Research and Evaluation Specialist

Job Description The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) invests in a network of community-based organizations (CBOs) to alleviate the effects of poverty and to provide opportunities for New Yorkers and communities to flourish. DYCDs initiatives include COMPASS (the Citys comprehensive afterschool system), Beacon Community Centers, adult and youth literacy programs, youth employment programs, services for runaway and homeless youth, antiviolence initiatives, and community development programs. DYCD also collaborates with other City agencies on a range of mayoral initiatives to improve City services and ensure greater opportunities for minority and immigrant youth and families. This role is situated within the Bureau of Planning, Program Integration, and Evaluation (PPIE), which promotes data-driven and evidence-informed decision-making across DYCD and provides training and technical assistance to service providers to ensure high-quality services in communities through capacity building. This role is in PPIEs Evaluation team, which is responsible for managing the development of monitoring and evaluation indicators for the agency, supporting outcomes development and tracking, and overseeing evaluation projects completed by external evaluation firms. Reporting to the Director of Evaluation, the Research and Evaluation Specialist will: Support coordinating and overseeing DYCDs evaluation contracts, with a focus on the evaluation of workforce programs that address barriers to employment and create networks of supports to improve community safety. Evaluation support includes: -Writing vendor solicitations, and supporting the design of effective scopes for program evaluation projects; -Ensuring that evaluation and research designs proposed by external evaluators are appropriate and confidentiality protocols are adhered to; -Coordinating communication and project management with external evaluators, including co-design of data collection tools, project methodology, reports and other deliverables; -Ensuring external evaluators are abiding by best practices in evaluation, including participatory action research and human-centered design, as applicable; -Preparing summaries and reports on results of evaluation and research findings and processes, presentations, testimony and memoranda; design and facilitate presentations to support agencywide and external learning, encouraging data-informed program management and consistent implementation in policies and practices; -Support the design, revision, and data entry of indicators for DYCDs Evaluation and Monitoring System (EMS) to improve data quality and use; -Partner with units across the agency to ensure evaluation findings are translated into change and consistently implemented; -Communicate evaluation findings widely to others in the agency or the field more broadly as appropriate; -Learn DYCDs contracting process from start to finish, and support PPIE Operations contracting activities including: -Coordinating contracting and amendment processes, including issuing new contracts and amendments and task orders and change orders; - Tracking registration status and spending for PPIEs evaluation and capacity building contracts; Coordinating with other DYCD teams including Fiscal, Legal, Procurement, Accounts Payable, and others as needed to ensure timely registration of contract actions, as well as ensuring timely invoicing and contractor payments; - Developing expertise in the Citys new contracting system PASSPort and serving as the Bureaus primary point of contact for the transition to this system; - Collaborate across PPIE to ensure alignment and mutual reinforcement between external evaluations, program logic models, agencywide Theory of Change, Requests for Proposals (RFPs), EMS indicators, and referrals to Capacity Building supports; - Additional tasks as needed, including interacting with other DYCD bureaus, community-based organizations (CBOs), and other City agencies to coordinate joint initiatives. Qualifications 1. For Assignment Level I (only physical, biological and environmental sciences and public health) A master's degree from an accredited college or university with a specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological or environmental science or in public health. To be appointed to Assignment Level II and above, candidates must have: 1. A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or 2. A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or 3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above. NOTE: Probationary Period Appointments to this position are subject to a minimum probationary period of one year. Additional Information The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

Created: 2024-11-19