Salary Range: $186,475.00 To $279,713.00 Annually

Director, Evaluation and Learning

The California Endowment is seeking a Director, Evaluation and Learning. Reporting to the Vice President, Knowledge Management, the hybrid role will report 2 days in one of our 5 office locations (Los Angeles, Oakland, Fresno, Sacramento or San Diego). 

We expect to accept applications until May 10. However, because we review candidates as they apply, the role may be filled before this date. To ensure your application is considered in the first wave of interviews, please submit your materials as soon as possible.

The California Endowment (The Endowment) is a private, statewide health foundation established in 1996 whose mission is to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. We envision a California that leads the nation as a powerful and conscientious voice for wellness, inclusion, and shared prosperity.

Headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, the Endowment has regional offices in Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and San Diego, with staff working throughout the state. We challenge the conventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people’s health. We believe that health happens in neighborhoods, schools, and with prevention.

Position Summary: 

The Director, Evaluation and Learning is a strategic leader responsible for advancing The California Endowment (TCE)’s ability to measure impact, generate actional insights, and drive continuous learning in service of advancing our mission. This role is responsible for designing and implementing learning agendas and impact frameworks that assess how TCE’s grantmaking, convenings, investments, and internal operations contribute to systems change. The Director, Evaluation and Learning ensures that evaluation is not solely a compliance function, but a learning-centered, equity-driven practice that informs strategy, strengthens partnerships, and improves outcomes. 

This position will report to the Vice President, Knowledge Management. In partnership with the VP, Knowledge Management and the Director, Knowledge Strategy and Organizational Learning, this position will foster a culture of inquiry, reflection, and adaptation, ensuring that data and lived experience are meaningfully integrated into decision-making.

Key Responsibilities: 

Impact and Learning:

• Designs and implements enterprise and initiative-level learning agendas aligned with TCE’s priorities and goals.
• Develops and refines impact frameworks that assess contributions to systems change in health and racial equity, including grantmaking, convenings and partnerships, investments and strategic initiatives, and internal operations and capacity building.
• Serves as a thought leader in evaluation management.
• Defines key learning questions, indicators, and success measures that reflect both quantitative and qualitative outcomes.
• Builds and leads a cohesive approach to equitable evaluation that centers community voice and incorporates diverse ways of knowing and learning. 
• Manages a portfolio of internal and external evaluations that are timely, relevant, actionable, and aligned with strategic goals. 
• Translates data, community insights, and research into meaningful narratives and guidance for decision-making across the enterprise.  

Enterprise Knowledge Strategy:

• Collaborates with cross-functional teams to ensure that evaluation findings inform strategy development, implementation, and refinement. 
• Ensures insights are effectively captured, synthesized, and shared across the enterprise.
• Leads sense-making processes with staff, board, and grantees to understand progress and identify strategic shifts or adaptations.
• Develops tools and processes that translate data into actionable insights for decision-making.
• Serves as a champion for Trust-Based Philanthropy (TBP), ensuring that grantmaking practices support grantee and field learning and decision-making while reducing grantee burden.

Staff Management and Development:

• Leads, mentors, and manages Evaluation and Learning team, which focuses on strategic impact, equitable evaluation, field learning, and capacity building evaluation.
• Sets clear strategic goals and performance expectations and conducts performance reviews for direct reports.
• Provides ongoing performance management by providing guidance, clear and consistent feedback, and supporting opportunities for learning and development for communications staff.
• Fosters and leads a diverse, collaborative, and inclusive work environment that welcomes points of view that are inclusive of each person’s professional, cultural, social, ethnic, and experiential backgrounds.

Cross-Functional Alignment, Collaboration, and Innovation:

• Fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement among leaders, staff, and grantee partners, while also building internal trust and alignment around the role’s purpose especially as expectations and assumptions about knowledge work at TCE evolve.
• Collaborates across the enterprise to enhance operational efficiency and ensures that knowledge systems support decision-making and innovation. 
• Designs and facilitates learning spaces such as learning sessions, after-action reviews, and cross-team dialogues to support teams in interpreting and applying data to improve programs and operations.
• Supports enterprise-wide initiatives that require evaluation and learning integration.

Field Building and External Engagement:

• Represents TCE in national and regional philanthropic learning spaces, contributing thought leadership and learning from the field.
• Engages and builds relationships with philanthropy colleagues, academic institutions, and community-based evaluators and leaders to advance shared knowledge and field-wide practices.
• Promotes inclusive and accessible dissemination of insights to diverse audiences, supporting shared understanding and community empowerment.
• Stays current on emerging practices in equitable evaluation and systems change measurement.

Measurement, Evaluation, and Accountability:

• Partners with leadership to identify the most meaningful indicators of progress, helping to define what success looks like in advancing health and racial equity – and building systems to track, share, and act on that data.
• Develops metrics and framework for evaluation and ensures reporting and communication of findings to support decision-making.
• Develops internal capacity for data analysis and storytelling that drives learning and accountability across the enterprise.
• Establishes benchmarks and systems to track performance and impact aligned with TCE’s strategic goals. 
• Collaborates with the communications team to amplify findings and lessons learned with key internal and external stakeholders. 

Resource Management

• Manages departmental resources and budget with efficiency and transparency, ensuring alignment with enterprise-wide goals and values.
• Oversees relationships with external evaluators, consultants, and research partners.
• Allocates resources strategically to support high-impact learning and evaluation efforts.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Desired Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Deep understanding of health equity, racial equity, social determinants of health, and systems-change approaches.
• Excellent relationship building, facilitation, and interpersonal communication skills, both written and verbal. 
• Proven success in working enterprise-wide, collaborating across different departments to achieve a shared outcome.
• Understanding of philanthropic infrastructure organizations (PIOs), philanthropic serving organizations (PSOs) and funder collaboratives.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment with competing deadlines.
• Ability to translate complex ideas into actional strategies and compelling narratives.
• Ability to exercise discretion and maintain confidentiality.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity in dynamic partnership environments.
• Strong collaborative skills and cultural competency, with experience engaging diverse populations and stakeholders.
• Strong project management, strategic thinking, and organizational skills.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook).

Minimum Experience:

• Minimum ten (10) years of experience in evaluation, learning, strategy, or research, preferably in philanthropy, nonprofit, or public sector with five (5) or more years of management experience.
• A bachelor’s degree in public health, public policy, evaluation, or related field is equivalent to four years of relevant experience.
• Deep understanding of and commitment to tce+ principles, ensuring that all engagements with staff, partners, and grantees are rooted in trust, transparency, and shared power. Champions TBP as a guiding principle in organizational processes and decision-making.
• Experience designing and implementing learning agendas and impact frameworks.

Salary Range: 

Target Hiring Range: $186,475 – $233,094 

Full Salary Range: $186,475 – $279,713

Compensation offers are determined based on the candidate’s relevant experience, market data, and internal equity. Most offers fall within the target hiring range, with the full salary range reserved to support growth and progression over time in the role.

TCE Benefits and Perks

• Shared medical and dental premiums for employees and eligible dependents
• 100% employer-paid benefits: vision, life and AD&D, STD, LTD and employee assistance program
• Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Reimbursement towards gym fees and/or wellness program and mental health care
• 9-80 schedule with synchronized off days
• Hybrid work schedule available for most positions
• 11 paid holidays + paid winter holiday closure
• Generous paid time off (PTO)
• 401k plan with generous employer match and contributions
• Matching gifts program
• Paid parking or public transportation subsidy
• Professional development and training opportunities
• Tuition Reimbursement Program
• Monthly BYOD stipend 

The California Endowment’s goal is to hire qualified staff reflecting the rich diversity of all Californians. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to advancing health and racial equity in California. We are committed to creating a work environment in which all individuals are valued and respected. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds. We define diversity in broad terms to include race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, geography, socio-economic status, veteran status, and prior criminal history, in accordance with local, state and/or federal laws. 

If you need a reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening, apply for a position, or participate in the interview process, please connect with us at hrforms@calendow.org and describe the specific accommodation request for a disability-related limitation.