MERL Director

Job Description

Position: MERL Director
Project: Family-Focused HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment (FFHPCT) Project
Duty Station:Hawassa City, with frequent travel to project sites in the four regions.

Project Areas: Central Ethiopia, Sidama, South Ethiopia and Southwest Ethiopia Regions
Employment Type: Full-time – Fixed Term For one Year
Reports to: Chief of Party (CoP)
Supervises: MERL officers/advisors
Application Deadline: 27 September 2026

About Mary Joy Ethiopia

Mary Joy Ethiopia (MJE) is an Ethiopian-led organization committed to improving the lives of underserved and vulnerable populations through integrated humanitarian and development interventions, working closely with government, communities and development partners.

Job Summary

The MERL Director will provide strategic leadership and technical oversight for Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning (MERL), accountability, evidence generation and adaptive management under the FFHPCT Project.The position will establish and maintain robust performance measurement and learning systems to track results, verify milestones, ensure data quality, generate and use evidence, strengthen accountability, identify implementation bottlenecks and support evidence-based decision-making and program adaptation.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic MERL & Performance Management: Lead the project MERL framework and Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP), ensuring alignment with project objectives, indicators, targets, milestones, donor requirements and government systems.
• Data Quality & Verification: Establish robust data quality assurance systems, including data verification, validation, reconciliation and DQAs; ensure reported results are accurate, complete, timely, reliable and supported by appropriate documentation.
• Data Analysis, Visualization & Evidence Use: Lead analysis and interpretation of project data and develop dashboards, scorecards and performance products that translate evidence into actionable management and program decisions.
• Digital Data & Health Information Systems: Strengthen alignment with government HMIS/DHIS2 and relevant digital data systems; promote effective use of electronic data collection, EMR, dashboards and information-management systems while ensuring data protection and confidentiality.
• Learning, Research & Evaluation: Lead the project learning agenda, after-action reviews, operational learning and evidence generation; coordinate approved mid-term and end-project evaluations and ensure findings inform program improvement.
• Adaptive Management & Quality Improvement: Facilitate monthly, quarterly and semiannual performance reviews; identify performance gaps and root causes; support corrective actions, PDSA/CQI approaches and evidence-based adaptation of project strategies.
• Accountability & Community Feedback: Strengthen beneficiary and community feedback, community-led monitoring and accountability mechanisms; ensure feedback is documented, analyzed and used to improve program quality and responsiveness.
• Transition & Sustainability Measurement: Develop and monitor transition-readiness and sustainability indicators, scorecards and evidence; support measurement of government ownership, institutional capacity and progress toward sustainable transition.
• Capacity Strengthening & Coordination: Strengthen MERL capacity of project staff, government counterparts and partners through training, coaching and mentorship; harmonize MERL systems across consortium members and coordinate with government and technical partners.
• Reporting, Compliance & Risk Management: Lead MERL contributions to donor and project reporting, milestone verification and evidence products; identify and mitigate data integrity, reporting and performance risks and escalate material concerns to the CoP.

Required Qualifications & Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics, Health Informatics, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Project Management or a related field.
• Advanced degree or specialized professional qualification in M&E, public health, data science, health information systems or a related discipline is an advantage.

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible experience in monitoring, evaluation, research, learning, data management or performance management.
• At least 5 years of senior MERL leadership experience in large-scale public health, HIV, development or humanitarian programs.
• Demonstrated experience managing MERL systems for USG/PEPFAR-funded programs is highly desirable.
• Strong experience developing and implementing PMPs, results frameworks, indicator tracking systems and data-quality assurance mechanisms.
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, data visualization and interpretation.
• Experience with HMIS/DHIS2, EMR and/or digital data-collection platforms is highly desirable.
• Experience facilitating learning, adaptive management and continuous quality improvement.
• Demonstrated experience strengthening government MERL systems and institutional capacity.

Interested and qualified candidates are invited to submit their application through the following

link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpmDx6NVx9UiHSPlxTlVamTeozkaLdGgVtQe0PVg7iEvCSQw/viewform?usp=publish-editor

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.