Permanent: 39 hours per week Salary range: £33,915 - £45,885 per annum, plus benefits Based in Central London Immediate start

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is looking for an exceptional candidate to support the CEO to co-ordinate and deliver BIT’s objectives both internally and externally. The successful applicant will work across the full-range of BIT’s policy areas, helping to bring together the latest ideas and findings from across the team and drive forward BIT’s strategic priorities. The work will be very varied and you are likely to be working on a number of quick-response pieces of work as well as overseeing more long-term goals of the team. As well as working with the CEO you will also be supporting the Director of Strategy to deliver BIT’s strategic priorities, and may also spend periods working closely with specific project teams.

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.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of Government 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 come up with innovative ideas for solving policy problems and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

BIT selects staff on the basis of cultural fit: all our staff believe passionately in our company values: always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

#Role and Responsibilities

Working as the CEO’s Policy Advisor and Assistant you will be engaged in supporting the CEO on a range of pressing issues across the entire programme of BIT in the UK and overseas offices, as well as supporting him in his role as What Works National Advisor. This will include co-ordinating updates from the across the company, preparing policy specific briefings and presentations, and attending some external meetings with partners both inside and outside government. You will work closely with the CEO’s Executive Assistant throughout, to ensure that the CEO is prepared for all upcoming events. Your work will also include time supporting the Director of Strategy and providing ad-hoc support to policy teams and the senior leadership team at BIT. In this role you will exposed very quickly to a wide range of policy problems and get experience of interacting with senior stakeholders. Your work is likely to include:

• Attending internal policy leads co-ordination meetings, weekly diary meetings and external meetings and keeping abreast of current priorities to ensure they are followed-up on behalf of the CEO and Director of Strategy;
• Co-ordinating and drafting briefings and presentation materials in advance of key meetings, presentations and international trips, including reviewing documents in advance and summarising BIT’s related thinking;
• Managing policy notes and updates for No 10, government departments and ministers which draw on BIT’s work as well as the latest external findings for evidence-based policy;
• Undertaking specific research supporting key current projects for the CEO- this may include current No 10 priorities or key policies the CEO is directly engaged in (e.g. Industrial strategy).

• An understanding of the behavioural science literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex policy problems;
• Exceptional written and verbal communication (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Government Ministers or senior officials);
• An understanding of government policy, and how it is developed and implemented;
• An understanding of simple evaluation methods (particularly randomised controlled trials), and an ability to summarise and assess academic findings which use statistical methods;
• Excellent time management skills, and an ability to balance competing priorities at one time;
• Strategic thinking and creative problem solving; and
• Strong teamwork and inter-personal skills - as a part of a small team you will need to be reliable and willing to take responsibility for driving priorities forward.

• Experience of working in government or around government policy making in the UK;
• Masters in a relevant subject area (including, but not limited to behavioural economics, psychology, evaluation methods);
• Experience of project management.

• 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: http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk

• 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.

• 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. 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.