We are looking for an exceptional candidate to join as a 9 month fixed term maternity cover for a Senior Advisor. We would like the successful candidate to start by the end of June 2022.

Are you looking for a new challenge and want to join a successful and rapidly growing organisation? Do you have a passion for exploring new ways to improve people's lives at a national scale through government policy? Apply now!

What does a Senior Advisor do?

This role is in our Health, Wellbeing and Social Care team. Key questions your work may answer are:

• How can governments and businesses shape food environments to improve people’s diets and reduce obesity rates?

• How can digital apps be improved to help people develop healthy habits?

• What’s the best way to slow the growth of resistance to antibiotics?

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

• Delivering a range of projects that seek to demonstrate the value of a behavioural approach in health, wellbeing and social care, managing multiple projects in our key policy areas, with a likely focus on working with health services. 

• You will interact with senior clients on a regular basis, and work to expand the team’s professional networks with key partners across the UK.

• Oversee the design and development of project deliverables and manage resources across projects.

• Work closely with the Principal Advisor, Director and other Seniors in the team to deliver on the team strategy by supporting business development. This includes working with central government departments as well as other organisations based in the UK and abroad, responding to competitive tenders and preparing bids/proposals.

• Ensure that quality is maintained across the business, including by quality assuring outputs from other policy teams.

• Represent the business externally through talks, potential media appearances, and written content.

• Manage other members of the team; this is expected to be 1-2 people. You will be responsible for coaching and mentoring the people you manage, and developing their skills and expertise.

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

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 theoretical concepts such as defaults, loss aversion and social norms and apply these to real-world challenges. You have a deep understanding of the behavioural science literature.

• Public policy design. You can see both sides of an argument, and you think about what makes some policies effective and others impractical. You have a deep understanding of health policy and experience of working on developing policies to address key health and social care challenges in the UK and across the world.

• A solid grasp of 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. A good understanding of research and evaluation methods is desirable.

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

• Managing projects and clients. You can manage your own time, and where appropriate that of your colleagues, to produce high quality work within a reasonable time frame.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Please note that we may also hire at our Advisor grade (starting salary £33,915 in London, £30,524 in Manchester).

An Advisor would focus on delivering work rather than building relationships with clients or managing projects, and would input ideas when bidding for projects but would not lead on business development conversations.

We will ask whether you would like to be considered for an Advisor role at the interview stage.

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 establish what works and what doesn’t. We have helped Tuberculosis patients take their medicine; reduced police susceptibility to cyberattacks; and helped organisations 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 dynamic and growing team.

BIT really is a great place to work:

• 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 have a flexible benefits programme which currently includes things like gym memberships, cycle to work schemes and the ability to buy extra annual leave at the start of the year.

• 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 great offices in London and Manchester.

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.

Key dates:

• Role closes: Monday 16th May 2022 at 12:00pm BST (midday)

• Interviews and task completion: W/c 23rd May 2022

• If necessary, second round interviews: w/c 30th May 2022

Please note that all dates are subject to change (but we’ll do our best not to change them!)

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.