Director of Learning and Evaluation

Who We Are:  

At TPL, we’re a team of outdoor advocates who believe in connecting everyone to the outdoors. As an ethos, we believe access to the outdoors is a fundamental human need and essential to our health and well-being. ​We’re committed to creating more places that bring us outside—parks, trails, playgrounds, and public lands—and making them available and welcoming to everyone, everywhere, regardless of ZIP code. We also understand that land has meaning; it tells the story of our history. That’s why, through our Black History and Culture initiative, we’re working to preserve sites that more fully represent the Black American experience; and we’re an ally and partner to Tribal and Indigenous communities, working in partnership to reconnect them with their ancestral lands.

One hundred million people, including 28 million children, don’t have nearby access to a park within ten minutes of their home. We’re determined to change this outdoor equity gap–and as a result, nine million people and counting now have access because of our work. We have miles to go and a plan to get there. We’re inclusive change-makers who believe in connecting everyone to the outdoors. We inspire by paving the way forward and strengthening our connection to nature. Join us! 

position Summary:  

The Director of Learning & Evaluation leads TPL’s organization-wide evaluation and learning function within the Center for Community Impact. Reporting to the Director of Research, the Director establishes evaluation strategy, shared outcome measures, practical tools, and learning systems that help TPL understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions.

The Director connects TPL’s place-based work to its five strategic outcomes and builds the capacity of staff to embed rigorous, equitable, and practical evaluation across programs. Working across Research, Field Programs, CCI, Philanthropy, Government Relations, and other teams, the Director translates evidence into organizational learning that improves practice, guides investment and decision-making, and helps TPL identify and scale successful approaches.
Ultimately, the Director will help create a continuous learning cycle in which implementation generates evidence, evidence improves practice, and what TPL learns helps strengthen and scale community impact.

Essential Functions:

Evaluation Strategy, Standards & Infrastructure — 25%

• Lead TPL’s organization-wide evaluation and learning strategy in partnership with the Director of Research, ensuring alignment with TPL’s broader research and evidence agenda, Strategic Plan, and CCI priorities.
• Own and continuously refine TPL’s Evaluation Framework, establishing equitable, rigorous, practical, and utilization-focused evaluation standards.
• Develop standardized tools, processes, and guidance that enable consistent evaluation across programs, geographies, and community contexts.
• Build staff capacity to integrate evaluation into program design and implementation through training, technical assistance, and practical resources.

Outcome Measurement & Strategic Learning — 20%

• Lead the development and refinement of standardized measures aligned with TPL’s five strategic outcomes: access, health and well-being, climate resilience, community cohesion, and cultural connection to place.
• Establish measurement and reporting systems that connect project- and program-level results to organization-wide Strategic Plan commitments.
• Define outcome measures, data requirements, and reporting approaches, partnering with GIS/Data and technology teams to operationalize systems for tracking organizational progress.
• Support leadership and program teams in using outcome data to assess progress, guide priorities, and inform investment and decision-making.

Organizational Learning, Translation & Capacity Building — 20%

• Develop program and organizational learning agendas in coordination with Research.
• Synthesize evaluation findings to identify what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
• Translate findings into recommendations for Strategy, TA, Field Programs, Policy, and investment.
• Establish feedback loops that inform what TPL improves, codifies, replicates, or scales.

Evaluation Design & Quality Oversight — 15%

• Establish evaluation design and methodological standards that ensure appropriate rigor, consistency, equity, and usefulness across TPL’s program portfolio.
• Advise teams on selecting evaluation approaches appropriate to program maturity, community context, available evidence, and intended use.
• Design and oversee appropriate quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, spatial, and other evaluation methodologies.
• Provide technical oversight for evaluation design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and quality assurance.

External Partnerships & Consultant Management — 10%

• Partner with the Director of Research to develop strategic partnerships with academic institutions, evaluation experts, community-based organizations, and other partners that strengthen TPL’s evaluation capabilities and evidence base.
• Scope and manage external evaluation consultants, ensuring methodological quality, effective resource use, and alignment with TPL standards.
• Represent TPL externally through relevant partnerships, publications, convenings, and professional networks.

Budget Management & Function Development — 10%

• Manage evaluation budgets, consultants, and resources, and partner with the Director of Research to develop the staffing, funding, and infrastructure needed to strengthen TPL’s integrated research, evaluation, and learning capabilities.

Other Responsibilities: As needed, and as time allows, other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

• A commitment to TPL’s mission and values (belonging, creativity, collaboration, impact, and hope).
• Eleven years of experience in program evaluation.
• A master’s degree in a relevant field preferred.
• fluency in both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, including advanced proficiency in at least one of the following domains:
  • Data collection tools such as survey design (e.g. SurveyMonkey), interview protocols, or user experience testing
  • Data analysis tools such as R, Microsoft Excel, Stata, SQL, GIS, or Python
  • Data visualization tools such as PowerBI, Tableau, Microsoft Office, or Adobe Creative Suite
• A commitment to community-based approaches to evaluation, particularly if grounded in lived experience and/or community-based work.
• Content area expertise in one or more areas relevant to TPL’s work (parks and other public spaces, land conservation, health, equity, education, climate action, community).
• A strong track record of collaborative work.
• A strong record of project management, and the ability to juggle several simultaneous workstreams.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Willingness to travel to collaborate with TPL staff and partners as needed.
• Have played a key role in creating a culture of evaluation and learning in an organization that previously lacked a formal function, preferred.
• Have led impact evaluations and/or continuous improvement efforts that drove measurable systems-change impact, preferred.
• Have created evaluation and learning frameworks, tools/methods, and/or systems that are now widely incorporated into an organization’s decision-making, preferred.

Compensation:

As a full-time employee, you will be eligible for the Trust for Public Land’s comprehensive benefits program which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, vacation and sick pay plus holidays, a year end office closure, and a 403(b)-retirement plan, currently with up to a 7% company match. We offer competitive salaries commensurate with experience; the anticipated hiring range for this position is $111,402 to $125,000 per year.  In addition, Trust for Public Land offers locality pay to eligible regular employees in select geographic areas.   

Trust for Public Land’s active goal is to be an inclusive and equitable place to work and build community. As the organization actively works to eliminate racial and other disparities it welcomes candidates with diverse backgrounds and/or multicultural skillsets. We are open to the possibility that a great candidate for this job may not precisely meet all the above criteria; if you believe you are the right person for this job and can persuasively make that case, we encourage you to apply.