Principal Advisor - Early Years, Schools and Skills

The Behavioural Insights Team

Location London
Salary £58,140 - £78,660 per annum, plus benefits
  • Closing: 12:00pm, 10th Sep 2018 BST

Job Description

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is looking for an exceptional candidate to join as a Principal Advisor leading our Early Years, Schools and Skills team. The successful applicant will be an excellent leader, as well as a strong team player, creating and sustaining relationships with partners across the UK and around the world. They will lead a high performing team and oversee a range of projects that aim to improve educational outcomes across the age spectrum. For example this includes work on the early years focused on school readiness and parent engagement, a variety of school based projects ranging from the use of education technology in the classroom to teacher recruitment, as well as post-school projects looking at technical education, further education, apprenticeships and widening participation in higher education.

The Behavioural Insights Team

The then Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn’t worked before; we come up with innovative ideas for solving policy problems and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff on the basis of our company values: always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

Role and Responsibilities

The successful candidate will lead BIT’s Early Years, Schools and Skills team. You will have deep expertise and credibility in at least one of those areas, and a foundation and willingness to quickly develop expertise in the other areas. BIT has an excellent track record in each of these policy areas, and is looking for a candidate who can build on that foundation. You will do this by winning and delivering cutting-edge projects, and thought leadership pieces to promote a sophisticated behavioural account of the challenges facing education in the UK and around the world, and the most impactful and feasible policy solutions.

You will report to a Director who is leading a broader portfolio and support the Director in setting the strategy, budget and development priorities for team as a whole. You will be responsible for developing relationships and securing work that aligns with that strategy and provides a solid financial base for the team. You will be able to demonstrate that you can deliver excellent quality work, generating impactful insights that will inspire our partners and communicating them in a compelling way to a range of audiences. When the Director or your peers are away, you will be capable of stepping in to support across a wider range of policy areas and projects.

You will be responsible for organising your team, resourcing it effectively and motivating the team to do their best work and build a positive and collaborative culture. A core part of the job will be line managing senior team members, and investing in the skills and personal development of all members of the team. You will also be expected to contribute to the senior management of BIT, supporting the overall company strategy and taking on at least one corporate priority, for example managing the staff survey.

You will be an excellent ambassador for BIT in all of your work and interactions. Ideally, you will have knowledge of relevant government departments (for example, Department for Education and Ofsted) and public sector bodies (for example, the Education Endowment Foundation) and understand how they work. You will have regular exposure to senior decision makers, for example with Ministers, Heads of Departments and CEOs, and practitioners and be expected to rapidly develop a reputation as a trusted advisor to them - providing both reactive advice on issues of the day, and developing fresh ideas to feed into longer-term policy reform.

Essential
  • An in depth knowledge of Early Years, Schools and Skills (including Further Education, Apprenticeships, Technical Education and Higher Education) policy;
  • An excellent understanding of the behavioural science literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex policy problems, specifically related to Early Years, Schools and Skills policy issues;
  • Substantial experience working on the development or the delivery of policy in government, academia, industry or for a consulting firm or design agency;
  • Excellent line management and leadership skills;
  • Excellent client and project management skills, including: budget management, resource management and conflict management and resolution;
  • Experience of winning new projects, responding to competitive tenders, preparing proposals to secure new work packages and negotiating contractual terms of business;
  • Excellent written and verbal communication (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Government Ministers or senior officials);
  • Strategic thinking and creative problem solving skills;
  • Ability to support the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials; and
  • Experience in public speaking, delivering lectures or workshops to large and influential audiences.
Desirable
  • PhD or Masters degree in a relevant area, like education policy or behavioural science, or relevant work experience.
Please note:
  • If you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship in order to continue working here, you should think carefully before applying. This is because we will be unable to sponsor you unless there is no other suitably qualified settled worker available to fill the role or your current immigration status means that the resident labour market test will not apply in your case.
  • To find out more about the organisation and the type of people who work in the team visit: http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk
  • The Behavioural Insights Team is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and is determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

Removing bias from the hiring process

Applications closed Mon 10th Sep 2018

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Removing bias from the hiring process

  • Your application will be anonymously reviewed by our hiring team to ensure fairness
  • You’ll need a CV/résumé, but it’ll only be considered if you score well on the anonymous review

Applications closed Mon 10th Sep 2018