Chief Strategy & Growth Officer at IDinsight

About the Chief Strategy & Growth Officer role


The development sector sits at a pivotal moment: the use of data and evidence to drive impact at massive scale is now within reach. IDinsight is entering a growth phase that demands dedicated senior leadership to shape the organization's strategic direction, drive large-scale growth, and strengthen its positioning across the sector. The Chief Strategy & Growth Officer leads that work.
Reporting directly to the CEO, the Chief Strategy & Scale Officer is a C-suite leader who owns the strategic arc of the organization - from defining where IDinsight is headed to ensuring it gets there. This is not a coordination role. The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer holds direct accountability for IDinsight's strategic planning, growth execution, and external positioning with the funders and partners who can unlock impact at scale.


The role spans three core pillars:

Strategic Definition, Execution, and Coordination

The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer owns how IDinsight sets, tracks, and delivers on its strategy - ensuring the organization's direction is clear, that progress is measured honestly, and that the Board and leadership are aligned and well-informed. This includes:


Owning IDinsight's strategy definition, including the strategic planning cycles through which strategy is set, tested, and refreshed, in close collaboration with the Exec team and Board
Running the annual OKR process and monitoring KPIs, including quarterly strategic reviews that surface where pivots, escalation, or reallocation are needed
Serving as the primary C-suite lead for Board management and engagement - preparing strategic materials, leading governance processes, and maintaining productive Board relationships
Engaging the Board, the Executive Team, and regional leadership to align on strategic priorities and hold the organization accountable to them
Partnering with the Chief Impact Officer to ensure data and evidence are used to drive impact within IDinsight itself, closing the loop between execution and learning
Leading cross-organizational strategic projects and supporting the AI transformation strategy and its implementation globally


Strategic Growth Initiatives

The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer leads IDinsight's growth from strategy to execution - identifying where the organization can achieve step-change scale and ensuring those opportunities are pursued with discipline and accountability. This includes:


Developing and owning the scale and cost-effectiveness pillars of IDinsight's strategy, spanning: helping NGOs achieve sustainable scale through government partnerships, supporting governments to make evidence-informed decisions at scale, and embedding AI innovation within government systems
Scoping and standing up major strategic bets as the organization's growth ambition evolves, including identifying, evaluating, and driving implementation of new large-scale initiatives
Leading the thinking on the Cost Effectiveness Unit, the SDU, and an aligned PMU strategy across IDinsight's global portfolio
Supporting investigations into transformative merger and acquisition opportunities, working closely with the CFO, CEO, and Board to ensure strategic alignment


External Strategic Positioning

The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer shapes how IDinsight is seen and understood by the funders, partners, and sector leaders whose engagement unlocks large-scale impact. This includes:


In close collaboration with External Affairs team, building and stewarding organization-level strategic partnerships, particularly "big bets" (7- to 9-figure engagements), distinct from project-level donor relationships
In close collaboration with External Affairs team, engaging deeply with data- and evidence-focused funders (especially the EA community) to communicate IDinsight's distinctive position in supporting cost-effective, data-driven interventions at scale
Taking a leading role in thought leadership - with a defined cadence of substantive output across forums, sector publications, conferences, and podcasts - on the role of data and evidence in driving large-scale impact
Engaging in key communications across public and private fora to advance IDinsight's strategic goals


The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer will own IDinsight's strategic execution, including building coalitions, setting pace and prioritization, surfacing hard trade-offs, and ensuring that IDinsight's growth and impact ambitions are matched by clarity and discipline in execution.

First-Year Priorities

By the end of Year 1, and recognizing these will be refined with the CEO, the Chief Strategy & Growth Officer will have:


Established clear ownership of the strategy definition, planning, and review cycle across the executive and leadership teams
Defined the scale pillar and begun building out the organization's near-term scale-and-growth priorities, including working with the C-suite on implications for impact, finances, systems, and culture
Established the key external relationships and thought-leadership presence that position IDinsight with data- and evidence-focused funders
Reached a decision through due diligence on 1-3 viable M&A opportunities
Ensured the Board is engaged, well-informed, and productively contributing to IDinsight's rapid growth and strategic positioning


Why this role matters


This is one of the most consequential leadership positions in the organization - and in the broader evidence-for-development sector. The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer will shape how IDinsight grows, how it positions itself at a critical moment for the sector, and how data and evidence are used to improve lives at a scale the sector has not previously reached.
You'll lead, not just advise. This is a C-suite role with direct ownership of IDinsight's strategic direction, growth agenda, and external positioning. You will set the pace and be held accountable for results.
You'll work at a unique intersection. IDinsight sits where rigorous evaluation, applied evidence, and frontier AI meet - partnering with organizations like the Gates Foundation, GiveWell, Google.org, Anthropic, the Hewlett Foundation, and the IKEA Foundation, alongside implementers like Educate Girls, GiveDirectly, and Evidence Action. The Chief Strategy & Scale Officer has direct ownership of many of these strategic relationships and the growth conversations behind them.
You'll build something that doesn't yet exist. The scale pillar of IDinsight's strategy has no current owner. The Board management function is in transition. The organization's thought leadership presence related to "big bets" needs dedicated senior leadership. You will define these from the ground up.


Must-Have Qualifications


Proven track record of leading an organization through significant scale growth, ideally with direct experience of delivery in LMIC settings
Demonstrated fundraising capability with EA-adjacent, data-focused, and scaling-focused funders - this is a non-negotiable for the role
Strong thought leadership presence, including published writing, public speaking, and credibility across the development or evidence sector
Ability to design, develop, and deploy organizational strategies that reflect macro trends and global development dynamics
Operational experience in LMIC settings, with the ability to translate global strategy into regional execution
Experience with Board engagement, governance, and executive-level stakeholder management
Exceptional judgment and problem-solving in fast-moving environments - this person defaults to action, not process
High integrity and discretion with sensitive information, Board matters, and organizational dynamics
Deep alignment with IDinsight's commitment to rigorous, cost-effective, evidence-based impact


Nice to have


Direct experience with mergers, acquisitions, or organizational integration in the nonprofit or social enterprise sector
Existing networks within the EA, GiveWell, or Open Philanthropy funding ecosystem
Background in or exposure to evidence, evaluation, or data science in a development context
Comfort with AI tools and their application to strategy, operations, or organizational transformation
Experience building and managing high-performing teams across multiple geographies