CHIEF IMPACT AND INNOVATION OFFICER

Job Summary

Reporting to CARE USA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) CARE is seeking an experienced and dynamic Chief Impact and Innovation Officer to organize and mobilize CARE USA’s broad technical expertise. This position is critical to driving CARE’s programmatic innovation for the next generation of impact. We want a leader who will drive our ambitions to triple our impact in the coming years. 

This role is accountable for CARE USA’s signature programs, program partnerships, digital impact, and value for money. They will shape implementation of the new FY26-FY30 CARE USA Global Strategy to lead, advocate and co-create with our partners as they sustain their communities and rise from poverty. The Chief Impact and Innovation Officer will be a key leader to realize the strategy’s 2030 goals of: 

• Helping 110 million women and their families access essential services they need to sustain themselves and their communities; and, 
• Enabling 70 million people to build savings and income through access to credit, markets and training. 

The ideal candidate will work across multiple sectors, thinking outside the box, with a passion for quality, innovation, digital programming and driving impact at scale. They will have the ability to embrace a new and evolving organizational identity while mobilizing resources to shape the future of CARE. This will include leading the redesigned Program Strategy and Innovation Senior Leadership Team. 

The Chief Impact and Innovation Officer has a broad portfolio and leads and coordinates a senior team responsible for Program Strategy and Innovation and sustaining CARE’s Technical Thought Leadership, deepening sectoral and funder relationships, ensuring Program Strategy & Design is based on evidence and cost-effectiveness, and supporting consistent approaches to monitoring, evaluation, analysis and learning and knowledge management. This includes broad oversight of Food and Water Security, Education and Skills, Economic Growth, Global Health, Women and Girls, Resilient Futures, and relationship management with private sector partners. The Chief Impact and Innovation Officer leads and supervises a team whose mandate is to generate, harvest, cross-fertilize, fund, communicate, and promote the practical application of evidence, technical knowledge and learning throughout CARE and globally. More specifically, under the leadership of the Chief Impact and Innovation Officer, Program Strategy and Innovation will refocus on highly strategic activities such as growing CARE’s technical thought leadership and deepening sectoral and funder relationships; improve CARE’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and Knowledge Management through more consistent approaches; ensure Program Strategy and Design is based on evidence and cost-effectiveness; and, elevate CARE’s focus on partnerships especially with the private sector. The Chief Impact and Innovation Officer will broker new, innovative corporate partnerships, lead impact investing, creative social financing and digital development efforts. 

In this role, the successful candidate will guide and coordinate the technical teams, serve as a key external representative and thought leader to explain our programs to non-technical audiences and key constituencies through speaking engagements, podcasts and conferences. They will partner with the resource development teams to support fundraising initiatives and lead coordination and cooperation with other related teams and functions, including other program teams, operations functions, and Regional and Country Directors. The Chief Impact and Innovation Officer will challenge traditional ways of thinking about the work and will catalyze, inspire and integrate cross-sectoral innovations and ideas. We are seeking a strong communicator, who can speak to both technical and non-technical audiences by crafting compelling storylines that resonate and translate to the language of the listener.

Responsibilities

External Representation, Thought Leadership and Fundraising

• Represent the CARE brand externally as a thought leader, messenger and storyteller in key fora such as donor convenings, private philanthropy meetings, panel discussions, podcasts, and interviews. 
• Partner closely with the CEO to engage donors, with a particular focus on brokering creative partnerships with the private sector. 
• Support engagement with the U.S. Government and key DC based stakeholders. 
• Work closely with the Marketing and Communications team to develop evidence-based storytelling and messaging content for a wide range of external audiences. 
• Build capabilities and expertise across Program Strategy and Innovation teams on story telling in simple language and ensure technical language and approaches are synthesized and translated into commonly understood terminology. 
• Communicate evidence of program impact to influence policies and stakeholder behaviors.

Private Sector Engagement, Partnerships, Product Innovation and Innovative Finance

• Ensure product and business development by partnering with the Resource Development team across all funding channels (especially foundations, private, and philanthropic sector) to meet the organization's revenue targets. 
• Support all fundraising and revenue-driving initiatives by overseeing the provision of technical expertise to CARE USA’s funding strategies and design and proposal process. 
• Broker new, innovative and impactful private sector partnership models. 
• Develop digital partnerships for impact to leverage cutting edge technology, specifically artificial intelligence tools. 
• Challenge traditional ways of thinking, catalyze, and integrate cross sectoral innovations and ideas especially for private sector. 
• Lead development of new resourcing models, specifically creative social financing and impact investing 
• Serve as representative of CARE's technical development portfolio able to present CARE's work clearly and compellingly in the U.S. marketplace. 
• Manage internal innovation value chain and system so that CARE achieves impact at scale. Build a pipeline for the next generation of innovative and integrated program models.
• Cultivate powerful new partnerships and manage new ways of working with partner organizations to develop innovative external solutions for increased market systems enabled impact. 
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with stakeholders including, but not limited to social enterprises, private sector, government, donors, and civil society.

Strategic Leadership and Team Management

• Lead CARE’s program strategy towards the realization of the organization's 2030 Impact Goals and revenue targets within CARE USA and externally in the sector. 
• Serve as organizational leader for the Sustain and Rise impact pillars. 
• Leads and coordinates the senior team responsible for the Food and Water Security, Education and Skills, Economic Growth, Global Health, Women and Girls, Resilient Futures, Impact, Learning, Knowledge, and Accountability, and evidence and learning portfolios. 
• Coordinate with key functions, including Advocacy, Humanitarian Affairs, and International Programs and Operations, to ensure high-quality design, implementation, and learning in all country offices. 
• Advance and support changes in organizational identity including an entrepreneurial mindset and new ways of working across sectors. 
• Attract, develop, coach, and retain global talent for a high-performing team, empowering them to perform. 
• Lead and foster team collaboration, communication, and cohesiveness, sustaining value and culture, and supporting staff during organizational change.
• Oversee team budgets and fundraising and program reporting systems.