organization data; and proportionate review of project financial documentation.
• Ensure compliance with applicable IRB or ethics approvals, informed-consent procedures, confidentiality, data protection, safeguarding, duty-of-care, and implementing-organization policies.
• Direct framework revisions based on pilot evaluations and ensure complete, coherent, evidence-traceable deliverables, including monthly progress updates, scorecards, project evaluation reports, learning and executive-summary slide decks, and cluster and portfolio presentations.
• Facilitate learning discussions and presentations; translate evidence into practical recommendations for project design, portfolio management, partner selection, and future use of the livelihoods framework.

Minimum Qualifications:

• At least 15 years of progressively responsible experience in MERL, evaluation, applied research, or program design, including leadership of complex, multi-country or multi-project evaluations.
• Demonstrated experience developing or validating Theories of Change, logic models, results frameworks, evaluation frameworks, and project designs.
• Demonstrated expertise in at least one methodological domain - qualitative or quantitative - and sufficient mixed-methods experience to lead integration, triangulation, and interpretation across both domains.
• Substantial subject-matter experience in livelihoods, economic strengthening, agriculture, food security, resilience, market systems, enterprise development, or closely related programming.
• Experience designing and leading process, performance, outcome, and/or impact-oriented evaluations, including context-appropriate approaches to causal inference and contribution.
• Experience working with international NGOs, multilateral organizations, local governments, and community-based organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multidisciplinary senior experts, analysts, country coordinators, and field data-collection teams working concurrently.
• Professional experience in at least one target country or region, or in comparable fragile, conflict-affected, humanitarian, and/or culturally diverse contexts.
• Excellent analytical, facilitation, presentation, and written and oral communication skills in English.

Education: Master's degree or higher in evaluation, economics, international development, public policy, social sciences, agriculture, livelihoods, statistics, or another relevant field.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• PhD in development research, experimental or quasi-experimental design, evaluation, livelihoods, or a related subject-matter field.
• Experience developing standardized global evaluation frameworks, scorecards, indicator menus, and tools intended for repeated use across countries and implementers.
• Familiarity with OECD DAC evaluation criteria and ethical, equity-responsive, and utilization-focused evaluation practices.

Work environment: This position is primarily remote. Work will require sustained collaboration across multiple time zones and may include field missions in the target countries.

Physical Requirements: This position requires the ability to speak, hear, see, use a computer or mobile device, and lift small objects up to 20 lbs. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibility: This position supervises senior specialists, analysts, country coordinators, and other evaluation personnel assigned to the engagement.

Travel: International travel may be required.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required for this assignment. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.