Job Title: Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning Analyst (Chapter & Outposts)

Department: Impact

Location: Remote/virtual office within the continental US

Reports to: Associate Director, Evaluation

Direct Reports: No

Classification: Exempt

Position type: Full-Time Employee

Anticipated Pay Range at Commencement of Employment:: $56,000 - $71,000

Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families is the largest nonprofit dedicated to making military life better for families. Each year, we support over 1.5 million military- and veteran-connected family members through a national network of 300,000+ members and local chapters in communities across the country.

Our mission is simple and bold: We make military life awesome for families. 

We listen, share, partner, and act to deliver evidence-based, data-driven solutions that work for real people. We’re a lifestyle organization, a friend and neighbor, and a trusted partner. Our approach is collaborative, human-centered, and designed with the whole family in mind.

A Blue Star Family is one with an immediate family member — a spouse, parent, or child — actively serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the Guard and Reserves. These families face unique challenges: frequent relocations, deployments, career disruption, and isolation. We respond with research-informed programs that create connection, build resilience, and foster a true sense of belonging.

We serve with urgency but build trust over time — because change happens at the speed of trust. Whether we’re driving spouse employment, supporting caregivers, or helping communities welcome military families, we strive for upstream solutions.

Who We’re Looking For:

• Bold thinkers. Fast movers. Smart collaborators. People who want to build, lead, and drive measurable change — and who care deeply about making an impact that matters.

What You’ll Do Here:

• Solve complex challenges with data, heart, and humility
• Build cross-sector partnerships that get things done
• Help military families feel at home wherever they live

If you're ready to work in a high-performance, mission-driven environment — and to make life better for those who serve — Blue Star Families is where you belong.

General Description

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Analyst is responsible for guiding monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities for Blue Star Families' chapters and outposts. Reporting to the Associate Director of Evaluation, this role collaborates with the chapters team to refine routine post-event surveys, an annual survey, dashboards, and reports. It also works cross-functionally with the tech, communications, and digital innovation teams to distribute surveys, build dashboards, and share findings.

The MEL Analyst helps build an organizational culture that uses data to continuously improve programs and practices, translating chapter program data into insight on impact and effectiveness.

While this role is remote, periodic out-of-town, overnight travel is an essential function. In-person time is critical to how we work — enabling deep collaboration, team alignment, creative problem-solving, and a shared sense of purpose. Team members are expected to travel several times per year for offsites, planning sessions, and company-wide gatherings. These events are essential for contributing to team outcomes, building trust across the organization, and staying aligned in a distributed environment. Participation in these in-person gatherings is a required part of the role and integral to successful performance in our remote-first organization.

Key Job Functions

Data Monitoring

• Structure, transform, and visualize data in Tableau to build and maintain dashboards accessible to a variety of stakeholders.
• Clean and analyze complex survey data, organizing it for analysis and visualization.
• Manage annual monitoring survey data cleaning, analysis, and draft reporting.
• Use evaluation data to inform and refine program offerings.
• Monitor data systems, including Snowflake and Salesforce, to ensure event record data transfers accurately into Tableau dashboards.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to ensure data quality and accurate interpretation of results.

Evaluation

• Partner with chapters teams to evaluate programs via survey data.
• Build and manage surveys and dashboards within Qualtrics.
• Manage quarterly update meetings with chapter staff to review chapter dashboards and establish benchmarks and best practices.
• Summarize findings for internal leadership.
• Manage production of evaluation presentation materials, including reports and data visualization handouts.

Learning 

• Lead meetings with chapter staff to identify areas for program iteration and funding opportunities based on evaluation findings.
• Recommend logic model revisions to the Associate Director of Evaluation and Vice President of Applied Research and Evaluation.

Other Key Job Functions

• Attend regular meetings with the Applied Research team.
• Represent the Evaluation team in internal and external meetings, advocating for data-informed approaches to program development, refinement, and survey design.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Experience, Skills & Background

• 2+ years of demonstrated program evaluation experience in an applied community setting in the United States or Canada.
• Master's degree in Public Policy, Psychology, Social Work, Family Sciences, Consumer Sciences, or a related field.
• Expertise with Qualtrics or other similar survey systems (must be willing to learn Qualtrics). 
• Expertise with Tableau, with comfort creating visualizations from various data sources.
• Proficiency in at least one data analysis software (e.g., Excel, SAS, SPSS, R, or LISREL).
• Strong problem-solving skills, with an ability to identify root causes and implement solutions.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work collaboratively with internal partners.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a virtual environment.
• Experience, knowledge of, or interest in military and veteran families and community-based research.
• May be required to work nights, weekends, and holidays as necessary to carry out key job functions
• Limited out-of-town/overnight travel may be required to attend meetings, trainings, events, etc.

Desired Experience, Skills & Background

• Familiarity with military lifestyle and knowledge of Military and Veteran Service Organizations (MSO/VSO).
• Proficiency with Salesforce, Snowflake, and SQL.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

More About Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families empowers military and Veteran families to thrive by connecting them with their civilian neighbors — both people and organizations — to create strong communities of mutual support. We believe we're all stronger when we take care of one another.

Our groundbreaking research is raising the nation's awareness of the unique challenges of military family life. With the help of neighbors across the country, Blue Star Families is overcoming the isolation and alienation of frequent moves, deployments, and reduced support from the government. Our innovative programs are solving specific challenges for military families, including fighting economic insecurity with resources that foster spouse career development, creating family strength with rich family programming, and providing critical peer support for caregivers, whose numbers are only increasing.

Blue Star Families is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 

EEO Policy

Blue Star Families is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Why Blue Star Families?

• Mission-driven work supporting military service members and their families
• Flexible work options (remote, or hybrid depending on the role)
• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer match
• Flexible Spending Accounts, life insurance, and disability insurance
• Communications allowance
• Professional development and career growth opportunities
• PCS leave for Active Duty military spouses