Senior Research Advisor (quantitative)

Available on a full time or part-time basis (39 hours or 32 hours per week/ 4-5 days). Flexible working options include flexible start and finish times as well as compressed hours. Starting salary: from £56,250 (London) and £50,625 (Manchester) per annum FTE (depending on experience), plus benefits and bonus. Based in Central London (Blackfriars) or Manchester. We use a hybrid model with 2 days per week minimum in the office.

Are you passionate about using your skills and experience to drive positive social impact? Do you have substantive experience using applied quantitative research to support the development and testing of solutions and policies to help people make better decisions? If so, we want to hear from you.

What does a Senior Research Advisor at BIT do?

We are recruiting for a Senior Research Advisor (SRA) with strong quantitative skills in our Economic Policy team. The team’s work focuses on the areas of employment, consumer policy and business growth. This is a middle management role with a research and consultancy focus, similar to Associate Director or Principal Investigator roles in other UK research consultancies. Although the role focuses on Economic Policy, we expect all of our staff to work flexibly across the organisation and would expect this role to lend both project and business development support to other teams.

As an SRA, you will:

• Advise on quantitative research. This covers experimental and quasi-experimental designs for both exploratory and evaluation research; expertise necessary to advise on mixed-methods research is a plus.
• Lead projects. You will be responsible for developing the strategic direction of the project in collaboration with the Principal Advisor/ Director overseeing the project, planning the work, supervising tasks, managing the quality of key outputs, resourcing the project, keeping it to time and budget, and engaging with our clients and project partners to ensure the work meets their expectations.
• Lead on securing new partnerships and business opportunities for the team, including scoping and developing new areas of work to deliver social impact, responding to competitive tenders, building good relationships with clients and pitching new proposals, with a focus on projects with a quantitative or mixed-methods focus.
• Manage 2-3 junior staff, including overseeing their work allocation and supporting their professional development.
• Engage directly with senior stakeholders in government, private sector and the third sector, offering thoughtful and evidence-based advice, and developing opportunities to collaborate on shared objectives.
• Collaborate with other senior researchers across BIT to improve research standards and support research functions across the organisation.

Examples of recent projects that an SRA might lead or advise on include: A field experiment evaluating the impact of a ‘double nudge’ to increase flexible working.

What makes a great Senior Research 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 experience and skills across the areas listed below. We expect to provide training and development support in some of the areas:

• Strong theoretical foundations and practical experience delivering quantitative research projects, especially RCTs: You have a strong understanding of quantitative research approaches and their applications, as well as the pragmatism required to generate high-quality evidence at speed. This covers both exploratory analysis and evaluations. Expertise in statistical analysis and causal inference is essential. You have substantial previous research experience and academic training at Master’s level or above.
• Stakeholder and client management skills: You can build solid and effective relationships with partners, stakeholders, and funders to navigate tricky situations and achieve good outcomes. You communicate clearly and convincingly, explaining complex topics in simple terms and adapting your style to the audience. You can lead a workshop or presentation and write clearly and concisely.
• Project planning and delivery experience: You can develop a vision for new work to pitch to prospective clients and turn these high-level ideas into compelling proposals. Once confirmed, you are able to develop a project plan, identify project risks and run a project team that delivers high-quality work.
• A good understanding of qualitative and mixed-methods research: You have a general understanding of the types of questions qualitative and quantitative approaches can answer, the advantages and disadvantages of both and how they can be combined effectively.
• An interest in behavioural science: A deep understanding of human behaviour is at the core of our work. You have an interest in learning on the job to be able to effectively design research that answers behavioural questions.
• Managing and developing yourself and 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 challenging) conversations.

About the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT)

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is a social purpose research and innovation consultancy. We exist to improve people’s lives. We work in partnership with national, regional and local governments, businesses, foundations and charities, to tackle major policy problems, often through testing and implementing simple yet powerful changes. Our 250 staff are based in 8 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.

What can we offer you?

• Generous pension scheme with 7% employer contribution;
• Flexible benefit pot of £1,100 to spend on our benefits programme;
• 25 days of annual leave (in addition to public holidays) for full-time employees, rising to 27 days after 2 years continuous service;
• Enhanced parental leave payments;
• Encouragement of flexible working and a culture which enables this;
• Regular team lunches with inspirational guest speakers;
• A variety of interest groups including Film Club, BIT Kids for our parents & 5-a-side team.

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, as well as reviewing your CV to understand your experience.

Role closes: Monday 14th July 2025, at 12:00 BST.