The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is looking for an experienced researcher to lead research and evaluation projects in education. The majority of your time will be spent managing studies in formal education (from early years to higher education), with the potential for some work in informal settings as well. You will also have the opportunity to lead or work on interventions that apply the behavioural sciences to improve education for children, teachers and parents.

About BIT

BIT is a social purpose company. It exists to improve people’s lives and communities. It works in partnership with national, regional and local governments, businesses, foundations and charities, to tackle major policy problems, often through testing and implementing simple yet powerful changes. 

It has about 250 staff based in 8 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific, and has run more than 1000 projects to date, including over 700 randomised controlled trials in dozens of countries. In addition to its own interventions, it openly shares expertise and helps others build capacity and skills to apply behavioural science for social good.

What does a Senior Research Advisor in Education at BIT do?

You will lead the design and management of education research. You will also contribute to business development by leading proposals and maintaining strong relationships across the sector. Your main clients are likely to be the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the Department for Education and EdTech providers (including Big Tech companies). This will involve managing and working with teams of researchers and policy experts.

Our current portfolio of research includes large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of complex programmes in schools, nimble RCTs testing refinements to teacher training, scoping research to better understand current practice in fields such as attendance support in colleges, and formative evaluations that support intervention development and scaling (mixed-methods pilots and scale-up evaluations).

On the delivery side, we are currently running and testing our own interventions that aim to reduce mobile phone use through youth collective action, to address bullying by leveraging peer to peer networks, and to increase engagement in tutoring by increasing students’ sense of belonging.

Key questions your work may answer are:

• What is the impact of a targeted reading programme on pupil literacy?

• How can we evaluate the promise, feasibility and readiness for scale of a programme that aims to prevent children from dropping out of school?

• How can AI be used safely and effectively to support children to learn?

This role is at Senior Advisor level which means you will be involved in the following activities.

• Leading a portfolio of work covering a range of research designs including: causal impact evaluations (RCTs and quasi-experimental designs (QEDs)), feasibility studies, pilot evaluations, implementation and process evaluations, and evaluation-based capacity building;

• Quality-assuring the work of junior researchers, including trial protocols, statistical analyses and reports;

• Providing sound quantitative and qualitative research advice at project initiation and helping to troubleshoot complex methodological problems, including drawing on the expertise of other senior staff as needed;

• Collaborating with other senior researchers across BIT to improve research standards and support research functions across the organisation;

• Developing new ideas for projects, and writing proposals for new work;

• Line-managing junior researchers, supporting them in their development at BIT and their wellbeing.

What makes a great Senior Research Advisor in Education at BIT?

We’re looking for people who understand what we do, share our values and are keen to learn and develop their expertise. You should have most of the skills listed below, but we expect to provide training and development support in some areas.

• Commitment to our methods and values. You are passionate about improving the lives of children and the role that high-quality evidence can play in that.

• Experience and a strong theoretical and practical knowledge of running evaluations. It is essential that you have a strong technical understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods and their applications, as well as the pragmatism required to generate high quality evidence at speed in policy settings. In particular, expertise in RCTs and mixed-method formative evaluations is essential. You should have substantial previous research experience and academic training at postgraduate level in at least quantitative research methods.

• Able to advise clients and coworkers on evaluation topics. This includes being able to communicate complex concepts in accessible ways to audiences who may not have any experience of rigorous evaluation.

• Experience successfully managing research projects with multiple work streams. You should be able to develop and monitor a project plan, delegate tasks appropriately, manage a budget, and monitor for risks and develop mitigation strategies.

• Ability to collaborate with others, including clients, and especially those who may have different immediate interests and complementary skills to you.

• 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.

• Strong understanding of what makes an effective intervention for children and young people, particularly in formal education. You may have a specialism in a subject (e.g. maths) or a key administrative topic (e.g. teacher workload). Your expertise could be, but does not have to be, related to the behavioural sciences in education.

• Clear and convincing communications. You can explain complex topics in simple terms. You have excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to flex your approach to a range of audiences.

BIT really is a great place to work

• Bonus scheme

• Generous pension scheme with 7% employer contribution

• A flexible benefit pot of £1,100 to spend on our benefits programme which currently includes things like the ability to buy extra annual leave at the start of the year, gym membership, cycle to work scheme etc or just take as cash

• 25 days of annual leave (in addition to public holidays) for full-time employees, rising to 27 days after 2 years continuous service

• We offer enhanced parental leave payments

• 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 regular team lunches with inspirational guest speakers. 

• 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, which has a fabulous roof terrace overlooking the Thames river, an amazing coffee machine and fridges stocked full of soft drinks!

Application process

• Submit your application before 22nd March 2026 at 11:59pm (GMT).  

• The hiring team will then review applications.

• Interviews and tasks will be arranged from 1st April 2026. 

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.