Are you an expert in what works to improve equality in our workplaces and wider lives? Do you take a keen interest in what drives better outcomes in relation to diversity, representation and inclusion? Do you have a passion for exploring new ways to improve people's lives at a global scale through government policy? Do you want to grow a new team with important contributions to make to anti-racism and an inclusive economic recovery as the COVID-19 crisis ends? If so, read on.

What does a Principal Advisor do?

This role is leading our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team, which sits within a wider economic policy team. Key questions your work may answer are:

• What can employers do to measurably improve diversity,  inclusion and belonging  in the way they recruit, retain and promote staff? 

• How can we enable everyone to thrive at work, inclusive of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, age or socio-economic background?  

• What opportunities are there to reshape labour markets and financial services markets to make them more equitable, accessible and inclusive?

• How can public services be redesigned to ensure fair and equitable access?

• What works to reduce harassment and discrimination? What can behavioural science tell us about promising avenues for prevention?

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

• Developing and delivering the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team strategy, building on the successful delivery of a multi-year programme on gender equality which ends in March 2021. You will work with the Director to ensure alignment with the larger business goals and to support integrated delivery between policy areas. 

• Line managing senior team members. Investing in the skills and personal development of the team to help them transition from a work programme focused on gender equality to a broad portfolio covering equalities more generally. 

• Winning and delivering complex projects, and thought leadership pieces to promote a sophisticated behavioural and empirical-based account of how to improve diversity and inclusion, with a specific focus on workplaces.

• Developing relationships and securing work that aligns with the strategy and provides a solid financial base for the team. 

• Organising, supporting and motivating the team to thrive at work, building a positive and collaborative culture. 

• Contributing to the senior management of BIT, supporting the overall company strategy.

• Being an ambassador for BIT in all of your work and interactions, including via regular interactions with senior decision makers, for example with Ministers, Heads of Departments and CEOs, global thought-leaders and practitioners.

What makes a great Principal 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. We expect to provide training and development support in some of the areas.

• Expertise in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: You have in depth knowledge of what drives inequalities and what works to improve diversity and inclusion. We would welcome applications from candidates with specific expertise in ethnicity, age, disability or socio-economic background, combined with the ability to build further expertise across equalities as a whole.  Your knowledge is grounded in an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the empirical evidence. 

• Behavioural science. You can explain the implications of theoretical concepts such as defaults, loss aversion and social norms. You can explain how these concepts apply to diversity & inclusion. 

• Collaborating with partners to design interventions. You can work with partners (such as employers or tech platforms) to design interventions that are grounded in behavioural science and are practical to implement. You can work with evaluation experts to design robust evaluations to test whether interventions work in practice. 

• Clear and convincing communications. You can explain complex topics in simple terms. You can deliver presentations or workshops to large and influential audiences.  

• Managing projects and clients. You can manage your own time, and where appropriate that of your colleagues, to produce high quality work within a reasonable time frame.

• 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. You are a receptive listener.

• Scoping projects and winning work. You are able to lead business development by spotting opportunities with new and existing partners and then develop the relationships required to form positive ongoing partnerships.

• Managing and developing yourself at work. You demonstrate high self-awareness and regularly self-reflect with humility. 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 can work with partners to apply behavioural science in the real world and shares our thirst for evidence-based solutions to join our dynamic and growing team.

BIT really is a great place to work:

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

• Employees have part ownership of the company through membership of the Employee Benefits Trust.

• We have regular team lunches with a diverse range of 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 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 even kept most of our activities going virtually!

• 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

1- You will need to answer a few work-based questions which will be anonymously marked by members of our team. Progression to the next stage is based on your performance in these questions, rather than looking at your CV. 

2 - Candidates with the top scoring answers will be asked to complete a work-based task remotely and 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 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 22 February at noon (12pm GMT)

• Task to be completed remotely: Thursday 25 February to Tuesday 2 March

• Interviews: Thursday 4 to Monday 8 March. We anticipate that only one round of interviews will be needed but if we do need another round, these will take place on 10 or 11 March.

All dates are subject to change (but we'll try 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.