About the role

We are looking for an Economist to join the PBE team.  This is an exciting opportunity to apply your knowledge and expertise to help organisations tackling some of the toughest challenges in the UK.

Post type: Permanent, full-time.  The role will be hybrid - PBE has an office in London with no minimum office attendance required except to attend our in-person team meeting once every six weeks.

Reports to: Head of Analysis

Benefits of working at PBE include:

• 28 day annual leave per year (excluding bank holidays)

• 7% employer pension contributions

• Group life assurance scheme and sickness cover

• Employee assistance programme

• Enhanced parental leave policy

• Generous personal development budget

• A flexible work environment committed to employee wellbeing

Main duties and tasks:

• Deliver insightful economic analysis to support charities and develop PBE’s evidence base about the social sector.

• Provide advice and support to charities to help them gather the right data to support economic evaluation of their impact in the future.

• Design and deliver ground-breaking and impactful studies that help to shine a light on the causes and consequences of low wellbeing, generating new evidence to inform and influence government policy.

• Provide guidance, review, challenge and quality assurance for economic and research projects.

• Support our Communications functions to present our analyses in an accessible, impactful way that is suitable for the audience.

• Support funding bid drafting to help shape and fund future economic research projects regarding the social sector and our key analytical themes.

About us

PBE (formerly Pro Bono Economics) prides itself on its flexible working environment, culture of learning, focus on employee wellbeing and the strength of our employee relationships. PBE offers a strong benefits package, opportunities for development and a team working at the top of their game.

PBE’s mission is to end low personal wellbeing in the UK. We do this by helping charities and social enterprises understand their economic and social impact, so they can improve their overall effectiveness. We enable professional economists from the private and public sectors as well as academia to volunteer their skills to tackle some of the most pressing issues in society. We have worked with over 600 charities since our inception in 2009.

Alongside our connection with the social sector, our key research areas of interest include children and young people’s mental health, loneliness, households in financial distress, and arts and culture.

About you

We are looking for exceptional candidates with strong experience working as a professional economist or with a PhD in economics.  This role would suit a candidate with a passion for using evidence to drive better decisions and how this can contribute to improvements across wider society. You should have practical experience of using economic techniques such as econometrics and Cost Benefit Analysis to analyse real world situations, and of communicating conclusions effectively to a wide range of audiences.

Ideal characteristics include:

• Undergraduate degree with at least 50% economics content, or postgraduate qualification in economics

• Experience of delivering economic projects, with a strong track record of achievement

• Thorough understanding of the principles and methods of economic appraisal and evaluation, with hands on experience in their practical application

• Excellent communications skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to convey economic analysis effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences

• Strong stakeholder management skills and problem-solving skills

• An eye for detail and a strong dedication to quality

• Proven ability to work independently and manage priorities, deadlines and projects that may involve multiple contributors

• Ability to work collaboratively in small teams

• A commitment to PBE’s focus on using economics to drive wellbeing improvements in the UK

• Some experience analysing large datasets such as the Labour Force Survey, Wealth and Assets Survey or Understanding Society

• Interest in one or more of our key research areas (experience working on these topics is not essential)

Timelines

Closing date for application: Monday 19 October @ 10.05AM 

There will be one round of interviews, which will be held online from 29 October. The Interview questions will be shared with candidates in advance.

PBE is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We encourage applications from all parts of the community, and we give all applicants and employees fair and equal treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality. We also guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who show evidence that they can meet the role’s ideal criteria.

For details of our applicant’s privacy policy, please see https://www.probonoeconomics.com/policies.

 At PBE, we acknowledge the value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and search engines in supporting work-related tasks. However, we advise against relying solely on AI-generated answers when responding to the sift as well as interview questions for this role.

Our goal is to assess your personal understanding and your capability to perform the role. Therefore, we expect your answers to be thoughtful, personalised, and appropriately referenced.

Please note that we utilise commonly available AI tools, detectors, and platform features offered by Applied to identify AI-generated responses and ensure authenticity during the shortlisting process.

Flexibility Policy:

We value the ability to work flexibly and to support employee needs. We have an office in Elephant and Castle, London that is available to staff every day, but we also work to a 0% requirement to be in the office. We do ask that staff travel to the office once every six weeks for our collaboration days, and for meetings and events as required. Travel costs to London are not covered by our expenses policy, as our pay policy is based around paying staff a salary based on London weighting that is not dependent on where people live.

Please note that we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role, so applicants must have full right to work in the UK.