Reports to: Founder and CEO
Hours: Full-time permanent role
Application Deadline: 13th December, 2022
ABOUT JUSTICE DEFENDERS
Picture this: an overcrowded and under-resourced prison full of men, women, or even children who have not been found guilty. This is the case for three million people around the world currently affected by the excessive use of pre-trial detention.
In many countries, suspects are detained in prison almost automatically once they are arrested. Whatever the offence. Some, yes, are guilty. Many are poor and unjustly targeted. At Justice Defenders, we want to see justice served; it’s vital for all of us. What we don’t want to see is people filling our prisons simply because there was no one to equip them to fight for justice.
Justice Defenders is a registered UK charity and US nonprofit. Founded in 2007, we work across Africa, training incarcerated people and prison officers to become paralegals. Our 35 prison-based legal offices in Uganda, Kenya and The Gambia are run by more than 300 paralegals. By equipping justice defenders to facilitate a just legal process, we help ensure a fair hearing at the point of greatest need. As everyone deserves the right to tell their story.
JOB CONTEXT
Justice Defenders is a data-driven, impact-focused not for profit law firm. Robust impact data is foundational to all our functions: it serves fundraising, guides our legal work and drives organisational learning and decision-making. As such, Monitoring & Evaluation sustains operations at all levels, fulfilling a vital role in the organisation’s stability and growth.
We are seeking a Director of Evidence and Impact to lead and develop this function into a world-class department. As a specialist in criminal justice, this role will specifically lead on evidencing the impact of Justice Defenders’ legal work. Primarily, this position will be responsible for producing quantitative and qualitative evidence, identifying what is behind good practice and positive results.
The Director of Evidence and Impact will transform how we use data to improve outcomes for the people we serve. They will prove the impact of our legal education, training and practice and public interest litigation, highlighting particularly impactful cases and our contribution to them. Ultimately increasing the overall efficiency and efficacy of our organisation. The post holder will work across Justice Defenders to oversee the data supply chain, validate the accuracy of the data produced and feed back into the continual improvement of our delivery.
This position will be responsible for leading data analysis and evaluation, and for maintaining the quality of the impact generated by the organisation. The Director of Evidence and Impact will build and lead the Monitoring & Evaluation team to generate robust evidence on what works and what needs correcting. Improving our Monitoring & Evaluation systems, legal education, training and practice, and ultimately the outcomes for defenceless people seeking justice.
The Director of Evidence and Impact serves as a member of the Leadership Team, providing insights into organisational performance and trends to inform growth and decision-making. The evidence this senior role brings will enable Justice Defenders to scale its operations and demonstrate the social and financial case for investment with donors and the general public.
Are you someone who enjoys building effective systems and processes for driving evidence and impact to serve us in the long run? We are looking for a leader who wants to play a key role in our fast-growing organisation. Come work with us at this incredibly exciting time for Justice Defenders.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
- Provide strategic leadership to our work in building evidence for the impact of Justice Defenders’ legal education, training and practice across multiple countries and contexts.
- Set Justice Defenders’ strategy for monitoring and evaluation and impact.
- Provide final oversight of all aspects of our legal education, training and practice monitoring and evaluation and impact indicators.
- Build world-class systems for evidence and impact that provide a strong foundation for the long-term flourishing of the organisation.
- Lead the hiring and management of a high-performing monitoring and evaluation team based on the organisation’s identified needs and strategic goals.
- Provide mentoring and training within our team, and create a nurturing environment that encourages the growth and development of colleagues in their work relating to evidence and impact.
- Lead in building and running a data-driven approach, creating a core analytical capability, and building a culture of high impact across Justice Defenders.
- Provide and own evidence for decision-making, business and strategic planning.
- Drive the production of engaging dashboards and reports for internal and external stakeholders.
- Ensure our use of data is aligned with our values and hoours those we work alongside.
YOUR PROFILE
We are looking for candidates who posses the following skills, competencies and experiences:
- Background in law and legal research, evaluation and data analysis.
- Expertise in evaluating legal practice, ideally as part of a law firm.
- Recognised track-record in building evidence / impact assessment / monitoring and evaluation across a law firm or criminal justice organisation, ideally in low-income countries (you probably have at least 10 years of relevant experience).
- An established legal publication record, as demonstrated through authorship of relevant technical reports or academic articles.
- Experience of setting up and leading high performing teams.
- Advanced skills in qualitative and / or quantitative methodologies and analysis (and use of relevant analysis tools such as MaxQDA, Nivivo, R, STATA etc).
- Accomplished presenter and able to represent Justice Defenders effectively on issues of evidence and impact with high-level stakeholders including donors, Board members, UN agencies, government departments etc.
- Ability to navigate sensitive and complex interactions with senior stakeholders in a range of different cultural contexts, winning support from managers and data officers in operational hubs.
- Outstanding written output and the ability to produce documents in a timely manner and with eye for detail.
- Strong interpersonal skills and alignment with the values of Justice Defenders.
We especially encourage applications from those who have been in prison, were the recipient of free school meals, or are from the first generation of their family to attend university and from those who consider themselves to be part of minority groups.
Final candidates will be asked to take an online DISC assessment.
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All the best!
