Director, Program Development & Impact

Do you want to be part of a mission driven organization shaping Canada’s innovation future?

Do you thrive in collaborative environments where creativity, continuous improvement, and strategic thinking are valued?

Are you motivated by work that strengthens Canada’s competitiveness and delivers meaningful impact for communities and businesses?

At Mitacs, we take a talent first approach to building Canada’s innovation capacity. We connect researchers with organizations across every region of the country to help solve pressing challenges and accelerate economic growth. By enabling business academic collaboration and supporting the development of highly skilled talent, we contribute to a resilient, future ready Canadian economy.

Guided by our values —Impact, Integrity, Collaboration, Excellence, and Talent— we work with partners nationwide to advance research, commercialization, and innovation.

At Mitacs, you become part of a team committed to empowering Canadian talent, fostering meaningful partnerships, and driving innovation that supports Canada’s long-term competitiveness. If you’re inspired by big ideas and passionate about creating national impact, we encourage you to apply.

The Director will lead program design and continuous improvement, oversee evaluation and impact measurement, provide insights to inform strategic and investment decisions, and manage the overall program portfolio. The role will also provide strategic leadership to teams and foster cross-functional collaboration to maximize program effectiveness and organizational impact.

• Lead the development and design of programs aligned with organizational strategy and stakeholder priorities.
• Translate strategic objectives, government priorities, and ecosystem needs into effective program models.
• Lead the identification of emerging opportunities for new programs, partnerships, and funding models.
• Ensure programs are designed with clear objectives and measurable outcomes.
• Establish program development standards, processes, and governance frameworks across the organization.
• Translate evaluation findings into actionable recommendations for program design and strategic decisions.

• Provide strategic leadership for the organization’s evaluation function, ensuring rigorous assessment of program effectiveness, outcomes, and impact.

• Develop and oversee evaluation frameworks that measure program performance, outcomes, and return on investment.
• Develop program frameworks, theories of change, logic models, implementation plans, and performance expectations.

• Lead economic impact assessments, including analysis of economic growth, productivity, commercialization, talent outcomes, and ecosystem benefits.
• Ensure evaluation methodologies are credible, evidence-based, and aligned with best practices.
• Oversee the development of impact reports, performance dashboards, and evidence-based narratives for executives, Board members, government partners, and stakeholders.
• Build organizational capacity to use data and evidence to drive continuous improvement.

• Ability to see and manage the full lifecycle from strategic need and policy challenge through program design, implementation, outcomes, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
• Monitor the performance and strategic alignment of the organization’s program portfolio by assessing program effectiveness, relevance and value creation.

• Ability to translate evidence, stakeholder insights, economic and policy priorities, and evaluation findings into effective program models and interventions.
• Ability to clearly define the problem Mitacs is trying to solve and…