Starting Date: ASAP. Contract type: Full-time and open-ended. Salary: PKR 8,697,612/- commensurate with skills and experience. Location: Lahore (hybrid, two to three days/week in the Lahore office).
About the Job: The Manager Assurance, MEL & Digital Systems leads Better Cotton's Assurance and Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) functions in Pakistan, ensuring the delivery of credible, efficient, and high-quality assurance outcomes. This role oversees the implementation and ongoing strengthening of Better Cotton's Certification model, advances MEL systems to generate robust evidence of programme impact and supports field-level digitalisation to improve data quality, accessibility, and decision-making. By integrating Assurance, MEL, and digitalisation, the role ensures that Better Cotton maintains credibility, learns from its work on the ground, and leverages data and technology to continuously improve sustainability outcomes in cotton production.
Responsibilities:
Assurance: Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of the Certification-based Assurance model in Pakistan; manage relationships with Certification Bodies (contracting, training, performance monitoring, quality control); collaborate with Programme and Global Assurance teams to align certification operations with organisational priorities; monitor certification data and performance trends to identify risks and inform strategic decisions.
MEL: Lead MEL strategy and implementation in Pakistan, ensuring timely and accurate collection, analysis, and reporting of programme performance data; oversee design and adaptation of MEL tools, methodologies and indicators; steer analysis of MEL datasets with country and global teams; ensure data integrity through rigorous quality assurance and validation.
Digital Systems: Oversee consultants for third-party assignments; build MEL capacity among staff and Programme Partner staff; oversee deployment and maintenance of digital products; ensure digital tools meet MEL and programme needs; identify gaps in field data systems and propose context-aligned solutions; co-design dashboards across datasets; lead capacity building on digital platforms; monitor and troubleshoot digital systems.
Line Management: Directly manage Assurance, Digitalization and MEL staff in Pakistan.
Experience: Master's degree or equivalent in a relevant field (e.g., agriculture, sustainability, development studies, digitalization and/or data management). Minimum 10 years of progressive experience in certification/assurance, MEL, and/or digital systems, preferably in the sustainability or development sectors. Demonstrated success in managing data systems, leading evaluations, and engaging third-party service providers. Experience in agriculture or cotton production in Pakistan is preferred but not required. Competencies: systems thinking, analytical rigour, capacity building, communication, adaptability, assurance systems management, MEL frameworks and indicators, digital field tools, data quality and security, analysis and reporting.
The position is full-time (40 hours per week), based in Lahore, with flexible working (core hours 10 am - 4 pm) and may require limited international travel. Benefits include 25 days paid annual leave plus 9 bank holidays, enhanced parental benefits, and the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to one month per year.
About Better Cotton: Better Cotton Initiative is a global not-for-profit organisation supporting the production of more equitable and sustainable cotton at farm level, working with the cotton farming community, partners and governments to set standards and facilitate the supply and demand of more sustainable cotton from farm to brand.
Application closing date: 04.09.2026
Application closing date: 04.09.2026
HOW TO APPLY:
Send your CV (2 pages maximum) and a brief cover letter (1 page maximum) by or before 04.09.2026 via the application link. In your cover letter, please include an explanation of why your experience is specifically relevant to this role at Better Cotton Initiative.
https://ats.rippling.com/en-GB/better-cotton-careers/jobs/6a5f1c87-5a84-4fe8-aebd-a0b279ce933d