Senior Advisor - BIT Canada

Permanent: Full-time, 40 hours/week

Flexible working options include flexible start and finish times, work-from-home, and compressed hours

Starting salary: $77,500 - $93,250 per year, plus benefits. We use a defined rubric to determine placement in the salary band to reflect differences in educational attainment and experience.

Based in Toronto 

Are you looking for a new challenge and want to join a successful and growing organization dedicated to creating social impact in Canada? Do you have a passion for public policy and behavioural science? If so, we want to hear from you.

What does a Senior Advisor do?

Key questions your work may answer are:

• How can a more nuanced and realistic model of human behaviour help address critical challenges like public health, climate change, employment equity, and consumer protection?

• What methods can we use to rigorously evaluate the impact of new ideas inspired by behavioural science given the constraints of our implementation partners? 

• How can we convince more Canadian organizations (public, nonprofit, and private) to apply behavioural insights in pursuit of social impact goals?  

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

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

• Leading and managing projects, e.g. leading BIT project teams; overseeing the development and delivery of project deliverables; applying concepts from behavioural science to the design of policies, communications, processes, and programs; overseeing the design and implementation of field experiments; leading work plan development and coordination.

• Research and analysis, e.g. leading and organizing field research and desk research; overseeing statistical analysis and the synthesis of findings.

• Written and oral communication, e.g. writing final reports; presenting findings to senior decision makers; leading client workshops

• Leading and managing people, e.g. assuming line management responsibilities over junior and mid-level staff; contributing to the establishment and effective management of BIT Canada.

• Client and stakeholder management, e.g. understanding client and stakeholder priorities, developing relationships, managing issues, and leading client meetings.

• Developing new projects, e.g. identifying opportunities and developing proposals for new Canadian projects with the potential for significant social impact.

What makes a great Senior 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.

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

• A solid understanding of ‘causality’ and statistical reasoning. You know that just because sales of sunglasses and ice creams increase at the same time, one does not cause the other. You can also describe how to run a test to prove this.

• Work habits and project management. You can manage your own time and that of your colleagues to produce high quality work within a defined timeline and budget.

• Managing and developing yourself at work. You demonstrate high self-awareness and regularly self-reflect. 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.

• Supporting and developing others. You are supportive and energize people to perform at their best. You care about the success, development and wellbeing of others and can have meaningful (and sometimes difficult!) conversations.

• Clear and effective communications. You can explain complex topics in simple terms. You can lead a workshop or presentation and you write clearly and concisely.

• 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.

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 help understand what works and what doesn’t. We have helped Tuberculosis patients take their medicine; reduced police susceptibility to cyberattacks; and helped organizations 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 team.

BIT really is a great place to work:

• The BIT Canada team is kind, curious, and supportive. 

• We employ effective, tested tools and methodologies in our work. 

• We are committed to the quality and relevance of our applied research. 

• 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 offer competitive salaries and good supplementary benefits. 

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.

Start your BIT journey here and apply now!

To learn more about what it's like working at BIT, check out this handy FAQ sheet and feel free to make suggestions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hjnb5VLlxjVoMrI-FiFJ9soEmo5A_OdpVP8D2JNggxo/edit#

BIT is partially owned by our employees. We strive to provide a supportive work environment where you can develop your skills and knowledge in this fast-evolving field. We offer flexible working arrangements and other policies to support the health and wellbeing of everyone on the team.

The Behavioral Insights Team is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and is determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favorable 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.

Please note:

If you do not already hold the right to work in Canada 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 Canadian 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.