JOB DESCRIPTION - Research & Evaluation Consultant

About us

Collaborate CIC is an innovative social consultancy building the thinking, culture and practice of collaboration to help us meet the challenges of today, together.  We work towards a vision of a collaborative society - one that is equitable, caring and sustainable.

To achieve this vision, we act as transformation partners to public and voluntary sector organisations. We do this by helping to put people at the centre of their work, create shared vision, develop collaborative and system leadership skills, engage with civil society, local people and service users, and understand the importance of learning.

To date, we have helped organisations including the Ministry of Justice, Save the Children UK and a wide range of NHS, local government and civil society organisations to do this work.

Ultimately, we believe that people and organisations can create a better future together than they can alone, and we bring this conviction, blending it with cutting-edge thinking, to all our work.

About the role

This is a new role within Collaborate, aimed at bringing specific experience around research methods into Collaborate’s team. You will be working across a number of projects, providing advice and support on appropriate research designs and methods, as well as conducting field work on a number of different issues. Our expectation is to appoint someone for a one-year contract initially, but if you are only open to permanent roles please do have a conversation with us and we would be open to your application and to considering a permanent appointment.

We are open to the different routes through which applicants may have gained their experience, though we would expect the successful candidate to have some experience that was gained outside of an academic setting. We are looking for someone with strong qualitative research skills, though basic quantitative skills are desirable.

We expect this role to work directly on projects as part of an internal team, as well as act as an internal resource to support other project teams with discrete pieces of research or evaluation. You will be supported by one of our Heads of Practice to deliver the work, working alongside others in the project team to deliver high quality projects.

Examples of your activities below (although not limited to):

Design Research and Evaluation Activity

·       Designing an evidence-gathering approach for a bid, developing an evaluation plan as part of a successful brief or developing an analysis framework.

·       Deciding on the right methods for the work, considering the resources available and the aims of the project.

Developing Materials

·       Being responsible for the development of research and evaluation materials such as topic guides, engagement plans and other collateral.  

·       Maintaining Collaborate’s library of supporting resources such as consent forms and accessibility guides.

Conducting Primary Research

·       Conducting primary research with a variety of different people and different methods.

·       Conducting focus groups with community members in local areas in which we are working, interviewing staff within a client organisation or delivering surveys to wider stakeholders.

·       Suggesting and developing engaging creative research methods.

Conducting qualitative analysis

·       Conducting qualitative analysis of the information that is gathered through primary research.

·       Highlighting key insights from a number of interviews, summarising a survey or synthesising findings from a number of different sources.

Communicating Findings

·       Conveying insights in an engaging way to a number of different audiences.

·      Highlighting findings to an internal project team or sharing information with a client.

·       Preparing reports, presentations, video recording or other methods of presenting findings compellingly.

·       Conveying complex information to non-expert audiences who are unlikely to read or engage with long reports.

Your skills

We don't expect that you will already have experience of doing all of the tasks above. We believe in appointing based on potential rather than simply on past performance. You should have some demonstrable experience in the skills below, which could come from a combination of work, voluntary and/or personal experiences.

You could be the right person for this job if you have experience of:

·      Carrying out qualitative research in a work context

·      Working in a social change context, through a charity, local authority, consultancy or other similar area

·      Conducting or analysing some quantitative research

You could be the right person for this job if you are:

·      Highly organised, good at prioritising multiple (and sometimes complex) tasks and managing your time to complete them

·      An excellent communicator (verbally and in writing), judging tone appropriate to the circumstance and being confident in dealing with people at all levels.

·      Keen to solve problems, proactive in identifying them and in making recommendations to deliver improvements.

·      Happy working in a strong team culture, building different relationships and being responsive to the dynamics of different teams.

·      Passionate about improving outcomes and experiences of the public and curious about how to achieve that goal. You are likely to have interests in issues that affect society and perhaps already have some experience (be it personal/professional/voluntary) in trying to achieve social change.

What you need to know:

·      Salary range: £27-35,000.

·      Location: you could be based anywhere in the UK, as long as you’re comfortable with travelling to London as required, e.g. once a month (expense costs covered by you).

·      Working hours: part-time or full-time, open to exploring flexible working requests that match organisational needs with personal needs/preferences.

·      Additional holiday over Christmas, on top of 25 days' holiday and bank holidays.

You'll benefit from:

·      Pension contribution.

·      Flexible working to balance personal needs with organisational ones.

·      Options for season ticket loans, bike-to-work scheme, eye tests, enhanced parental leave pay and we're open to exploring more...

·      Being part of an inclusive, team-led, learning environment!

Next steps

Please watch our online Information and Question and Answer session, where you can hear more about the role and the organisation.

To start applying, just click in the top right.

You’ll answer questions that are related to your interest in this role and your experiences and skills that would help you to do it. After the job closes on 22nd May, your answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers to ensure that every application is treated fairly and without bias.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to an interview, 14-15th June, to meet 2 members of the team to discuss your experience and skills and to complete a short task. The next stage will be a second interview 19-20th June with the opportunity to meet 2 more members of our team and to talk about you and the role with us further. We are keen to make an offer by mid-end of June!

Also, we love giving and receiving feedback, so at the end of the application process you'll receive insights into how well you performed and please give us feedback anonymously on this platform about how you experienced the process or reach out to us directly to share your thoughts.

We are an equal opportunities employer

Collaborate supports flexible working and there will also be the potential for growth within this role and within this growing organisation as a whole. 

We seek to be a genuinely collaborative organisation, sharing ideas and decisions across the team through weekly team meetings and regular learning sessions at Team Half Days.  We collectively consider our broader strategy, examine and share learning across our projects, and explore how we might develop our work and our existing offering to clients.  

As a Living Wage employer, we believe in paying our team fairly and are committed to promoting equitable opportunities for all staff and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We aim to create an inclusive working environment in which all individuals are able to make the best use of their skills and are enabled to thrive.

We actively welcome applicants from those with identities and experiences who are underrepresented in our organisation, recognising that diversity of perspective supports innovation and develops fairness and equity in our society. We are happy to discuss individual working requirements.