Policy and Research Associate

Terms

• Full time, 37.5 hours per week

• Flexible working will be considered

• When travel restrictions due to COVID-19 permit, we anticipate some international travel will be required for this role

• Reports to: Policy and Research Manager

Remuneration

For staff based in the UK an Associate’s salary band is  £35,000 - £45,000, dependent on experience. Remuneration for staff based outside the UK will be in local currency and adjusted to reflect local market rates.

Location

• This post is open to candidates residing in a country +/- 3 hours GMT. Applicants must have the right to work in their country of residence.

• Remote working (Open Ownership can fund suitable coworking space for the appointed candidate)

• Due to the legal restrictions placed on the grant that part funds this post, we cannot accept applications from anyone based in the USA.

 About Open Ownership

Open Ownership drives greater corporate transparency across the world by making it easy to publish and access-high quality, linked data about who owns companies.  Our multidisciplinary team works closely with technical and policy implementers, advising them on all aspects of beneficial ownership implementation.  To support our donor-funded technical assistance programmes, we have developed a broad range of implementation tools and products, including the beneficial ownership data standard and the Open Ownership Principles.

Purpose of the post

Research and policy influencing are at the heart of Open Ownership’s work. We conduct research on how countries can implement beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) and why doing so effectively is important. This body of published research and policy guidance underpins Open Ownership’s work to support national governments implementing beneficial ownership transparency, and our efforts to influence international policies, standards and practices on BOT.

This new role will expand our policy and research capacity. You will join a small distributed team at a time of organisational growth, taking on a defined but varied range of responsibilities to support delivery of Open Ownership’s research and policy influencing agenda. We’re a fast-paced team that is recognised internationally for delivering high quality research, so be ready to contribute ideas, deliver well and share in our culture of excellence. People who enjoy learning and variety in their work will be particularly well-suited for our team. You will report to Open Ownership’s Policy and Research Manager.

Responsibilities

1. Undertake research projects to develop, test and refine Open Ownership’s policy recommendations and guidance.

• Conduct research projects that extend and refine, inform and support Open Ownership’s policy work;

• Draft and assist in drafting outputs for publication such as reports, briefings, consultation submissions, blogs;

• Support Policy and Research Manager to produce research in-house and through external consultants, including by drafting terms of reference and providing administrative coordination of research production from conception through to drafting and external review;

• Support the iterative refinement of Open Ownership’s policy recommendations and guidance for implementers, for example by undertaking regular reviews of research and policy outputs and updating their content as required.

2. Deploy Open Ownership’s research and policy knowledge to support colleagues and external stakeholders.

• Liaise with Open Ownership programme staff to respond to policy oriented queries about implementing beneficial ownership transparency from governments and civil society organisations around the world;

• Develop presentations and training materials to share Open Ownership’s research and policy guidance with key audiences, including governments, civil society and international institutions;

• Share Open Ownership research with experts across academia and civil society through participation in workshops, meetings, etc;

• Work with the Policy and Research Manager and colleagues across Open Ownership to feed in findings from research to the organisation’s other key areas of work (technology to support use of beneficial ownership data and support for governments implementing BOT reforms), and to identify and feed in learning from those work areas into Open Ownership’s research and policy outputs.

3. Support delivery of Open Ownership’s monitoring, evaluation and learning work.

• Support the Policy and Research Manager to undertake research to baseline, test and assess the impact of beneficial ownership transparency and Open Ownership’s policy guidance and recommendations;

• Update and refine policy recommendations and guidance based on the above findings.

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following skills and attributes:

• At least 3 years’ experience of undertaking policy-oriented research and/or working in policy-making, ideally including experience of a range of methodologies (with preference for qualitative approaches such as key informant interviews; experience with quantitative methodologies would also be an advantage).

• Experience in a relevant field (e.g. governance, law, anti-corruption, finance, open data), ideally with an international focus or in multiple national contexts.

• Experience conducting secondary research and analysing complex reports to create succinct, accurate and cogent text.

• Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills, with an ability to convey complex ideas to policy-oriented audiences.

• Experience producing research outputs to inform policy and advocacy activities would be an advantage, including engagement in multiple stages of the publication process.

• Fluent business English with excellent communication skills, both written and verbal (other languages in addition would be an advantage, in particular French, Russian or Spanish). 

• Proficient with Excel and G-Suite.

• An ability to self-organise and work autonomously in a remote organisation across multiple time zones.  

• A quick learner, able to swiftly understand information about complex issues.

• An organised and action-oriented professional with excellent attention to detail. 

• Entrepreneurial and able to look for opportunities to solve problems; you will be adaptable to changing contexts.

Application process

We want to hear from all voices, and particularly encourage individuals of diverse and marginalised communities to apply.  If there is a requirement in the job description which you feel you don’t quite meet but are still keen to apply then please do. 

Please note that Open Ownership is a fiscally sponsored organisation and the contract will be executed in the name of our fiscal sponsor Global Impact, a non-profit, on behalf of Open Ownership. 

Open Ownership uses the Applied platform for our recruitment which is designed to promote diversity and inclusion through anonymised applications and scenario-based questions. Our initial process will be solely based on your anonymised answers within the Applied platform. We will also ask you to submit your CV, but your CV will not be reviewed unless we decide to invite you to interview. If you reach the final stage of interviews, we will retain your details for future posts at Open Ownership, unless you tell us otherwise.

To apply, please complete the question-based process by 23:59 BST on 28 July 2021. Interviews are planned for 3-5 August 2021