Careers

The University of Southern California is one of the world’s leading private research universities. An anchor institution in Los Angeles, a global center for arts, technology and international business, USC’s diverse curricular offerings provide extensive opportunities for interdisciplinary study and collaboration with leading researchers in highly advanced learning environments.

USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education is seeking an Associate Director to lead its monitoring and evaluation portfolio. This position reports to the Senior Director of Research and Evaluation.

USC Shoah Foundation USC Shoah Foundation develops empathy, understanding and respect through testimony. By recording and preserving audiovisual testimonies of eyewitnesses to genocide and crimes against humanity, we give voice to survivors and share their life histories and experiences with the world. The Institute’s efforts  in research, education and outreach are rooted in the Visual History Archive, a repository containing 55,000 testimonies of survivors and witnesses to genocide and crimes against humanity. The vast majority of the documented experiences are about the Holocaust. The Archive also includes hundreds of eyewitness testimonies of genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Guatemala, and Rwanda, the Nanjing Massacre, and most recently anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar and current antisemitic violence in Europe and the United States. The Archive represents testimonies taken in 43 languages and recorded in 65 countries.

The Research Division at USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education seeks to foster, produce, and disseminate original research grounded in the Institute’s Visual History Archive through its variety of programs and activities developed and managed by the Senior Director, including by sponsoring scholar and innovation labs, research awards, public presentations and convenings. Further, the Research Division aims to create opportunities for creative interdisciplinary collaboration and to promote linkages among scholars while producing and sharing important discoveries with the community at large. The Senior Director plays an important role in facilitating these linkages through targeted outreach and engagements with university scholars, schools, units and organizations both at USC and internationally through partnership development and other types of engagements.

The Research Division also undertakes and facilitates monitoring and evaluation activities that are foundational to the Institute’s strategic plan. With dozens of active programs throughout the Institute, monitoring and evaluation is essential to quality assurance, program improvement and sustainability. As such, the Senior Director, in collaboration with Institute leadership and Associate Director – Evaluation, is responsible for measuring impact of the Institute’s programmatic efforts and maintaining an Institute-wide, evidence-based approach to innovation, decision-making and program development and sustainability.

The incumbent will manage budgets, establish, refine and codify work processes, oversee establishment of data management and retrieval systems to streamline work processes, and develop and maintain internal communications mechanisms. The Senior Director is responsible for maintaining a positive customer service culture within the division. The Senior Director will have 2 direct-reports and oversee fellows and interns as well.

JOB ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategic Planning

• Establishes and executes the Institute’s research & evaluation strategy in support of the mission, including development of the division’s strategic and action plans for research investment, operations and fundraising

• Identifies trends and needs of relevant fields and establishes program directions accordingly

• engage faculty, scholars, decision makers and others in the Division’s programs and initiatives that facilitate production and dissemination of scholarship

• Create and implement a multi-pronged research dissemination plan to promote the Institute’s efforts and communicate impact

• Establish the Division’s R & D program (Innovation Lab) to support the Institute’s growth and development: processes, workflows and documentation

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Design and implement monitoring and evaluation plans for internal teams to monitor and assess programs and other efforts in support of the mission

• Create and disseminate reports, summaries and other documentation to stakeholders, both internal and external

• Develop broad/interdisciplinary partnership with stakeholders, including scholars, university schools, departments and other units to engage in research and evaluation efforts.

• Establish dissemination of evaluation results with stakeholders in a variety of forms, including on Institute platforms

Institute Service Model

• Develop and implement Institute-wide service model to support program development, evaluation and sustainability

• Create reports and other documentation for research and M & E activities for teams

• Develop processes and workflows to streamline requests and reporting

Programming and Events

o Develop programming in support of research efforts in close collaboration with subject matter experts, external stakeholders and others:

o Scholar Lab Program

o Research Incentive Programs

o Presentations, workshops and convenings

o Work closely with communications and media groups to develop communications plans for the division generally (website) and for programming and events specifically.

Management and Operations

• Codify the Division’s protocols and policies to streamlines areas of work (e.g. scholar requests, VHA inquiries, etc.)

• Codify Institute’s domains of work

  • technology innovations (e.g., DiT, AR/VR, 360 testimony, Starling),

  • archives

  • collections

  • indexing

• Develop and manage program budgets

• Onboard and train staff (3 current), fellows and interns

• Promote continuing professional development of staff

• Share Institute and University-wide information with direct reports and ensure understanding and adherence to policies and protocols at Institute and University levels

• Complete annual staff evaluation with appropriate action items

Fundraising

• Develop fundraising strategy to identify funding sources for research, evaluation and R & D

• Develops and manages program budgets aligned to program outcomes and provides reports as necessary

• Work closely with subject matter experts, advancement and leadership to develop proposals

• Develop recognition strategy (e.g., faculty-scholar awards, advisory committee)

• Prepare reports and other content in support of stewardship efforts

Partnership development and Relationship Building

• Develop and implement a partnership strategy to engage key stakeholders that can support the Division’s efforts to engage scholars, disseminate information and increase the Institute’s profile

• Cultivate and maintain strategic relationships within the Institute to advance division’s goals, including leadership, area leads, lay leadership and advancement team

• Cultivates and maintain strategic relationships within the university to advance research goals, including academic departments, administrative units, USC’s Institutional Review Board and others

• Cultivate and maintain strategic relationships with external research partners to advance research goals, including other universities, organizations, and others

• Serve as an accessible and supportive senior leader within the Division and Institute, as the work of the division is in large part, a service unit of the Institute and working collaboratively across stakeholders will be key to success for this role

QUALIFICATIONS AND ATTRIBUTES

Professional Qualifications/Experience

• Minimum PhD degree social sciences, humanities, evaluation (e.g., social research, research methodologies, measurement and evaluation, for example) or relevant field.

• Minimum 7 years of experience in leading a research unit at a higher education institution, non-profit or similar context.

• Extensive experience working with scholarly communities, researchers, professional organizations is required.

• Progressive experience conducting and overseeing evaluation in a higher education context or non-profit organization, including evaluation design and implementation such as

• 5-7 year of experience managing staff and/or unit within a complex organization.

• Experience using data management systems, including for data entry, extraction, and analysis is of special interest (e.g. Microsoft Excel, SPSS, Nvivo, Tableau, and other tools.)

• Experience creating systems and work processes to support collection, analysis, and reporting of data for program development and organizational learning

• Strong project management skills and experience using project management tools

• Demonstrated ability to lead strategy, charting out and implementing action plans to achieve ambitious goals

• Strong communication skills that enable the incumbent to be a strong external representative of the Institute’s work as well as an internal leader with influence.

• Cultivation of own line of research and dissemination a plus

• Creative problem-solver

Additional Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience working within educational environments (e.g. K-12, higher education, non-profit)

• Knowledge and experience working in any of the following general areas: k-12 teaching, classroom-based evaluation; diversity, equity and inclusion; genocide/mass atrocity, human rights, antisemitism, oral history/testimony/memory studies

Personal Qualities and Attributes

• Understanding and commitment to USC Shoah Foundation’s mission

• Demonstrated commitment to diversity; someone who views others with an assets-based lens, values all individuals and respects differences

• Energized by rapidly evolving and changing environments and adaptable

• Has a passion for data in a way that is accessible and inviting for all levels of evaluation knowledge and interest

• Strong ability to effectively articulate the case for support of the Institute’s research and evaluation work

• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple priorities at once and understand the importance of balancing needs of multiple stakeholders and competing demands

• Collaborative, team-driven work style

• Superior organizational, time-management and follow-up skills

• Goal and metrics-oriented

• Demonstrates sensitivity and good judgement

• Cross-cultural competency

• Interest and commitment to equity and social justice issues

• Autonomous, self-directed and proactive

USC is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring ordinance. We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at (213) 821-8100, or by email at uschr@usc.edu Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law. Read USC’s Clery Act Annual Security Report Required Legal Notices Certain positions are subject to background screening.