Head of Research and Policy

The Head of Research and Policy plays a vital role at Money and Mental Health, setting our research agenda, maintaining our reputation for quality, ensuring lived experience remains at the heart of the organisation’s outputs and developing thoughtful policy recommendations that create impact. They are also one of the main public faces of our work. We are looking for a creative, insightful and passionate person with a strong track record to continue that work.

The successful candidate will have the intellectual curiosity and dynamism to lead a team carrying out research across the full range of our interests, working day to day alongside two experienced Research and Policy Managers. They will work with the rest of the Senior Leadership Team to shape the future of the organisation, as well as building a strong network of effective relationships that can help us to drive real change.

Role description

Strategy and leadership

• Form a key part of the Senior Leadership Team, helping to shape the future direction of the charity and representing the Research and Policy team’s work and needs to colleagues across the organisation

• Develop and oversee the organisation’s annual research programme and evaluate progress against the organisation’s strategy

• Support the Fundraising team to develop successful funding proposals for our research and help maintain good relationships with funders

• Manage the team’s budget, demonstrating sound judgement and risk management

• Write papers for the Board on the team’s work, plans and performance

Research and policy

• Lead the organisation’s policy direction, maintaining a consistent voice

• Co-author research reports

• Set and uphold the standard of quality for our research and policy outputs

• Strengthen the team’s research methods, upskilling colleagues and introducing new approaches

• Champion and strengthen the charity’s Research Community, ensuring the voice of lived experience is at the heart of our work.

Public voice and relationships

• Act as a main public face of the charity’s research and policy work across the full range of our topics, at events and in the media

• Take on and grow our Substack, making it a regular home for our research, ideas and commentary, and building its readership

• Build and maintain an effective network of relationships, including within essential services, government, mental health, regulators and the wider charitable sector

Team leadership

• Line manage two Research and Policy Managers and recruit, retain and develop a high-performing team

• Work as part of the Senior Leadership Team to foster a positive culture which motivates all staff, where their wellbeing is cared for, their voice is valued and they are enabled to deliver work to a high standard.

What we’re looking for

• A strong commitment to tackling the link between mental health and money problems

• The ability to get up to speed quickly on unfamiliar policy areas 

• A strong track record of producing influential, high-quality research and policy work

• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to think creatively and develop innovative policy and practice solutions, with political nous and an understanding of policy-making processes

• Exceptional research skills, including a strong understanding of quantitative and qualitative methods, the ability to scrutinise and challenge analysis carried out by others, and the ability to bring new approaches to a team

• Hands-on experience of statistical software/languages such as Stata, R or Python

• A clear sense of what high-quality research looks like, and the ability to hold a team to that standard constructively

• Exceptional written communication skills, including constructing compelling narratives, editing the writing of others and enthusiasm for writing for wider audiences

• Excellent presentation skills and the confidence to represent an organisation to senior audiences and the media

• Substantial experience of line managing and developing staff

• The confidence to work collaboratively as part of a senior team and to delegate effectively

• Sound budget and risk management, and the ability to support successful funding proposals

• The ability to develop and maintain strong networks with senior stakeholders

• A commitment to involving people with lived experience in research and policy

Terms

• Interviews in week commencing 14 December to be held in person at our east London office, with reasonable travel expenses covered by Money and Mental Health

• Reporting to: Chief Executive

• Staff supervised: Two Research and Policy Managers

• Location: At least two days per week in the office. The role will also require some travel for meetings and events.

• Hours: Both full-time and part-time applicants considered, at a minimum of four days per week. Job shares, consolidated hours and other flexible working arrangements will be considered. Please indicate your preferred working hours on application.

• Contract type: Permanent

• Holidays: 28 days per year (including 3 days between Christmas and New Year when the office is closed), plus bank holidays

• Pension: Opportunity to be enrolled in the workplace pension scheme (subject to meeting standard auto-enrolment qualifying criteria). After enrolment, the charity contributes the equivalent of 5.5% of monthly gross salary, subject to an employee contribution of at least 2.5%.

• Other benefits:

  • Every team member has a personal training budget, with many internal training opportunities.

  • Cycle to Work and season ticket loan schemes.

  • Enhanced maternity/paternity/shared parental and adoption pay terms

  • Rental deposit loan scheme.

  • Employee Assistance Programme

  • Half a day a year during work time to conduct a personal ‘money makeover’

  • Enhanced pay for carers leave

  • Benenden healthcare package

  • Free flu jabs

  • A flexible working culture: core working hours are 10am–3pm, with flexibility outside these times (agreed with management) for employees to distribute working hours across the week.