Director, Evaluation and Analysis

About Us

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to continually seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.

Position Summary

The Director, Evaluation and Analysis (E&A) leads PCORI's Evaluation and Analysis Unit and is responsible for organizational learning and evaluation activities. In this role, the Director of Evaluation and Analysis is a member of the Planning & Evaluation Division's Leadership Team. This role sits in the Planning & Evaluation Division and reports to the Chief Planning & Evaluation Officer.

The Director will provide leadership and oversee strategic planning for and deployment of all organizational learning and evaluation activities to understand the efficiency and effectiveness of PCORI's funding approaches and related outcomes for internal and external audiences and stakeholder communities. These activities will facilitate PCORI's use of data and evidence for strategic decisions about programs and processes, generate evidence about PCORI's progress toward organizational goals, and facilitate the reporting and communication of that progress to PCORI's key internal and external audiences. The Director works in close collaboration with PCORI colleagues to strengthen data use, continuous improvement, and learning mechanisms within the Division and across the organization, to facilitate data-informed decision making. The Director brings experience in coordinating and responding to external audits and evaluations.

The Director, Evaluation & Analysis is a leader in the field with broad knowledge of a variety of research and evaluation designs and methods, including developmental and utilization-focused evaluation. The Director has significant experience with learning mechanisms and approaches and strengthening data use capacity and culture within organizations. The role has experience and familiarity with stakeholder engagement and patient-centeredness, health research, as well as effective communication of research and evaluation findings to a range of audiences.

This role oversees the work of E&A Unit to: accomplish a broad array of organizational monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities, build and strengthen the learning and evaluation capacity across PCORI, deliver high-quality evaluations and analyses, and establish and maintain innovative approaches to enhance evaluation of, and learning from, PCORI activities. The role also oversees the planning and coordination required for external evaluations and audits.

The Director provides leadership and oversight for the following functions: organizational learning and evaluation strategy and planning, building capacity for organizational learning and evaluation, assessment of PCORI's contributions to the health research enterprise, analysis of PCORI's portfolio content and performance, informing organizational excellence and improvement of key processes (e.g., related to the application and review processes), and an evaluation portfolio consisting of process and outcome evaluations aligned to PCORI's learning questions. As a component of the organizational learning activities, the Director is responsible for co-leading PCORI's preparation and response to Congressionally mandated or other Government Accountability Office (GAO) inquiries or reviews.

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic and Programmatic Activities

• Provide leadership in the development, implementation, and the periodic review of the strategy for organizational learning and evaluation activities that are rigorous, timely, efficient, transparent, and responsive to stakeholder perspectives and interests.
• Build strong collaborations with staff from all departments at PCORI to understand, identify, and propose options to meet needs for organizational learning and evaluation.
• Align organizational learning and evaluation activities with PCORI's authorizing law and mission.
• Incorporate internal and external stakeholders' input and broader emerging issues in patient-centered outcomes research into organizational learning and evaluation activities as appropriate.
• Ensure systems and capacity to promote accountability for PCORI's activities are designed and deployed within organizational learning and evaluation activities to meet PCORI goals and fulfill PCORI's mission.
• Provide PCORI leadership, staff, and stakeholders, including the Board of Governors, Executive and Senior Leadership, Congress, GAO, researchers and institutions, and patients and the public, with timely information to assess PCORI's progress on strategic goals and inform decisions about PCORI's processes and programs.
• Provide the tools, resources, and expert consultation to other teams at PCORI to facilitate data-informed decision making, such as through robust continuous quality improvement and learning mechanisms, as appropriate.
• Serve as a key spokesperson internally and externally to provide a broad perspective on PCORI's mission, priorities, funding, and direction, and the activities of the Evaluation & Analysis unit.

Leadership, Management, and Culture

• Supervise and mentor E&A staff more broadly to carry out high-quality organizational learning and evaluation knowledge products and activities.
• Serve as a member of the Planning & Evaluation Division's Leadership Team by leveraging unit-specific input and offering expertise and insights for organization-wide strategy, approaches, and plans.
• Manage overall operational administration and coordination of activities.
• Establish and support the maintenance of a collaborative, service-oriented culture that enables the professional development of all staff.
• Continually assess and evolve the structure of team to meet organizational needs.

Incumbent(s) in this position may be required to perform other duties and special assignments not specifically stated above.

Statements outlined in this section are designated as essential job functions in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Required Skills

• Broad expertise covering all areas of organizational learning and evaluation, including expertise or leadership potential in each of E&A's key functional areas.
• Content expertise in a range of applied research and evaluation designs and methods, including experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational designs; quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods; reviews and syntheses; process and impact evaluations; and/or survey research.
• Familiarity with working with patients and/or other stakeholders in the planning and conduct of research or evaluation.
• Intellectual curiosity, flexibility, and initiative with the ability to listen and learn from others while remaining open to input and feedback.
• Well-developed understanding of extramural research funding processes.
• Significant experience mentoring and managing staff with a demonstrated dedication to professional development and team building.
• Identifying, evaluating, deploying, and managing independent contractors as needed to augment staff capacity.
• Excellent writing and public speaking skills, including success in publishing first-authored scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
• An ability to communicate effectively and professionally with a diverse range of people from different scientific and non-scientific backgrounds and education.
• Ability to see the big picture, balance priorities and remain flexible in a high-visibility environment.
• Demonstrated success as a creative and innovative self-starter with close attention to detail.
• Ability to work collaboratively across multiple programs and colleagues at all levels.
• Excellent negotiation, facilitation, mediation, and speaking skills.
• Experience working with governing boards and committees.

Required Experience

• Graduate degree in an evaluation, public health, psychology, and/or another related research field
• At least 10+ years' experience as a senior level evaluation expert or researcher relevant to public health, clinical research, or patient-centered outcomes, including at least five years managing staff
• Demonstrated progressive experience working in complex organizations; experience with non-profit organizations, especially in the health, health research or health policy sectors, preferred.
• Demonstrated progressive experience working with executives, external and internal stakeholders, research investigators, etc

Conflict of Interest.

PCORI wants to ensure that prospective employees are aware of its conflict-of-interest policies so that employment deliberations take into consideration this aspect of PCORI employment. PCORI requires all PCORI employees to disclose upon commencement of their employment and on an annual basis all individual and close relatives financial, business, and personal association with the potential to bias or that have the appearance of biasing one's decisions relating to PCORI. All disclosures made by employees are made publicly available on PCORI's website. Disclosures must include all financial and business and personal associations with any health or healthcare-related organizations and include all associations with any other organizations that have the potential to bias or that have the appearance of biasing one's decisions relating to PCORI, including but not limited to vendors or other third parties with whom PCORI has a contract or that PCORI has funded. For more information please visit PCORI-Conflict-of-Interest-Policies-Outside-Employment-Policy.pdf

PCORI conducts reference and background checks on all applicants.