Impact Assessment & Knowledge Management Specialist, Bloomberg Center

Company Description

By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds skills and expertise. We are dedicated to creating a diverse and welcoming environment where everyone can thrive.

The Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University serves a global community committed to improving public management, leadership, and governance. The Centerâs cross-Harvard collaboration unites expertise focused on cities across disciplines and schools to produce research, train leaders, and develop resources for global use. The Center is designed to have practical impact on the future of cities, where more than half of the worldâs people now live, by informing and inspiring local government leaders, scholars, students, and others who work to improve the lives of residents around the world.

The Centerâs Strategy and Impact team provides thought partnership, evaluative analysis, and insights to guide strategy, identify impact, and continuously improve programs, support offerings, curriculum, and broader Center work. Going beyond satisfaction surveys, the team measures impact by assessing how ideas are adopted in practice. It also leads recruitment of mayors into the Centerâs Program for New Mayors and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, provides insights about cities to internal and external stakeholders to facilitate connections, partnerships and action, and serves as steward of Initiative data.

In collaboration with the Communications team, the team showcases and amplifies impact for our donor, Harvard, and global audiences.

The Center is seeking an Impact Assessment and Knowledge Management Specialist to help us understand, communicate, and strengthen our impact on the next generation of city leaders. As a member of the Centerâs Strategy and Impact team, they will evaluate how the Centerâs student offeringsâspanning fellowships, internships, research assistantships, and real-world learning in city governmentâshape student learning, career pathways, and city capacity.

They will also build and manage systems that make impact data accessible, reliable, and actionable across the Center.

This role combines rigorous evaluation with knowledge management, translating data into insights that inform strategy, improve programming and support, and tell a compelling story of impact to stakeholders at Harvard and beyond.

Reporting to the Director for Impact Assessment and Evaluation, the specialist will be responsible for:

Impact Assessment & Evaluation

• Designing and implementing evaluations of student offerings in line with theories of change and vision for impact, and in collaboration with the Center Student Engagement team.
• Developing data collection instruments including surveys and interview guides, conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and analyzing data using quantitative and qualitative methods, including thematic coding.
• Tracking student outcomes, alumni trajectories, and progress on and impact of projects in cities.
• Synthesizing findings into visuals, reports, and presentations for diverse audiences.
• Recommending improvements based on evidence and contributing to new assessment tools.

Knowledge Management & Data Systems

• Developing, maintaining, and managing systems and processes (including in Salesforce and Airtable) for organizing, curating, and making data and analyses accessible and useful.
• Maintaining and strengthening infrastructure for systematic data collection and analysis in close collaboration with the Centerâs operations team.
• Providing timely analyses and data in response to stakeholder needs.
• Ensuring data and knowledge repositories are accurate, accessible, and useful for decision-making.
• Supporting cross-team use of impact data for learning and strategy.

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelorâs degree and 5+ years of progressive experience in evaluation in Higher Education or Government, Education, Economics, Public Policy, Anthropology, Sociology, or another relevant field. Relevant graduate study…