10 Ways to Rethink Your USAID Job Titles
How to translate your vast development experience into corporate-friendly terms
Say this out loud right now. Seriously, as you read this email, say it:
I am amazing. I am worthy. You will love to hire me because...
We had a great conversation with Amanda Makulec and Shannon Lindsay on how MERL leaders can be business analysis and customer insights leaders in other fields.
They reminded us that:
We are strong, resilient, resourceful people that employers should be fighting to hire.
We need to translate our skills and success from development speak to corporate speak.
We developed a broad skill set managing international development programs. These skills—from strategic planning and project design to budgeting, partnership coordination, and performance evaluation—are highly transferable to the private sector.
10 New Titles for You
Here are 10 changes you can make to your resume and your mindset to help you get a job now—holding your head high as you interview for these roles.
Chief of Party - General Manager with high-level leadership, strategic planning, team management, P&L oversight.
MERL - Data-Driven Decision Making with data analytics, impact assessment, and performance optimization.
Health/Education/etc. Lead - Portfolio Management as business unit director with strategic vision for corporate transformation.
Program Manager - Global Leadership with distributed workforce and virtual team management.
Contracts Manager - Financial Acumen with P&L management and financial risk oversight of millions in revenue.
Business Development - Strategic Growth in complex B2B and B2G sales and strategic planning.
Stakeholder Engagement - Executive-Level Influence in client engagement, strategic partnerships, C-suite relationships.
Capacity Building - Management Consulting via training, consulting, and change management.
Supply Chain Manager - Logistics for global supply chain management and operations.
Compliance Manager - Governance & Regulatory Compliance with risk management, and corporate governance.
USAID Roles Translated to Private-Sector Positions
This report from a senior manager at USAID provides a detailed analysis, including:
How core USAID Program Officer competencies translate to the private sector
Guidance on adapting government terminology to corporate language
Insight into how USAID experience maps to private-sector roles
The focus is exclusively on for-profit sector roles, highlighting clear, practical ways that USAID expertise aligns with corporate program and product management requirements.
Please read the report to understand how your role at USAID translates to corporate. For example:
Monitoring & Evaluation is Data-Driven Decision Making & KPI Tracking
USAID context
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is a structured process in USAID programs to measure performance and outcomes. Program Officers oversee the development of performance indicators, the collection of data on project outputs and impact, and the evaluation of results against targets.
They use M&E findings to report on progress (to Washington and Congress) and to inform program adjustments (learning and adapting). An officer might, for instance, analyze evaluation reports to decide if a project should be scaled or rescoped. In essence, they are practicing evidence-based management—ensuring decisions are supported by data and lessons learned.
Private-sector translation
Likewise, the private sector emphasizes metrics, data analysis, and continuous improvement. Whether in program or product management, being data-driven is a prized trait.
Program Managers track key performance indicators (KPIs) for each project (e.g., schedule adherence, budget variance, quality metrics) and for the program as a whole to ensure it delivers the intended benefits. They must monitor progress and step in to address issues, much as a USAID officer would use an M&E system to flag a project that’s underperforming.
Product Managers rely on data analytics, user feedback, and market research to evaluate product success and guide decisions.
Product management is highly data-driven. The best product managers are able to analyze different types of data to understand user behavior and product performance. This directly mirrors the M&E skill set, collecting and interpreting data to evaluate outcomes. USAID officers’ experience setting up monitoring systems and conducting evaluations translates into an ability to define meaningful metrics and glean insights from data.
For example, an officer who oversaw an impact evaluation of a health program can apply similar analytical rigor to assess a product’s usage data or a marketing campaign’s results. Moreover, their habit of writing performance reports based on M&E prepares them for corporate reporting duties, such as presenting program status to executives or compiling product performance dashboards.
In essence, USAID Program Officers bring a strong culture of accountability and learning. In a company, this means they’ll excel at measuring success (KPIs, OKRs) and using those metrics to drive decisions and improvements over time.
On Feb 28, this was a link included for our “From Here to Where"? session. Reposting “10 Ways to Rethink Your USAID Job Titles” as it is pretty fabulous with hat tips to @Wayan Vota. Great starting point for rethinking how we describe ourselves to the rest of the world!