Director of Impact & Learning

Job Description

Job Description

Overview of the Position

The Director of Impact & Learning will spearhead SEAL's Impact & Learning Unit, functioning as a vital Leadership Team member. This role reports to the Head Program & Strategy Officer. This role is central to advancing the organization’s theory of action through the design of sophisticated evaluation frameworks, the modernization of data architecture, and the facilitation of learning cycles that catalyze evidence-based innovation. Additionally, you will represent SEAL before external scholars, policy leaders, and educational stakeholders to amplify our impact narratives and promote strategic goals throughout California and the national landscape. 

Candidates are encouraged to apply who have a minimum of 7 years of successful experience in education research and evaluation with deep experience related to multilingual and dual language learner education.

This hybrid position is based in California. You will work from home and in the field, with the expectation to travel domestically 15% throughout the year.

About SEAL

For more than 15 years, SEAL has worked with school districts, county offices of education, schools, preschool LEAs, teachers, families, California Department of Education, and many other education champions to advance educational outcomes of English Learners and Dual Language Learners. It all began with Dr. Laurie Olsen and Sobrato Philanthropies whose strong belief that all children should have access to opportunities for growth and success led to designing, piloting and eventually creating the SEAL you know today.

Our vision at SEAL is simple, yet impactful: schools prepare all English Learners and Dual Language Learners to learn, lead and thrive. Our core values focus on nurturing the intellectual and linguistic brilliance of young children, celebrating the importance of family culture and language in education, and supporting teachers through professional development and evidence-based instructional practices.

We work across California and nationally, partnering with preschools, elementary schools, districts, county offices and other educational stakeholders to ensure culturally and linguistically diverse children thrive. Extensive research has shown that SEAL both enhances teaching methods and leads to higher engagement and improved language and academic results among English Learners and Dual Language Learners. We’ve impacted hundreds of classrooms, thousands of teachers, tens of thousands of students—and counting. The number of school districts successfully implementing SEAL grows each year.

SEAL addresses systemic inequities by transforming classrooms into joyful, rigorous, and language-affirming environments. Our Theory of Action drives impact across three integrated levels:

• Direct Impact: Building the capacity of teachers and leaders through specialized professional learning.

• Ecosystem Impact: Partnering with education organizations to embed MLL expertise into programs, tools, and training.

• Field Impact: Leading advocacy and awareness to elevate high-quality instructional practices at scale.

To learn more about SEAL, please visit SEAL.org.

Our Equity Commitment

Equity is a core value at SEAL. At SEAL, our commitment to diversity, equity & inclusion reflects SEAL's mission: "To Prepare All English Learners to learn, thrive, and lead." Equity is a core value at SEAL and we believe that diversity fosters equity. We're passionate about creating a workplace where all forms of diversity, age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, perspective, and experience are seen as real value for the organization. To carry out our mission we actively recruit a workforce that reflects the SEAL community we serve, and as part of which, everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work. Our mission drives our innovation and connects us more closely to our partners and the communities we serve. Together, we act fearlessly, learn from each other, improve constantly, and continue to build a culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices, backgrounds, and cultures of our team members. These principles guide how we build our teams, cultivate leaders and develop an organization that embraces multiple approaches and points of view. We support an inclusive environment where team members feel empowered to share their experiences and ideas. We believe that non-profit organizations can be powerful platforms for social change and that our higher purpose is to drive equity for all.

About the Role

In this role, your work will include:

Leadership, Management & Operationalizing Strategy (20%)

• Overall management of the Impact & Learning Unit, including supervision, training, and mentoring of direct reports, including performance reviews and goal setting; as well as managing external consultants, as necessary

• Serve on the Leadership Team and actively contribute to SEAL’s organizational development, management and health

• Facilitate and participate in recruitment, screening, selection and employment of personnel

• Lead development of and manage contracts/MOUs that outline research-oriented partnerships within the field

• Collaborate in the development of and management of budgets as appropriate making edits and modifications as necessary to execute successfully

• Participate in the development, monitoring, and reporting of SEAL’s annual performance metrics (Objective Key Results) 

• Interface strategically with the Board and with key funders as determined by Executive Leadership and Executive Director (ED)

Impact Measurement & Learning Cycles (70%)

• Lead the development and implementation of SEAL’s theories of change, logic models, and evaluation frameworks aligned with SEAL’s evolving set of professional learning offerings 

• Oversee the collection, analysis and reporting of program impact data including, development/revision of evaluation tools, and execution of internal evaluation protocols aligned to SEAL’s theory of change, logic models and evaluation frameworks 

• Oversee SEAL’s programmatic data systems architecture and lead cross-departmental collaboration with IT to ensure SEAL’s data systems (including Salesforce) are aligned to the new strategic plan and updated and maintained to support reliable reporting and our new evaluation frameworks

• Lead the design and implementation of Learning Cycles to foster rapid, evidence-based innovation in programmatic offerings

• Design and implement Research-to-Practice projects with external partners when resources and funding are available

• Lead strategic collaboration with Fund Development and Marketing to provide data and co-create, write, and disseminate compelling impact narratives, briefs, case studies, and field reports

• Support program projects requiring research and evaluation support, particularly for those requiring substantiating the research-base, new research and evaluation tools and/or new data collections (literature review, briefs, reports, etc.)

External Relationships: (10%)

• In coordination with the Executive Team and HDERO, Represent SEAL in the field and community to network and strengthen relationships with external researchers, state and national policymakers, and other key education leaders to advance SEAL’s impact, learning and strategic priorities

• Represent SEAL in events and conferences, in alignment with SEAL’s broader external engagement strategy, as necessary to disseminate data/research that elevates SEAL’s impact

• Partner with Executive Leadership and Program Leadership to create, build and maintain effective relationships with partner sites/districts to prioritize the educational and developmental needs of multilingual learners

Who You Are

This is what’s required for the role…