The Behavioural Insights Team

BIT is a global leader in the application of behavioural science to inform public policy and tackle societal challenges. In 2010, the then Prime Minister created BIT to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

BIT works with governments around the world in almost every policy area. The subject and output of our projects varies considerably, but 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; and we measure the impact of everything we do as robustly as we can. 

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

Roles and Responsibilities 

BIT is looking for an exceptional candidate to join as a Senior Advisor focusing on International Development.

In this role you will be expected to lead projects in low and middle-income countries and to manage relationships with government officials and partners. The successful applicant will have a good knowledge of behavioural science and/or development economics, and an understanding of mixed research methods.

Some examples of projects you could be involved in are: 

• Designing and evaluating interventions to prevent sexual harassment on buses in Bangladesh;

• Building the capacity of government officials in the Ministry of Education of Guatemala to conduct qualitative work in schools and run RCTs; and

• Exploring the barriers to tax compliance in Tanzania and working with academics and government officials to design appropriate behavioural interventions.

Key skills

Essential 

All candidates must also be able to demonstrate:

• An understanding of the behavioural science or development economics literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex real life policy problems;

• Strong project management  experience including working remotely;

• An understanding of quantitative and mixed research and evaluation methods;

• A keen sense of personal impact, particularly a sensitivity to local customs and a courteous, diplomatic yet (when needed) assertive manner when dealing with partners;

• A clear focus on collaborative working, including with partners from outside of your organisation; and

• Strong written and verbal communication (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Ministers or senior officials); 

Desirable  

Finally, it would be desirable if you have:  

• Experience working on the development or delivery of policy or services in government, academia, industry, or for a consulting firm;

• Experience presenting to large audiences and facilitating behavioural insights workshops with policy professionals;

• Experience running quantitative impact evaluations, preferably randomised control trials;

• Experience in responding to competitive tenders and securing new work packages;

• A Masters or PhD in a relevant subject area (including, but not limited to behavioural economics, psychology, design thinking, evaluation methods);

• Foreign language skills (Spanish, French, Arabic are of particular interest).

If there are a high number of applications we may use a sift question this will be - How would you apply behavioural science to reducing corruption in a developing country? (choose a country)