Advisor, Planning and Impact

FIXED-TERM, FULL-TIME JOB VACANCY

Advisor, Planning and Impact

Program Office

Multiple Office Locations Considered

Application Deadline: 25 November, 2025

 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is implementing a five-year global strategy to achieve our vision for a more rights-respecting world. The strategy includes four global goals, which define our external aims; two intersecting objectives integral to how we work and what we work on, and six organizational enablers that describe the essential skills, infrastructure and systems required for effective strategy development and implementation.

One of these enablers is an organization-wide approach to impact and learning that will enhance our understanding of the change we are making in the world. This work is designed to strengthen HRW’s planning, monitoring evaluation and learning by clarifying how we define and measure, standardizing core processes for strategic planning, and improving project-level reflection and assessment. It will set out ways to assess HRW’s contributions to change; establish practices for engaging partners, rights holders and other stakeholders in our assessments; and contribute to a more rigorous evidence-based decision-making across the organization.

This work will equip teams with practical guidance and tools to carry out meaningful monitoring and evaluation, fostering reflection, and the adaptation of strategies. Grounded in an outcome mapping approach, it will connect country-specific project outcomes to HRW’s global objectives, allowing us to assess progress toward our overarching goals. Its implementation will emphasize continual learning and adaptation, guided by shared learning priorities and closely coordinated with HRW’s global strategy Hubs.

The Program Office is seeking an Advisor, Planning and Impact to lead the implementation and strengthening of planning, monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning systems across the organization’s programs. This role is critical in ensuring that our human rights work is evidence-based, impact-driven, and continuously improving. The Advisor will support program and advocacy teams in strategic planning, using data to inform decision-making, demonstrating impact, and meeting donor and organizational accountability requirements.

Specifically, the Advisor will guide the implementation of HRW’s planning and impact assessment cycle, which is currently in the final stages of development. This will include capacity building of staff and leaders across departments; communicating the aims and utility of monitoring and evaluation in compelling and accessible ways; overseeing the first annual assessment from staff support, to data analysis, to completion of an annual impact report; and then adapting the framework based on learnings from the first phase of implementation.

The Advisor, Planning and Impact will have excellent analytical and communication skills with significant experience in facilitation and capacity building. They will have experience in designing, implementing and adapting strategic planning and assessment frameworks and practices in complex organizations and in ensuring outcomes can meaningfully support organizational direction-setting and adaptive learning practices. They will thrive in supporting leaders and staff to engage in new working practices in ways that are responsive and beneficial to their work.

The successful candidate will have experience in organization-level strategy development and assessment, with a strong understanding of strategic planning and monitoring, evaluation and learning theory and practice; an understanding of inclusive facilitation practices; a track record of showing initiative and motivating colleagues toward new ways of working.

The Advisor, Planning and Impact will report to the Deputy Program Director, Program Office, and will preferably be based in one of HRW’s main offices.  This is a 12-month fixed term contract, ideally to begin in January 2026.  

Responsibilities:

1. Lead the implementation and strengthening of HRW’s strategic planning, and MEL standards and practices, aligned with organizational goals and human rights principles.
2. Work directly with Departmental and Divisional leadership teams to strengthen HRW’s capabilities for strategic planning and impact assessment.
3. Build strategic planning and MEL capacity among program and advocacy staff through training, mentorship, and resource development.
4. Develop and manage organizational guidelines and toolkits to support effective strategy development and assessment.
5. Under the guidance of the Program Office, promote a culture of reflection, planning for impact, evidence-based decision-making and adaptive learning across teams.
6. Support nimble and effective strategic planning processes that produce focused, well-resourced plans that advance HRW’s global goals.
7. Ensure rigorous evaluation methodologies, including qualitative and quantitative approaches appropriate for human rights contexts.
8. Maintain high standards in data collection and analysis and provide technical support to staff; Ensure project-level planning and assessment can effectively build to goal-level programming and assessment.
9. Produce quarterly and annual impact reports, including program-performance analysis for senior leadership.
10. In close collaboration with the Global Strategy Hubs, facilitate internal learning processes and reflection workshops to apply lessons learned in program design and delivery.
11. Produce learning products, such as briefs, reports, and case studies, for internal and external dissemination.
12. Collaborate with program, advocacy, media and development teams to translate strategic plans and MEL findings into accessible formats for stakeholders and the public.
13. Contribute to funding proposals, including developing compelling theories of change, results frameworks, and MEL narratives.
14. Guide effective means of collaboration across teams and encourage new ways of working specifically around theory of change development and planning for impact.
15. Perform other tasks, as may be required.

Qualifications

Education: A bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in international relations, human rights, law, social sciences, economics, or related studies is required.

Experience: A minimum of seven years of progressive experience in the area of strategy design, implementation and assessment, or in the area of organizational development, with specific experience in organizational-level strategic planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Preferably within the human rights, social justice or international development sectors.

Required Skills and Knowledge

1. Experience in strategy design, implementation and impact assessment practices, specifically as pertains to the achievement of longer-term change goals.
2. Experience in designing, and coaching others to design, theories of change and identifying diverse pathways to influence achieving external impact.
3. Strong knowledge of rights-based programming and experience integrating reflection and learning practices in complex advocacy and social change initiatives.
4. Experience in coordinating organizational or departmental-wide planning and in implementing nimble user-friendly processes.
5. Experience in implementing organizational-wide MEL frameworks; Highly proficient in both project and program assessment techniques and analysis.
6. Understanding of international human rights frameworks is an asset.
7. Experience in supporting senior leadership to define decision-making priorities and business intelligence needs.
8. Proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods.
9. Deep familiarity with data management and assessment strategies and with systems development to support standardized reporting.
10. Experience with participatory and feminist MEL approaches is a strong asset.
11. Track record in capacity building and in developing communications, toolkits and resources to enable buy-in from diverse stakeholder groups.
12. Excellent analytical, writing, and presentation skills.
13. Proven ability to support cross-functional teams and manage strategic planning and assessment systems in multi-country programs.
14. Encouraging, uplifting approach to collaboration, aimed at bringing out the best in individuals and teams.
15. Understanding of complex global organizations and of priority setting and work planning across functions and between regional and thematic divisions.

Salary and Benefits: HRW offers competitive compensation and employer-paid benefits. If based in the United States, the salary range would be USD 102 - 112,000. Salary ranges outside of the United States vary based on location.

How to Apply: Please apply by 25 November, 2025, by visiting our online job portal at careers.hrw.org and submitting a cover letter and CV or resume. No calls or email inquiries, please. Only complete applications will be reviewed and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

If you are experiencing technical difficulties with your application submission, or if you require a disability-related accommodation, please email recruitment@hrw.org. Due to the large response, application submissions via email will not be accepted and inquiries regarding the status of applications will go unanswered.

Human Rights Watch is strong because it is diverse. We actively seek a diverse applicant pool and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. Human Rights Watch does not discriminate on the basis of disability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. We welcome all kinds of diversity. Our employees include people who are parents and nonparents, the self-taught and university educated, and from a wide span of socio-economic backgrounds and perspectives on the world. Human Rights Watch is an equal opportunity employer. 

Human Rights Watch is an international human rights monitoring and advocacy organization known for its in-depth investigations, its incisive and timely reporting, its innovative and high-profile advocacy campaigns, and its success in changing the human rights-related policies and practices of influential governments and international institutions.