Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Officer

About Ashesi University:

Our vision is a flourishing Africa whose leaders make ethical decisions in the best interests of their communities, and where innovation drives economic, cultural and social growth. We educate leaders who will make this vision a reality, and we collaborate with other institutions to multiply this work.

Joining Ashesi means becoming part of a vibrant community dedicated to excellence, innovation, and a transformed Africa. We provide opportunities for everyone to do their most meaningful work, through cross-functional collaboration in an environment that encourages intellectual and personal growth.

If you're seeking an environment that values diverse contributions, supports professional development, and enables you to work with purpose, come join our team.

About the Center

The Ashesi Center for Entrepreneurship supports students and alumni as they move from early ideas to viable ventures through a structured entrepreneurship pipeline built around three stages: Idea, Project, and Venture. Through programs, grants, sector engagement, and partnerships, the Center equips builders to test ideas, develop solutions, and approach venture building with greater clarity and readiness.

The Center helps anchor entrepreneurship within the university by connecting it to faculty expertise, student and alumni development, and Ashesi’s wider contribution to innovation and economic development. As it grows, it is strengthening the systems, evidence, and cross-functional discipline required to operate as a credible, high-performing platform for entrepreneurshipdevelopment.

About the Role

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Officer is responsible for building and leading the Center’s measurement and evidence systems. The role ensures the Center can credibly track performance, demonstrate impact, meet donor and institutional reporting requirements, and generate strategic insight that improves decision-making across the entrepreneurship pipeline.

Working across programs, operations, communications, and leadership, the role owns the design and integrity of the Center’s MEL function: defining what should be tracked, building the systems and processes needed to track it consistently, maintaining data quality, and translating evidence into reporting, learning, and action. The role is both technical and strategic, requiring strong analytical ability as well as the judgment to design systems that are rigorous, practical, and usable in a fast-moving program environment.

Reports to: Associate Director

Key Responsibilities

1. MEL Strategy, Frameworks, and System Design

• Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing refinement of the Center’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework, including indicators, tools, protocols, and reporting templates.
• Define and maintain core performance and outcome indicators across the Center’s entrepreneurship pipeline, including student programs, alumni ventures, grants, events, and ecosystem engagement.
• Build practical data collection and reporting systems that can be used consistently across programs and teams.
• Translate donor, institutional, and internal management requirements into a coherent Center-wide measurement architecture.
• Ensure that the Center’s MEL approach supports not only compliance and reporting, but also continuous improvement and strategic learning.

2. Data Governance, Management, and Quality Assurance

• Oversee the collection, cleaning, validation, storage, and maintenance of program, participant, venture, cohort, grant, mentor, and alumni data.
• Establish data standards, collection protocols, definitions, and quality controls to improve consistency across all Center activities.
• Maintain the Center’s core data systems and records, ensuring they are accurate, current, and reporting-ready.
• Conduct regular data quality audits and resolve issues related to completeness, duplication, inconsistency, and weak documentation.
• Train and support staff across the Center on agreed data collection and reporting protocols, and help build a stronger culture of evidence discipline.

3. Reporting, Dashboards, and Evidence Readiness

• Lead the production and maintenance of the Center’s KPI dashboards and performance reporting tools.
• Provide data, analysis, and evidence inputs for quarterly and annual donor reports, Board materials, leadership updates, and institutional reporting.
• Produce regular performance reviews covering participation funnels, completion patterns, stage progression, venture outcomes, grant performance, and other priority indicators.
• Prepare clear, defensible impact summaries for both internal and external audiences.
• Maintain an evidence library of results, venture milestones, testimonials, case material, and supporting documentation for reporting, fundraising, and storytelling purposes.

4. Evaluation, Analysis, and Strategic Learning

• Design and conduct outcome and impact assessments across areas such as venture growth, job creation, funding raised, founder development, and broader ecosystem outcomes.
• Develop approaches for longitudinal tracking of alumni ventures and participant outcomes over time.
• Identify patterns, gaps, and performance risks across programs and recommend changes to improve effectiveness and coherence.
• Support the development of case studies, learning products, and evidence-based knowledge outputs in collaboration with Faculty Partners, Programs, and Communications.
• Benchmark the Center’s performance, systems, and indicators against relevant peer institutions, entrepreneurship centers, and ecosystem standards.

5. Cross-Functional Decision Support

• Serve as the Center’s internal lead on evidence quality and performance interpretation.
• Advise Center leadership on what the data supports, where evidence is strong or weak, and what claims can be made credibly in donor, Board, and external-facing materials.
• Work with Programs to strengthen outcome tracking and progression logic across the Idea–Project–Venture pipeline.
• Work with Communications to ensure public-facing claims are evidence-based and supported by documented results.
• Support leadership in using data not only to report on the Center’s work, but to make better strategic decisions about what to improve, expand, redesign, or stop.

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in economics, statistics, social sciences, public policy, development studies, data science, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in monitoring and evaluation, MEL system design, program evaluation, impact measurement, data analysis, or a related role.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing MEL frameworks, data collection tools, dashboards, and reporting systems.
• Strong analytical skills, including proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets and at least one analysis or visualization tool such as Power BI, Tableau, R, Stata, SPSS, or similar.
• Experience supporting donor reporting and working within grant compliance and evidence requirements.
• Strong writing and synthesis skills, including the ability to translate data into clear insights for non-technical and executive audiences.
• Strong judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to build systems that are both rigorous and practical.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and influence teams to adopt stronger data and reporting practices.

What We Offer:
Our success is driven by our people, which is why we offer a comprehensive compensation package.
Compensation at Ashesi is regularly reviewed against industry benchmarks, and total compensation includes health insurance, retirement benefits, and paid leave, which are designed to support the holistic well-being of our staff.
We also invest in continuous learning, development and research opportunities, allowing our teams to grow with the university and achieve meaningful impact.

Application Process:

Screening of applicants will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Kindly note that only shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview and may also be asked to conduct an academic seminar, research talk, teaching simulation or practical assessment.

Commitment to Diversity:

Ashesi is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive staff and faculty. We encourage applications from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and academic diversity of our university.

Disability Confident: 

Ashesi University is committed to taking positive steps to employ, keep and develop the abilities of staff with disabilities.

Ashesi University is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building faculty and staff committed to excellence and equity and encourages applications from people who value same.

Join us in shaping the future of Africa’s leadership.