Manager, Impact Measurement and Management (IMM)/Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Research, and Learning (MEARL)

Opportunity Type: Regular

Summary:

Habitat for Humanity International’s strategy calls for an expanded role in market approaches to solving the housing crisis. A central element of that strategy is improving access to affordable housing finance so that low-income households can build or improve adequate housing. This work engages the housing finance ecosystem — investors, policymakers, and financial service providers — to expand products and services that meet low-income families’ housing needs.

The MicroBuild Initiative is the successor to the MicroBuild Fund, which operated from 2012 to 2025. Habitat for Humanity is sponsor, investor, and a general partner in the Fund, and through the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter (TCIS) operates the Impact and Innovation Hub that will provide technical assistance that works directly with financial service providers to strengthen their ability to originate and manage housing finance, alongside other services to strengthen the Fund’s impact and catalyze broader market systems transformation. Symbiotics, a Geneva-based impact investment firm specializing in financial inclusion, is the fund manager. The MicroBuild Initiative broadens the scope beyond microfinance to a wider range of financial products and institution types.

The Manager leads impact measurement and management (IMM) and Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning for the MicroBuild Initiative. The position will co-design and execute the impact measurement system for the MicroBuild Initiative and is responsible for establishing what the Initiative can credibly claim about outputs, outcomes and impacts, including at the household level. Where monitoring data cannot support an outcome claim, this role designs and commissions the external research that can. Management of environmental, social, and governance risks is the responsibility of the fund manager; this role requires the working knowledge of European sustainable finance frameworks needed to interpret, scrutinize, and report on that work, but does not carry it out.

The position coordinates closely with the Managing Director of the Initiative’s Impact and Innovation hub, ensuring that indicator data aggregates consistently into TCIS MEARL platforms and that learning from the Initiative informs the portfolio and the wider housing finance market. This person will also need to coordinate and share information with fund manager’s impact team. This is an individual contributor role with responsibility for the Initiative’s impact research and evaluation budget.

Key Responsibilities:

Manager, Impact Measurement and Management (IMM)/Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Research, and Learning (MEARL)

Habitat for Humanity International | Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter

Help shape the evidence behind more inclusive housing finance.

How can investment in housing finance translate into meaningful improvements in people’s lives—and how do we know?

Habitat for Humanity International is seeking a Manager, IMM/MEARL to help answer these questions for the MicroBuild Initiative. You will design and lead an impact measurement system that connects investment and technical assistance to credible evidence of institutional change, household outcomes, and broader transformation in housing finance markets.

This is an opportunity to shape how the Initiative measures success, strengthen the evidence behind its decisions, and turn complex findings into clear insights for investors, donors, partners, and the wider housing finance sector.

About the MicroBuild Initiative

Habitat’s strategy calls for an expanded role in market approaches to solving the housing crisis. Central to this work is improving access to affordable housing finance so that low-income households can build or improve adequate housing. We engage investors, policymakers, and financial service providers to expand products and services that meet families’ housing needs.

The MicroBuild Initiative succeeds the MicroBuild Fund, which operated from 2012 to 2025, and broadens its focus beyond microfinance to a wider range of financial products and institution types. Habitat serves as sponsor, investor, and a general partner in the Fund. Through the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter (TCIS), Habitat operates the Initiative’s Impact and Innovation Hub, providing technical assistance to strengthen financial service providers’ ability to originate and manage housing finance, deepen the Fund’s impact, and catalyze broader market systems transformation.

Symbiotics, a Geneva-based impact investment firm specializing in financial inclusion, serves as fund manager.

Your role

You will co-design and execute the Initiative’s impact measurement system, establishing what it can credibly claim about outputs, outcomes, and impacts—including at the household level. Where monitoring data cannot support an outcome claim, you will design and commission the independent research needed to build that evidence.

Working closely with the Managing Director of the Impact and Innovation Hub and the fund manager’s impact team, you will ensure that the Initiative’s indicator data aggregates consistently into TCIS MEARL platforms and that its learning informs the broader portfolio and housing finance market.

This is an individual contributor role with responsibility for the Initiative’s impact research and evaluation budget. The fund manager is responsible for managing environmental, social, and governance risks. Your role requires sufficient knowledge of European sustainable finance frameworks to interpret, scrutinize, and report on that work.

What you’ll do

Design a rigorous, practical impact measurement framework

● Develop the Initiative’s IMM/MEARL plan, including its theory of change, impact thesis and objectives, indicators and definitions, data collection methods and instruments, roles and responsibilities, and research and evaluation strategy.

● Lead the development of low-income housing-specific outcome measures while drawing on the financial inclusion measurement infrastructure of TCIS, Habitat, and the fund manager.

● Align the Initiative’s approach with broader TCIS measurement practices and global frameworks, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, IRIS+, HIPSO, and the Operating Principles for Impact Management.

● Establish consistent, documented evidence standards across the Fund and its technical assistance facility.

● Collaborate with the fund manager on investee reporting requirements and the reporting calendar, securing these in fund documentation and reporting agreements to the extent the structuring stage allows.

Turn data into insight and accountability

● Own data collection workflows for information received from the fund manager and recipients of Habitat’s technical assistance.

● Monitor impact performance against targets and thresholds, analyze variances, benchmark against sector reference data, and surface material deviations and concerns about data validity.

● Establish baselines for technical assistance recipients and measure demonstrable changes in institutional practices, product design, underwriting, staff capabilities, and housing portfolios resulting from Habitat’s support.

● Conduct periodic data quality reviews of fund manager data and data from assisted institutions, and report findings.

Build credible evidence of household outcomes

● Establish the methodology for household-level outcome claims, documenting how figures are derived from institutional data, the assumptions behind those calculations, and the evidence required for each type of claim.

● Commission and manage independent client outcome measurement that goes beyond institutional self-reporting, including direct client survey approaches such as the 60 Decibels Microfinance Index, and benchmark findings against sector peers.

● Lead the Initiative’s contribution to experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations of housing finance, including a multi-country research agenda, in collaboration with external research partners on design, sampling, and interpretation.

● Scope, procure, and manage research firms, evaluators, and survey providers within the research budget, overseeing terms of reference, instrument review, data quality assurance, and approval of deliverables.

Communicate findings clearly and support credible reporting

● Support the Fund’s annual impact report and prepare periodic Initiative impact reports for Habitat, donors, the board, and other stakeholders.

● Collaborate with the Fund’s impact team to ensure its impact reporting meets applicable European sustainable finance disclosure requirements, drawing on the fund manager’s environmental and social reporting.

● Provide technical input on methodology, indicator definitions, and data provenance to colleagues responding to resource development and investor relations questions.

● Translate complex technical and methodological findings into clear, concise written materials and oral presentations that help audiences understand the evidence and its implications.

Use learning to strengthen practice and influence the sector

● Lead structured learning cycles that turn monitoring and evaluation findings into decisions about the portfolio, technical assistance, and the measurement system.

● Connect impact performance with institutional business models and financial performance to build evidence of where serving low-income housing clients is commercially sustainable.

● Analyze and document how the Initiative’s capital and technical assistance contribute to system-level change in housing finance markets.

● Develop and publish original insights in written and visual formats, collaborate with Communications on external materials, and lead internal learning sessions.

● Represent the Initiative in industry measurement forums, including those convened by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), to bring emerging practice into the Initiative and advance measurement in housing finance.

What you’ll bring

Minimum Requirements

● Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, statistics, evaluation, public policy, or a related discipline with substantive training in quantitative causal research methods.

● At least eight years of experience in impact measurement and management or monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

● Experience designing impact measurement/MEARL frameworks for funds or private sector development programs, including theories of change, indicators, targets, and investor or board reporting.

● Experience collaborating with external fund managers or implementing partners and constructively challenging their methodologies and reporting.

● Experience commissioning and managing independent client outcome studies and evaluations, including scoping, instrument review, sampling, and research quality assurance.

● Experience measuring outcomes through intermediaries and improving partner-reported data quality.

● Experience with microfinance institutions and other financial providers in developing and emerging markets, such as banks, housing finance companies, non-bank institutions, or cooperatives.

● Practical command of IRIS+, the Operating Principles for Impact Management, and the Impact Performance Reporting Norms in a fund context.

● Strong knowledge of survey design, sampling, questionnaire development, and experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation, with sound judgment about which evidence supports which claims.

● Strong written and oral English communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly, concisely, and without jargon to investment committees, boards, investors, and donors.

● Advanced Excel skills.

Preferred Requirements

• Background with an impact fund, development finance institution, financial service provider, or research organization specializing in microfinance or financial inclusion program evaluation.
• Knowledge of housing or housing finance in emerging markets.

Locations: United States or United Kingdom

Active support of HFHI Values:

● Humility - We are part of something bigger than ourselves

● Courage - We do what’s right, even when it is difficult or unpopular

● Accountability - We take personal responsibility for Habitat’s mission

Safeguarding

HFHI requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguarding our intended beneficiaries, their communities, and all those with whom we work. Managers at all levels have responsibilities to support and develop systems that create and maintain an environment that prevents harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse, safeguards the rights of beneficiaries and community members (especially children), and promotes the implementation of Habitat for Humanity’s code of conduct.

Hiring Range:

The actual salary offered for this role will be based on a variety of factors, including location, internal equity and the candidate’s qualifications and professional experience. HFHI offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package that varies by country and typically includes vacation leave, sick leave, personal days, health insurance options, retirement plan contributions and life insurance. For work locations in the US, the hiring range for this position is:

$84,600.00 USD

-

$125,850 USD

/

Annual

About Us:

Habitat for Humanity, founded in 1976, is a global, Christian-based nonprofit organization that grew out of an intentionally multi-racial community in rural Georgia. Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat brings together people of all faiths and people of no faith to build homes, communities and hope. Working alongside each other, we help families and individuals build and improve places to call home and achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Habitat seeks individuals who have a willingness to affirm these principles and values.

At Habitat for Humanity International, we are compelled by our Koinonia roots to put God’s love for all into action and pursue housing equity and opportunity by bringing all people together to build community and drive impact. We strive to build a culture rooted in learning, accountability and trust, attracting and retaining mission-driven talent reflective of the global communities we serve.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement:

As an equal opportunity employer, we realize our success depends on courageously committing to being a workplace where all staff feel safe, welcome, visible, respected, supported and valued, and building a workforce that reflects a variety of lived experiences, backgrounds and perspectives, in which every person experiences dignity and respect.

Habitat for Humanity International is an E-Verify employer.

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