Are you looking for a new challenge and want to join a successful and rapidly growing organisation? Do you have a passion for 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 Advisor/Senior Advisor at BIT do?

We are recruiting for an Advisor and Senior Advisor for our Consumer and Business Markets team, to work on a newly-formed Gambling Policy and Research Unit. This is a large, multi-year, programme of work and the first of its kind in the UK. It aims to transform the way that behavioural design in the gambling sector is understood, and drive a significant reduction in gambling-related harms through the widespread adoption of evidence-based tools and policy. 

 Key questions your work may answer are:

• How can behavioural insights be used to design interventions and support to reduce gambling harms? 

• What data sets can be used to identify early signs of gambling harm?

• How effective are current safer gambling tools and policies? 

• Can gambling harms be measured in a meaningful way?

• What should gambling operators, banks, advertisers, charities, regulators and policymakers do to reduce problem gambling? What obstacles stand in the way, and how could they be overcome?

We are recruiting for a Senior Advisor and an Advisor to do the following:

Senior Advisor

• Taking a leading role in developing the strategy and delivery of our Gambling Policy and Research Unit and working with the team’s Principal Advisor to ensure that the Unit’s deliverables are met and future funding is secured.

• Managing a team of 3-6 with varied policy and research experience and responsibilities.

• Managing and delivering projects related to tackling gambling harms, supporting the execution of the overall strategy, as well as overseeing the work of others. This research is likely to include a mix of data science, in-depth qualitative research and randomised controlled trials. You will work with technical experts in BIT to implement these projects. 

• Overseeing and coordinating the Unit’s steering group, ensuring that they can provide excellent governance and consistent quality. 

• Taking responsibility for scoping and developing new areas to deliver social impact on gambling issues, particularly around the reduction of gambling harms. Seeking out and securing partners for collaboration. 

• Working with colleagues across the organisation to build a positive and collaborative culture and ensuring that quality is maintained across the business.

Advisor

• Focusing mainly on managing and delivering projects related to tackling gambling harms, supporting the execution of the overall strategy. This research is likely to include a mix of data science, in-depth qualitative research and randomised controlled trials. You will work with technical experts in BIT to implement these projects. 

• Supporting the Unit’s steering group, ensuring that they can provide excellent governance and consistent quality. 

• Taking responsibility for scoping and developing new areas to deliver social impact on gambling issues, particularly around the reduction of gambling harms. Seeking out and securing partners for collaboration. 

• Working with colleagues across the organisation to build a positive and collaborative culture and ensuring that quality is maintained across the business.

What makes a great Advisor/Senior Advisor at BIT?

We are looking for people who understand what we do, share our values and are keen to learn and develop their expertise. We are looking for candidates with the skills listed below, and expect to provide training and development support in some of the areas.

• Managing and delivering projects and programmes. You are able to develop a strategy and identify gaps and weaknesses. You are able to use information to fit together a jigsaw of resources, skills and deadlines to meet targets and provide exceptional results as well as value for money. If applying for a Senior Advisor role, you have experience of delivering complex projects and programmes.

• Designing and communicating policy (gambling or adjacent area, ideally). You have an understanding of how policy and government work, ideally specific to the gambling sector or an adjacent area (e.g. personal finance, gaming, addictions, mental health). This could include key stakeholders and the regulatory framework in Great Britain. 

• Managing stakeholders and clients. You can build solid and effective relationships with partners, stakeholders, funders and even opponents to navigate tricky situations and achieve difficult outcomes.

• Supporting and developing others. If applying for a Senior Advisor role, 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. You understand that complex projects can only be delivered by effective teams, and you know how to build and maintain such teams at the highest levels.

• Behavioural science. You can explain the implications of theoretical concepts such as defaults, loss aversion and social norms. You can explain the gambler’s fallacy and how it can be addressed using behavioural science.

• A solid understanding of ‘causality’ and statistical reasoning. You know that just because sales of sunglasses and ice creams increase at the same time, one does not cause the other. You can also describe how to run a test to prove this.

• Clear and convincing communications. You can explain complex topics in simple terms to difficult audiences. You can lead a workshop or presentation and write clearly and concisely. You know how to check messages have been understood as well as received.

• Managing and developing yourself at work. You demonstrate high self-awareness and regularly self-reflect. You are aware of the impact that your actions and words have on those around you. You are resilient and accept responsibility for decisions whether they achieve the desired outcome or not.

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 is a great place to work:

• You will work alongside a friendly, talented and driven team with diverse expertise - from economics to anthropology, psychology and neuroscience - and a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds. What unites us is the goal to have a positive social impact through our work.

• We have regular team lunches with a diverse range of expert guest speakers. 

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

• 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 even kept most of our activities going virtually!

• 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 have a great office in Westminster (which we aren’t using too much at the moment), but it has an amazing coffee machine and fridges stocked full of soft drinks!

• You have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects with real impact and we’ll provide the support for you to be able to thrive at BIT.

How to apply

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 couple of work-based tasks, 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.

Key dates:

Role closes: Monday 27th September 2021 at 12.00pm (midday)

First round interviews and tasks: Week commencing 11th October 2021*

Second round interviews: Week commencing 18th October 2021*

* Dates are subject to change but we’ll try not to change them!

Please note:

• This is a permanent role and available on a full-time (39 hours) or part-time basis

• Flexible working options include flexible start and finish times, home working and compressed hours

• Based in Central London (Westminster). Due to Coronavirus, we have mostly been working from our homes in the UK but our London office is now in the process of re-opening. We expect to be using a hybrid model of working from October with an element of regular working in the office.

• 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.