Director, Data & Impact

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by advancing innovative research and improving quality of life for individuals and families impacted by paralysis. Its National Paralysis Resource Center (NPRC) provides trusted information, real-time help, peer and family support, community investment, outreach, education, partnerships, and performance-driven services nationwide. It provides the most comprehensive knowledge, tools, and services for individuals impacted by paralysis through a dedicated Information Specialist team. 

 

About the Role

The Director, Data & Impact is a new leadership role designed to help the National Paralysis Resource Center better understand, demonstrate, and strengthen the difference our work makes in the lives of people living with paralysis, their families, and caregivers.

Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, the Director will begin by leading the NPRC’s measurement, evaluation, data-quality, reporting, and impact work. This includes building the systems and practices needed to support the current federal cooperative agreement, its performance and reporting requirements, and future federal funding models as those expectations evolve over time. As the function matures, the role may also expand to support broader Foundation-wide measurement, evaluation, data governance, and impact efforts.

This role is about more than collecting numbers. It is about helping the Foundation understand what those numbers mean, turning data into stories that are useful and accessible, and creating meaningful ways to share what we are learning with the paralysis community, federal partners, funders, leadership, and the public. The Director will help us show where we are making progress, where gaps remain, and what the community is telling us should come next.

The Director will work across NPRC programs to build shared standards and systems that support strong decision-making, continuous improvement, public transparency, and community accountability. Program teams remain responsible for the accuracy, completeness, context, and use of the data generated by their work. Data & Impact owns the NPRC-wide measurement framework, evaluation methods, analysis standards, data-quality framework, dashboards, and impact infrastructure.

Just as important, the Director will help make sure that people living with paralysis, their families, and caregivers are not only reflected in the data, but are also part of shaping how impact is defined and understood. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working with data and systems while also engaging with the paralysis community, listening to community perspectives, translating findings into clear stories, and helping the Foundation build a stronger two-way relationship with the people we serve.

Note: Willing to consider Fully-Remote Candidates. Cover Letter required with all applications

Key Responsibilities

• Lead NPRC-wide measurement and evaluation to help the Foundation understand not only what services are being delivered, but what difference they are making for people living with paralysis, their families, and caregivers. Establish common outputs and outcomes, evaluation approaches, reporting practices, and measures of reach, effectiveness, and impact across NPRC programs. 
• Serve as the NPRC lead for Salesforce-based program data, measurement, reporting, and evaluation , working with program leaders, implementation partners, Operations, and technology resources to build systems that support service delivery, federal requirements, community understanding, and long-term impact measurement. 
• Create shared data-quality and governance practices across the NPRC so information is accurate, consistent, meaningful, and useful. Establish common definitions, documentation standards, validation practices, and reporting expectations while working with program teams that remain responsible for the accuracy, context, and use of their own program data. 
• Lead the performance, evaluation, and analytic components of federal and leadership reporting , ensuring the NPRC can respond to current and future cooperative agreements, evolving federal reporting requirements, Work Plan expectations, leadership and Board needs, and other accountability responsibilities. 
• Build and lead the NPRC public performance dashboard as a major tool for transparency, storytelling, and community accountability. Translate program data into clear, accessible information that helps people understand who the NPRC is reaching, what services are being provided, what outcomes are being achieved, where gaps remain, and how the work is changing over time. Continue expanding the dashboard as the quality and depth of NPRC data grows. 
• Support the External Advisory Group as an important connection between data and the paralysis community. Prepare relevant findings and materials, help members understand what the data is showing, bring their perspectives into evaluation and measurement decisions, and use their feedback to strengthen how NPRC defines, communicates, and improves impact. 
• Partner with Community Outreach & Access and other NPRC teams on the annual community needs assessment so information gathered directly from the paralysis community can be connected with program data, service trends, partner feedback, and other findings. Help translate those combined insights into priorities, program improvements, and future measurement needs. 
• Conduct cross-program analysis across Information Services, Peer & Family Support, Quality of Life Grants, Community Outreach & Access, and other NPRC functions to identify emerging needs, service gaps, geographic or community trends, barriers to access, performance concerns, and opportunities to strengthen services and outcomes. 
• Turn data into stories and conversations. Translate findings into clear, accessible narratives, presentations, visualizations, reports, and other tools that help the paralysis community, leadership, the Board, funders, federal partners, and the public understand what NPRC is learning and why it matters. 
• Create meaningful ways for community feedback to inform the data and impact work , ensuring that reporting is not simply information moving outward, but part of an ongoing conversation with people living with paralysis, families, caregivers, partners, and communities about what is working, what is missing, and what should come next. 
• Strengthen data literacy across NPRC by helping staff understand measurement expectations, interpret findings, ask better questions, and use information to improve programs and make decisions rather than viewing data primarily as a reporting requirement. 
• Build the Data & Impact function over time , providing leadership to assigned staff, consultants, and program data partners and helping the function grow from its initial NPRC focus toward broader Foundation-wide measurement, evaluation, data governance, and impact work as organizational needs and capacity evolve.

Requirements:

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 5-7 years of experience or equivalent combination of relevant education and professional experience, with the appropriate years of progressively responsible experience as determined by the Foundation.
• Demonstrated experience leading data, evaluation, performance measurement, impact assessment, or comparable work.
• Experience designing or leading outcome measurement and evaluation, including defining measures, interpreting findings, and connecting results to program improvement.
• Experience integrating information across programs or service areas and translating complex data into clear findings, recommendations, stories, and accessible information.
• Experience with a CRM or comparable data platform, including reporting, data quality, workflows, governance, or implementation.
• Demonstrated project-management and cross-functional leadership experience.

Preferred Requirements

• Salesforce experience, particularly implementation, architecture, reporting, workflow design, or user adoption.
• Experience with federal grant performance reporting, compliance, audit readiness, or another high-accountability reporting environment.
• Experience building a data, evaluation, or impact function from the ground up.
• Experience with public dashboards, data visualization, Tableau or comparable tools.
• Familiarity with responsible use of AI-enabled reporting or analytics tools.
• Experience in nonprofit, disability, health, human-services, community-based, or related mission-driven environments.

This Role Is Ideal For Someone Who

• Can build the infrastructure and standards behind a strong data and impact function while staying grounded in the realities of programs, services, and the communities those programs are designed to support. 
• Understands that good measurement is not only about reporting numbers, but about helping an organization understand what is working, what is not, what people are experiencing, and what should change. 
• Can translate complex technical, evaluation, and performance information into clear stories, conversations, and practical guidance that staff, leaders, funders, and the paralysis community can understand and use. 
• Values the knowledge, perspectives, and expertise of people living with paralysis, their families, caregivers, and others directly connected to the disability community, and understands why those perspectives should help shape how impact is defined and measured. 
• Brings curiosity, humility, and strong relationship-building skills to community engagement and is comfortable listening, asking questions, sharing findings, and creating meaningful ways for community feedback to influence the work. 
• Can distinguish NPRC-wide measurement and evaluation responsibilities from program-level data ownership and build productive partnerships across those boundaries. 
• Is comfortable beginning with a deep NPRC focus and helping the Data & Impact function expand responsibly across the Foundation as organizational needs and capacity evolve. 
• Has strong communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to work effectively with program leaders, technical partners, consultants, people living with paralysis, families and caregivers, community partners, funders, and senior leadership. 

Qualified candidates with disabilities, including people living with paralysis and individuals directly connected to the paralysis and disability communities, are encouraged to apply. We value the perspective that personal and community experience can bring to this work

Travel: 10-15% Travel, which may include visits to Foundation offices or other locations as organizational needs require.

Physical Demands/Office Environment: 

This position is primarily a sedentary, remote role, but includes periodic physical activity. As noted, the role includes occasional travel to conferences and periodic on-site activity at the Foundation's headquarters. They will need to be able to lift up to 10 lbs.

• During travel: The individual must be able to set up live events, including exhibit booths, presenter stages, and displays.
• During on-site work at headquarters: The individual may occasionally need to move about inside the office to liaise with staff, access files, and use office machinery.

The Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job duty satisfactorily, with or without a reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

The Foundation is committed to providing a work environment free of harassment and discrimination that supports individual dignity and respect.