Fixed term, 12 months: 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

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 Principal Advisor do?

This role is in the Home Affairs team. Key questions your work may answer include:

• How do we reduce serious violence?

• How do we increase representation in the Police?

• How can we increase social trust between communities?

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

• Building and creating trusted relationships with our partners (such as the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence, and Police forces).

• Organising your team, resourcing it effectively and creating an environment in which the team can do their best work.

• Line managing senior team members, and investing in the skills and personal development of all members of the team. 

• 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, and practitioners.

• Project managing large-scale field trials.

• Developing and delivering the Home Affairs team strategy and working with the Director to align it with BIT’s wider goals for social impact.

• Represent the business externally through talks, potential media appearances, and written content.

If you want to answer these questions, why not apply for this role?

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.

• Behavioural science. You can explain the implications of theoretical concepts such as defaults, loss aversion and social norms. You know how it can be applied to complex policy problems. 

• Public policy design. You can see both sides of an argument and you think about what makes some policies effective and others impractical.

• An in-depth knowledge of Home Affairs policy. You have knowledge of at least one area of Home Affairs policy (such as crime and policing, justice, security, or integration) and excitement to learn about the others.

• Clear and convincing communications. You can explain complex topics in simple terms. You can lead a workshop or presentation and write clearly and concisely (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Government Ministers or senior officials).

• 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.

• 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.

• Research. You have enough technical familiarity to ask specialist researchers good questions about the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials 

• Managing and developing yourself at work. You demonstrate high self-awareness and thoughtfulness about your working style. 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 really is a great place to work:

• 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.

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

• We have regular team lunches with guest speakers at the cutting edge of behavioural science and public policy. 

• 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 a great office in Westminster, which has an amazing coffee machine and fridges stocked full of soft drinks!

How to apply

We use a great platform called Applied to reduce bias in the recruitment process. 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 work-based task, 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.

Please note:

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.

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.