Are you looking for a new challenge and want to join a successful and rapidly growing organisation? Do you have a passion for evaluations and exploring new ways to change people's lives at a national scale through government policy? If so, we want to hear from you.

What does a Senior Research Advisor do?

Every BIT project involves research and evaluation to some degree. As specialists in the application of behavioural science, we use a mixture of research methods to diagnose the drivers of poor outcomes in public sector settings, devise evidence-informed solutions, and test those solutions as robustly as possible to find out what works. Senior staff across our organisation are well versed in our core methods, especially randomised controlled trials and non-experimental methods such as differences-in-differences, matching estimators, and using panel data. You will shape and deliver plans and programmes of work to deliver social impact; provide technical advice on thorny projects; ensure work is of high quality and cutting edge; secure financial sustainability via business development and support staff wellbeing, engagement and development. 

This role will sit in our Heath, Wellbeing and Social Care Team.  Key questions your work may answer are:

• How can we understand the impact of interventions designed to maximise uptake of Covid-19 vaccine in England?

• How do we evaluate the impact of interventions to change supermarket purchasing behaviour?

• What interventions are effective at reducing burnout in healthcare professionals?

This role is at Senior Advisor level which means you will be involved in things like:

• Leading a portfolio of work composed primarily of causal quantitative evaluations (RCTs and non-experimental causal evaluations). The work will be focused in the health, wellbeing and social care sectors.

• Quality-assuring the work of junior researchers, including trial protocols, statistical analyses and reports, and undertaking more complex quantitative analysis;

• Providing sound quantitative research advice at project initiation and helping to troubleshoot complex methodological problems, including drawing on the expertise of other senior staff as needed; 

• Collaborating with other senior researchers across BIT to improve research standards and support research functions across the organisation;

• Developing new ideas for projects, and writing proposals for new work;

• Line-managing junior researchers supporting them in their development within BIT and their wellbeing.

What makes a great Senior Research Advisor at BIT?

We are looking for candidates with the skills listed below. We expect to provide training and development support in some of these areas.

• Experience and a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of running evaluations. It is essential that you have a strong technical understanding of quantitative research methods and their applications as well as the pragmatism required to generate high quality evidence at speed in policy settings. In particular, expertise in randomised controlled trials and non-experimental methods is essential. You should have previous research experience and a background in an econometric/economics related subject. 

• Be able to advise clients and coworkers on evaluation topics. This includes being able to communicate complex concepts in accessible ways to audiences who may not have any experience of rigorous evaluation.

• Experience successfully managing research projects with multiple work streams. You should be able to develop and monitor a project plan, delegate tasks appropriately, manage a budget, and monitor for risks and develop mitigation strategies. 

• Ability to collaborate with others, including clients, and especially those who may have different immediate interests and complementary skills to you.

• Ability to code in R, Stata or both. You should have enough programming experience to be able to quality-assure the code of your fellow researchers and help them when they encounter difficulties.

• Supporting and developing others. You can nurture talent and energise people to perform at their best. You care about the success, development and wellbeing of others and can have meaningful (and sometimes difficult!) conversations.

Who are we and what can we offer you?

The Behavioural Insights Team is the world leader in applying behavioural science to public policy challenges in order to strengthen communities and improve lives. 

We design and rigorously test new ideas across a range of areas such as health, crime and education, to establish what works and what doesn’t. We have helped Tuberculosis patients take their medicine; reduced police susceptibility to cyberattacks; and helped organisations close their gender pay gap.

We are looking for a passionate and imaginative individual who understands behavioural science and shares our thirst for evidence-based solutions to join our dynamic and growing team.

BIT really is a great place to work:

• We encourage flexible working and have a culture that enables this; for example flexible start and finish times and an IT set up which allows for easy working from home options

• We have regular team lunches with inspirational guest speakers. 

• We have a flexible benefits programme which currently includes things like gym memberships, cycle to work schemes and the ability to buy extra annual leave at the start of the year.

• We’re a social bunch and have a variety of interest groups including Film Club, BIT Kids for our parents & 5-a-side team to name a few.

• We have a great office in Westminster, which has an amazing coffee machine and fridges stocked full of soft drinks!

How to apply

We use a great platform called Applied to reduce bias in the recruitment process. You will need to answer a few work-based questions which will be anonymously marked by members of our team. Our selection is based on performance in these questions, rather than looking at your CV. Candidates with the top scoring answers will be invited to a structured interview where you get to meet some of the team. At the interview stage you will be asked questions that reflect the role and also to complete a work-based task, so you have the chance to demonstrate your skills. It’s at this stage we first see your CV. We always give all applicants feedback, no matter what stage your application reaches.

Start your BIT journey here and apply now!

Key dates

• Role closes: Monday 24 January 2022, 12:00pm (midday UK time)

• First round interviews: week commencing 31 January 2022

  Please note all dates are subject to change but we'll try our best not to change them.

Please note:

You will need to have the right to work in the UK in order to be able to undertake this role. We will ask all applicants short-listed for an interview to provide evidence of their right to work during the recruitment process.  If you do not have the right to work for BIT but are the most suitable person for the role we will explore with you whether sponsorship may be an option. However, this may not be possible for all roles.

Some of the personal data you provide to Applied when you apply for a role with The Behavioural Insights Team will be passed on to The Behavioural Insights Team for the purposes of (a) reviewing your application; (b) inviting you for interview; and/or (c) offering you a job and getting you set up as an employee/contractor. For full details on how BIT collects and uses your personal data please visit our website - https://www.bi.team/bit-global-recruitment-privacy-notice/ 

If your application is not successful, any personal data provided to us by Applied (including any personal data relating to equal opportunities monitoring as set out above) will be retained by The Behavioural Insights Team for no longer than 6 months after the application deadline has passed (other than in exceptional circumstances where we may need to retain your personal data for longer), at which point your personal data will be securely deleted. We only keep your information for that period in order to allow us to comply with relevant legal obligations.