The Behavioural Insights Team is recruiting a Principal Research Advisor, who will support the Chief Scientist at the cutting edge of BIT’s diverse work programme, covering areas such as social capital, social mobility, and Data Science and BI Ventures.

The successful candidate will lead a team of ten working on some of BIT’s most challenging but exciting projects, including overseeing BIT’s social capital and social action work, our work with vulnerable young people, and either our data science or qualitative programmes of work.

The Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

BIT works with governments around the world in almost every area of policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn’t worked before; we come up with innovative ideas for solving policy problems and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff on the basis of our company values: always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking; collaboration; and public service.

As well as applying behavioural science to public policy, the team is also at the forefront of a revolution in evidence based policy. The team has conducted randomised controlled trials (the gold standard of evidence) across the policy spectrum, in fields ranging from health, to energy, to charitable giving and employment.

The research team, which heads up the design of these trials and their analysis, is responsible for ensuring the rigour of these trials is kept to the highest possible standard, while ensuring that the team continues to conduct impactful, pragmatic research. Few organisations offer the opportunity to work on as wide a variety of trials as the Behavioural Insights Team, and none with the same focus on trials coordinated and run alongside government.

The Principal Research Advisor will sit within the Research and Evaluation Team, and will oversee two teams within the research team including social capital, vulnerable young people and either (depending on the candidate) data science or qualitative research, as well as helping to support other emerging areas. This role will contribute to the development and management of BIT’s portfolio of start-ups. The post holder will also be given the flexibility to build their own research area.

The role, which will report to the Chief Scientist, will focus on helping to shape and execute our strategy in the following key areas:

Qualitative Research BIT’s qualitative research team was established in 2016 and focuses on bringing qualitative insight to BIT’s work, including in our evaluation portfolio, and in the Explore Phase of BIT’s TEST Methodology. The Qualitative Research team work across BIT’s programme of work, as well as running stand alone qualitative research projects.

Data Science BIT’s data science team was established in 2017 and produced its first report at the end of that year. The team’s mission is to apply new datasets and new statistical techniques to public sector problems. In this role, you will work with the head of data science to coordinate this work programme and to ensure it is driven forward while maintaining quality and policy relevance as the team expands.

Social Capital BIT’s social capital conducts a large number of projects relating to social action (Volunteering and charitable fundraising), and social capital/cohesion, narrowing the social distance between groups and helping young people from disadvantaged or non-traditional backgrounds to access opportunities, across life, education and work. This includes our collaborations with King’s College London, the National Citizen Service and the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

BI Ventures BI Ventures is the BIT’s in house tech start-up incubator, developing products and services that apply behavioural science to real world problems where consultancy or government policy isn’t the best solution for taking things to scale. The Research Team works closely with BI Ventures across their portfolio, including Predictiv, Promptable, Networky and Test + Build.

The Principal Research Advisor will help to coordinate this relationship, as well as leading and developing projects involving each of the ventures, and leading our thinking on new interventions that could develop into ventures.

• A good Masters degree in a relevant subject (such as economics, political science, or psychology);
• Good working of either qualitative or quantitative research methodology;
• Ability to manage a workload of several projects and to deliver to a high standard on deadline;
• An excellent understanding of the behavioural science literature;
• The ability to communicate complex topics to a large audience clearly and effectively;
• Excellent communication skills, including ability to communicate to non-technical and policy audiences; and
• Experience in a commercial environment, including managing project budgets and business/grant development.

• Substantial experience in working in universities and/or in central government policy; and
• An independent research or policy profile.

• If you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship in order to continue working here, you should think carefully before applying. This is because we will be unable to sponsor you unless there is no other suitably qualified settled worker available to fill the role or your current immigration status means that the resident labour market test will not apply in your case.
• To find out more about the organisation and the type of people who work in the team visit: www.bi.team
  • The Behavioural Insights Team is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and is determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.