Research and Evaluation Specialist

Summary

The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) invests in a network of
community-based organizations (CBOs) to alleviate the effects of poverty and to provide opportunities
for New Yorkers and communities to flourish.

DYCD’s initiatives include COMPASS (the City’s comprehensive afterschool system), Beacon Community Centers, adult and youth literacy programs,
youth employment programs, services for runaway and homeless youth, antiviolence initiatives, and
community development programs.

DYCD also collaborates with other City agencies on a range of mayoral initiatives to improve City services and ensure greater opportunities for minority and immigrant youth and families.

This role is situated within the Bureau of Planning, Program Integration, and Evaluation (PPIE), which
promotes data-driven and evidence-informed decision-making across DYCD and provides training and
technical assistance to service providers to ensure high-quality services in communities through
capacity building.

This role is in PPIE’s Evaluation team, which is responsible for managing the
development of monitoring and evaluation indicators for the agency, supporting outcomes
development and tracking, and overseeing evaluation projects completed by external evaluation firms.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

For Assignment Level I (only physical, biological and environmental sciences and public health)

• A master's degree from an accredited college or university with a specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological or environmental science or in public health.

To be appointed to Assignment Level II and above, candidates must have:

• A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or
• A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or
• Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above.

NOTE:
Probationary Period
Appointments to this position are subject to a minimum probationary period of one year.

Preferred Skills

• Relevant program evaluation experience. 
• Experience in workforce policy or programming, which may include direct program experience.
• Excellent writing, editing and analytic skills.
• Excellent project management skills, including ability to develop and manage processes involving multiple stakeholders and deadlines.
• Excellent facilitation, communication, and consensus-building skills.
• Experience communicating complex analyses to stakeholders and translating findings into actionable recommendations
• Ability to engage with diverse stakeholders and work closely with a team to accomplish strategic goals.
• Critical thinker with a mindset rooted in solutions.
• Ability to change course or adapt initial plans based on stakeholder input.
• Skilled in creating visuals for presentations, including Powerpoints, infographics, data visualizations, etc.
• Comfort learning new data and administrative systems.
• Knowledge of the City's contracting and payment systems.

Duties

Reporting to the Director of Evaluation, the Research and Evaluation Specialist will:

• Support coordinating and overseeing DYCD’s evaluation contracts, with a focus on the evaluation of
  workforce programs that address barriers to employment and create networks of supports to improve
  community safety. Evaluation support includes:
• Writing vendor solicitations, and supporting the design of effective scopes for program evaluation
  projects;
• Ensuring that evaluation and research designs proposed by external evaluators are appropriate and
  confidentiality protocols are adhered to;
• Coordinating communication and project management with external evaluators, including co-design of
  data collection tools, project methodology, reports and other deliverables;
• Ensuring external evaluators are abiding by best practices in evaluation, including participatory action
  research and human-centered design, as applicable;
• Preparing summaries and reports on results of evaluation and research findings and processes,
  presentations, testimony and memoranda; design and facilitate presentations to support agencywide
  and external learning, encouraging data-informed program management and consistent
  implementation in policies and practices;
• Support the design, revision, and data entry of indicators for DYCD’s Evaluation and Monitoring
  System (EMS) to improve data quality and use;
• Partner with units across the agency to ensure evaluation findings are translated into change and
  consistently implemented;
• Communicate evaluation findings widely to others in the agency or the field more broadly as
  appropriate;
• Learn DYCD’s contracting process from start to finish, and support PPIE Operations contracting
  activities including:
• Coordinating contracting and amendment processes, including issuing new contracts and
  amendments and task orders and change orders;
• Tracking registration status and spending for PPIE’s evaluation and capacity building contracts;
  Coordinating with other DYCD teams including Fiscal, Legal, Procurement, Accounts Payable, and others as needed to ensure timely registration of contract actions, as well as ensuring timely invoicing and contractor payments;
• Developing expertise in the City’s new contracting system PASSPort and serving as the Bureau’s
  primary point of contact for the transition to this system;
• Collaborate across PPIE to ensure alignment and mutual reinforcement between external evaluations,
  program logic models, agencywide Theory of Change, Requests for Proposals (RFPs), EMS
  indicators, and referrals to Capacity Building supports;
• Additional tasks as needed, including interacting with other DYCD bureaus, community-based
  organizations (CBOs), and other City agencies to coordinate joint initiatives.