Position Overview

The Director of Impact Evaluation works to advance YouthForce NOLA’s efforts to assess what is currently working with career-connected learning in New Orleans and to ensure that decision makers and practitioners have the data they need to make informed decisions.

The Opportunity

Young people in New Orleans are eager to make informed decisions about their futures. We can expand options, opportunity, and prosperity for our youth and our city by strengthening and reimagining college and career pathways. YouthForce NOLA equips New Orleans Public Schools students with the skills and know-how they need—including through industry-backed credentials, on-the-job experience, and college credits—to take charge of their futures and successfully navigate their next steps in life. Our team fuels a coordinated network of education, community, and business partners who, together, provide young New Orleanians with ready access to the learning experiences and practical resources they need to explore and confidently pursue a wide range of opportunities after high school. To date, more than 1,500 public school students have completed a YouthForce NOLA internship with 250+ local companies. In addition, we have increased by tenfold the number of graduates holding a certificate that qualifies them for a great job in fields like carpentry, engineering, graphic design, IT, pre-nursing, and software development. As a result of our collective efforts, our public school graduates will thrive in meaningful, well-paying careers, right here in New Orleans. 

YouthForce NOLA was founded in response to a collective call to action. We believe that soliciting, listening to, and following the lead of individuals from backgrounds and identities that reflect the young people we serve, who are predominantly youth of color experiencing poverty, is essential to our success. We are actively seeking to diversify our team with this top of mind. We are also deeply committed to ensuring YouthForce NOLA is a place where all team members can thrive, and we aim to build an environment that supports an authentic sense of belonging.

Location: YouthForce NOLA operates in a hybrid model - team members work in-person some days and have the flexibility to work from home other days. The individual in this role will need to be able to commute to our downtown New Orleans office at least three days each week. 

Position Type: Full-Time, Exempt

Supervisor: David Shepard, Director of Policy and Data Strategy

Timeline and Application: The priority deadline to apply for this role is 5pm CT on Thursday, October 9, 2025. We may accept applications on a rolling basis after this deadline; we encourage interested candidates to apply as close to this deadline as possible, as we may close the application at any time following the priority deadline. 

We believe that hiring great people in the right roles for them is one of the most important things we can do to set up new staff for success. Our process allows us to get to know you, and it allows you to get a good sense of us and the role. Aligned with our value of transparency, we are sharing this Hiring Process Overview with candidates. 

To Apply: Submit your application using the link. As part of the application, you will be asked to upload your resume. After you submit your application, you will see a link for an optional 5-minute follow-up survey. If you have any questions, please reach out to hiring@youthforcenola.org.  

Position Details

The Director of Impact Evaluation leads YouthForce NOLA’s efforts to build and operationalize data systems that track progress toward our student targets and broader ecosystem goals and study the impact of our work. This role ensures that YouthForce NOLA and its partners have actionable and accurate data to drive decisions, improve programming, evaluate impact, and tell the story of career-connected learning work broadly. This is a highly collaborative position, both internally with YouthForce NOLA staff and externally with provider partners, schools, and government agencies. 

What you’ll be doing:

1. Data Collection & Analysis: Facilitate data collection needed to measure targets, ensure accuracy and compliance, and share analysis and recommendations.

• Work with school data managers and training providers to receive a complete and accurate data set in a timely manner.
• Manage internal data platforms and systems for compliant data collection and distribution.
• Serve as the team expert on laws and restrictions for data collection and sharing.
• Manage student-level data access and sharing agreements with schools, NOLA-PS, training providers, and state agencies, ensuring compliance with data privacy laws.
  
  

2. Progress Monitoring: Develop and refine progress monitoring protocols that ensure data is collected, reviewed, and acted on consistently across the organization and ecosystem.

• Maintain and update Student Target Dashboard, supporting ongoing reflection and decision-making with school, partner, and internal teams.
• Validate data and set-up and/or maintain systems for transferring the data from submissions into user-friendly spreadsheets and visualizations. 
• Help the YouthForce NOLA team and external partners to understand what should be expanding and what needs to change grounded in data.
• Lead alignment of student target leading indicators with annual team goals, strategies, and ecosystem-wide goals.
• Support Leadership to interpret data, identify challenges, and adjust strategies.
  
  

3. Storytelling:  Help YouthForce NOLA and partners tell the story of our collective work and make informed decisions based on data. 

• Provide data insights for grant proposals, reports, board updates, and external communications.
• Develop data stories and visualizations that elevate student and partner impact and make complex insights clear for non-technical audiences.
• Serve as the lead on major grant-funded evaluations to ensure evaluators are designing research aligned with our model, minimizing the administrative burden on our team and partners, and are taking into account how student data privacy laws may impact research design.
  
  

4. Impact Evaluation: Facilitate projects to understand the impact of career-connected learning on young peoples’ outcomes after high school.

• Partner with and project manage external researchers studying the long-term impact of student experiences - such as credential attainment - on life outcomes.
• Execute our longitudinal analysis strategy to ensure that a longitudinal data system is in place by 2030.
• Facilitate data-focused working groups and act as a thought partner to schools and other collaborators in order to ensure that good data is entered into public data systems so that longitudinal data analyses are built on accurate data.
• Leverage existing longitudinal projects to understand the impact of career-connected learning on young people in New Orleans.
  
  

5. Continuous Improvement: Support efforts to ensure the career-connected learning and career-connected learning data are represented in ecosystem conversations facilitated by government, school system, and nonprofit partners.

• Participate in ecosystem learning spaces on data related work.
• Administer surveys, such as the YouthForce NOLA alumni survey and the Equitable Pathways Intermediary Survey (EPIF), which help us gain insights into the outcomes of our alumni and our partners' perceptions of YouthForce NOLA, respectively.
  
  

Other YouthForce NOLA Responsibilities: As part of our culture of collaboration and valuing every team member's perspective, each team member is expected to actively participate in structures for individual and organization-wide feedback and continuous improvement, including but not limited to: staff meetings, surveys, professional development sessions, retreats, twice annual formal performance management conversations, and ad hoc organizational improvement. As a Director this role will be responsible for strategy, goal-setting, and budgeting for impact evaluation.

This is an exciting role for anyone who:

1. Enjoys leading impactful, collaborative, and innovative data projects 
2. Is skilled at communicating data visually and verbally to experts and non-experts
3. Thrives on a small team, working directly with data sources while also leading strategy

Skills and Mindsets for Success

To be successful, the Director of Impact Evaluation must demonstrate commitment to:

• The vision and mission of YouthForce NOLA and an unwavering belief that all young people, and especially young people of color experiencing poverty, have the potential to achieve academic, professional, and personal success
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, demonstrated by: the willingness to examine personal identity and biases; comfort engaging in conversations around race, class, and privilege and operationalizing work to actively combat racism, bias and white supremacy culture; and soliciting and incorporating the perspectives and lived experiences of others
• YouthForce NOLA’s five competencies:

1. Organization, Planning, and Execution
2. Listening and Communication
3. Relationship Building and Management
4. Critical Thinking
5. Adaptability and Self Reflection

Specifically, a strong Director of Impact Evaluation candidate must demonstrate the following skills and mindsets:

• Ability to organize, analyze, and present data to a wide variety of audiences
• • Fluency with Google suite, with specific comfort with Google Sheet/Excel formulas (e.g., Vlookup, COUNTIF, SUMIF, etc.); experience with Tableau preferred 
  • Ability to organize and present data sets clearly and consistently
  • Demonstrated experience learning new systems and platforms 
• Structured thinking and problem solving skills with the ability to identify and implement solutions in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment and in the face of government bureaucracy barriers
• Strong project management skills and experience managing large projects with multiple stakeholders by effectively communicating and managing “up” and “across” the organization and with external partners
• Sophisticated relationship-building skills and the ability to build trust and adapt communication styles to work effectively with a variety of stakeholders
• A high degree of professional integrity, particularly about the sensitivity of confidential data information and legal compliance
• A high degree of conscientiousness leading to excellent work products, exceptional attention to detail, and the ability to meet internal and external deadlines

Required Experience 

• At least 3 -5 years of relevant experience with data analysis and presentation 
• Either at least 1 year of professional experience working on research design OR 1 semester (or equivalent) of research design experience in an education setting 

Preferred Experience 

• Experience with the New Orleans education landscape (highly preferred); work with student-level data that is collected and protected by government agencies
• Experience working with statistics, either professionally or academically 
• Familiarity with student data privacy laws and data security protocols
• Experience managing external contractors and/or researchers

Compensation and Benefits

Starting salaries will be determined based on skills, relevant previous experience, internal organizational equity, and equity with the market. Applicants will have the opportunity to discuss salary in the initial interview to ensure alignment in expectations and budget for the role. The salary range for this role is $82,500 - $89,779, and we typically bring in candidates between the minimum and midpoint of this range. If you have questions, please reach out to hiring@youthforcenola.org. 

Full-time employee benefits include: 100% employer-paid medical, vision, and dental premiums for employees and 20% employer-paid for dependents; 100% employer-paid life insurance for employees; the option to pay into a pre-tax flexible spending account with an automatic $250 healthcare stipend; an automatic 3% employer 401k contribution and immediate 100% vesting; 10 days of paid vacation in the first year (with additional accruals over time); 7 days of paid sick leave per year per year; 22 paid holidays and up to 2 floating personal holidays in 2025; 10 weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents; a taxable $250 stipend for start-up Work From Home (WFH) expenses after 90 days; and a $51/per pay period cell/internet taxable stipend ($1,326 annually).

YouthForce NOLA is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and has a strong commitment to sustaining a diverse and inclusive team. As such, it is the continuing practice of YouthForce NOLA to consider all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, genetic information, veteran status, physical or mental disability, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state, or local law, provided they are otherwise able to perform the essential functions of the job.