Innovation Officer

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Department

Innovation – Pact has a dedicated innovation practice for finding and scaling solutions to social problems in the form of products, processes, and wider business models with a focus on human centered design. Pact has several methods to facilitate idea generation from an online Innovation Marketplace on its social intranet system called Mosaic to an in-country innovation workshop that uses Human-Centered Design (HCD) to tease out new ideas. Pact exists to help create a world where those who are poor and marginalized exercise their voice, build their own solutions and take ownership of their future. The Innovation team contributes to realizing this by: • Creating enabling environments for innovation to thrive in Pact’s country offices and HQ. • Providing technical assistance to internal departments, country offices, and projects through project development and innovation methodologies. • Building internal innovation assets: capacity building in country offices through curriculum development and implementation; sourcing internal innovations and seeking innovation funding opportunities; facilitating knowledge sharing across Mosaic and other platforms. • Business Development: contributing to pre-positioning and proposal development with the Opportunity Development team and building external innovation partnerships. • Thought-leadership; participating in the innovation in development conversation by attending events, hosting meetings, and making relationships with potential partners and donors.

Position Overview

The Innovation Officer will provide technical expertise, facilitation and coordination for Innovation work as part of the larger Capacity Development and Innovation team. The Innovation Officer will be central in supporting the team’s efforts in creating lasting infrastructure and capacity for embedding innovation and participatory facilitation and design into Pact and our programming. They will lead coordination of innovation project activities and contribute to technical components including design, iteration and measurement of new tools/approaches, management of Pact’s online Human-centered Design (HCD) course and/or exploring engaged community as Pact’s guiding star. In coordination with the Senior Innovation Manager, they will provide technical input to Innovation’s strategic priorities and will be responsible for collaborating with other technical teams to ensure that Innovation approaches and activities are integrated across all areas of relevant projects and proposals.

Key Responsibilities

Innovation Design, Implementation and Measurement

• Lead on coordination of Pact’s HCD course, including exploring incentives for uptake, user segmentation, and delivery across Pact offices and with partners and communities. Develop and socialize best practices for implementation and use.
• Identification and design of new innovation assets (tools/approaches) and opportunities including programmatic design and curriculum development.
• Implementation and advising regional/technical departments on innovation integration. Technical areas include HCD, Participatory Design and facilitation, Systemic Design and practice, Incubation and other innovative design topics as determined.
• Design project activities and budgets for opportunity/proposal development.
• Provide ongoing management for innovation-focused projects or components.
• Provide mentoring, coaching, and technical advice to partners on areas of innovation (as relevant).
• In coordination with Learning, Evidence and Impact (LEAP) team, support in development of learning agendas around Innovation’s tools/approaches. Regularly collect, analyze and report on innovation data/evidence.
• Produce process and outcome documentation, case studies and other learning and thought leadership pieces for both internal and external consumption.
• Encourage a culture of flexibility, innovation, inclusion, learning, support, diversity and risk-taking within the Capcity Development and Innovation team and across Pact. Promote Pact’s core values through all work and interactions.

Basic Requirements

• Masters’s degree with five (5) years work experience or bachelor’s degree with at least seven (7+) years work experience
• At least 3 years of work experience applying HCD or other participatory design methodologies.
• Excellent grasp of social innovation landscape and leading methodologies.
• Strong written and oral presentation skills – fluency in English.
• Demonstrated effective interpersonal and creative problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Passion for community-led development.
• Flexible, entrepreneurial mindset.
• Previous experience in developing and implementing innovation curriculum.
• Previous experience in monitoring & evaluation for innovations.
• Previous experience with designing and facilitating workshops in developing context.
• Experience overseeing and coordinating with international field offices preferred.
• Working fluency in French, Spanish or Arabic a plus.

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.