Become a Senior Advisor with the Behavioural Insights Team in Sydney

We’re looking for someone passionate about applying behavioural insights and evidence to design better services or policies. If you have 5+ years of experience in government, public policy or consultancy, then this could be the role for you..

About us

The Behavioural Insights Team is a social impact company that applies behavioural science to real-world problems. We believe in evidence-based approaches to policy, and work predominantly with governments, not-for-profit and philanthropic organisations around the world and in almost every area of public policy. While the subjects and outputs of our projects vary 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.

We work in a fast-paced and exciting environment in the Sydney CBD, but have a relaxed and non-hierarchical culture. We support the well-being of our team through a number of initiatives, including encouraging flexible working. You can learn more about the team’s work here and more about our Sydney office here. We take pride in our values of social impact, empiricism and humility, fresh thinking, collaboration, and public service.

The role

We are looking for a new Senior Advisor who can lead projects, people and partnerships. The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 5 years experience in public policy, government or consulting roles, and/or working in a project-based environment. We expect a high degree of knowledge about behavioural science and using evaluation methods to test interventions.

You will have responsibility for shaping projects and steering teams (both within BIT and within clients’ teams) as they complete literature reviews, quantitative analysis, field work, and randomised controlled trials. You will be required to manage relationships with senior officials across all levels of government in Australia, as well as other partners and clients.

As a Senior Advisor, you will:

• Lead the design and delivery of behavioural insight projects.

• Develop relationships and secure new work for the team.

• Represent BIT as an expert in behavioural science and/or research methods.

• Oversee staff preparing policy papers, trial protocols and literature reviews.

• Lead high level client meetings, typically with government clients.

Skills Required

Behavioural Science Expertise

• Expertise in behavioural science and direct experience of how it can be applied to help solve complex real-life policy problems;

• Ability to quickly assimilate complex issues across multiple policy areas and distil insights into practical solutions;

• Experience in the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials;

• A Bachelor, Masters or PhD in a relevant subject area (including, but not limited to: behavioural economics, psychology, public policy, design thinking, evaluation methods).

Stakeholder Management and Business Development Skills

• Demonstrated ability to prospect and generate new business;

• Excellent program and project management skills;

• Excellent written and verbal communication for a wide range of audiences;

Leadership and Management Experience

• Strong leadership and teamwork skills, with the ability to exercise good judgement in a rapidly changing and ambiguous environment;

• Demonstrated excellence in people management and coaching skills, particularly in small teams;

• 5+ years’ experience developing or delivering policy in government, academia, or for a consulting firm.

Process

We are going to ask you a few short answer questions as a preliminary indicator of your level of suitability for this role. There will be 2 rounds of interviews following this online application, and a written test if you progress to the second round of interviews.

We will preference applicants who already have the right to live and work in Australia.