USAID/El Salvador, Regional Trade and Investment Activity
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Specialist

About Palladium
Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

This Proposal Opportunity
The five-year USAID Regional Trade and Investment Activity (RTIA) will focus on increasing regional integration and trade and investment, with a focus on clean energy investments. It will build on USAID’s Regional Trade Facilitation and Border Management (RTFBM) activity to address key constraints to trade, and on USAID’s INVEST activity in El Salvador which engaged the private sector to increase investment in highly developmental sectors.

The Activity is expected to work primarily in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras with possible support to other countries in Central America and Mexico. The project may also include support to non-presence countries such as Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama when interventions address regional constraints, advance regional policies, or those countries request support aligned to the project’s regional strategic investment objectives. 

Position Summary
The MEL Specialist will report to the MEL Director and support the development and implementation of the project MEL agenda. He/she will work with the MEL Director and technical teams to closely monitor the Activity’s progress and outcomes. He/she will actively collaborate with public and private sector partners in order for the Activity to access the necessary data maintained by those partners and cooperate with any independent evaluations or studies that may require access to the Activity’s data. The MEL Specialist will work closely with the Director of Strategic communication to highlight the impact and achievements of the Activity and the Gender and Inclusive Development Director to capture the results targeting women, youth and vulnerable groups.

Duration:              5 years (June 2024-June 2029)  
Location:              El Salvador/Guatemala

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Support the MEL Director and other senior staff to manage the project’s AMELP, including knowledge management and learning plans
Guide and closely collaborate with technical teams to identify and communicate MEL requirements for the project, including protocols for collecting, aggregating, and analyzing baseline and ongoing data
Coordinate Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) efforts throughout the life of the project to review and encourage use of data so that all technical team members can make informed resource decisions and pivot activities as needed
Maintain MEL data, documentation, and reporting files are properly maintained and safeguarded on required platforms
Ensure MEL information is accessible and disseminated in accordance with the Country Specific Data Protection Laws or Regulations, Palladium information security policies, and USAID policies on Personally Identifiable Information
Coordinate collection and compilation of information on quarterly, annual and life of project indicators and outputs from team leaders, and progress toward planned activities
Conduct and support regular Data Quality Assessments, data calls, and other inquiries on project performance as needed
and other inquiries as required
Finalize and continuously update progress against the project’s AMELP and maintain all files related to substantiating progress against AMELP performance indicators
Work proactively with the communications team to align MEL outputs with the communications strategy of the project.
Maintain the project’s MEL database/Information Management System and implement upgrades or changes as required.

Key Requirements

Minimum (5) years of experience managing and supporting monitoring and evaluation of economic development programs;
Demonstrated understanding of MEL data collection and reporting requirements for trade, investment clean energy, or related projects.
Experience with trade specific studies or relevant skills, such as time release studies or economic modeling, highly desirable
Capacity for strategic thinking and ability to communicate with diverse teams, stakeholders and counterparts to gather, analyze, and use data to understand and communicate results
Demonstrated ability to understand and operationalize information collection and assessment systems
Demonstrated ability to create and manage information databases, analysis, and visualization using appropriate software applications
Demonstrated ability to deploy tools, processes, and systems to cultivate an evidence-based management and learning culture
Ability to work in a team environment and train non-direct reports to implement initiatives
Strong writing, reporting, and presentational skills

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodation to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.