Evaluation Manager (2 posts) in City of Westminster

We\’re looking for two Evaluation Managers to commission and oversee robust, cost-effective evaluations of promising projects, manage a portfolio of studies, and contribute to the development of methodological best practice at the heart of the EEF\’s work. As an Evaluation Manager, you\’ll play a pivotal role in commissioning and managing high-quality, cost-effective evaluations of EEF-funded projects. You\’ll oversee a portfolio of studies from design to delivery, working closely with external evaluators and programme teams to ensure rigorous, practical evaluations and clear communication of findings. This is a chance to shape influential research, strengthen the evidence base on what works in education, and contribute to the EEF\’s wider strategic work. You\’ll join one of two closely connected teams at the heart of the EEF\’s evidence-generation work, offering distinct but complementary opportunities. One role sits in the Evaluation Team, a large, expert team responsible for commissioning and managing EEF\’s major independent evaluations, including large-scale randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental evaluations, and for supporting external research teams to deliver rigorous, high-quality studies across the portfolio.This will suit someone with a quantitative leaning with a strong understanding of trials and experimental design. The second role sits in the Programme Development and Scale-up Team, a smaller, highly cross-functional team working at the earlier and later stages of the evidence pipeline. This team leads pilots, early-stage and scale-up evaluations, with a stronger focus on implementation and process evaluation, and on developing and testing innovative evaluation approaches to support effective scale-up.This will suit someone with a mixed methods background and a more qualitative skillset. Both roles work closely together and across the organisation to ensure EEF\’s evidence is rigorous, relevant, and has real impact in the system. In these roles you will:

Responsibilities

• Commission evaluations in our priority areas, including critically reviewing evaluation proposals to ensure proposed designs are high quality and cost-effective and that the most suitable external evaluators are matched with projects.
• Manage a portfolio of evaluation projects once external evaluators are appointed and being the primary point of contact for evaluators.
• Liaise between the evaluator and the delivery team (that is delivering the intervention) and chairing meetings to ensure the evaluation project is set up effectively with a high-quality design (working closely with colleagues in EEF\’s Programmes team).
• Work closely with the evaluator and delivery team to understand the practical issues involved in delivering evaluations, mitigating risks, and providing support when problems arise.
• Manage evaluation contracts and budgets, and monitoring delivery of evaluation plans.
• Conduct technical reviews of protocols, study plans, statistical analysis plans and evaluation reports.
• Work closely with other teams to ensure that published reports are of high quality and effectively communicate findings to an audience of practitioners, academics, policymakers and the general public.
• Draw on expertise from across EEF to shape and apply innovative evaluation approaches, working collaboratively to strengthen evaluation design, learning and the use of evidence.
• Develop, improve and monitor implementation of evaluation guidance and resources to clarify best practice and build the capacity of evaluators to conduct high quality research.

Qualifications

• A commitment to the aims of the EEF and a genuine interest in the education sector in England.
• An understanding of technical aspects of evaluation methodologies (implementation and process evaluations, randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs, choice of outcome measurement, etc.) and an ability to identify high quality evaluation plans and reports.
• Experience in delivering or commissioning rigorous evaluation projects in education, health, or another related field.
• Strong relationship management skills, including managing stakeholder performance and differences in opinion.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to communicate complex information to a variety of audiences including practitioners, academics, and policymakers.
• An organised and methodical approach, with excellent project management skills and the ability to prioritise own workload and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• The ability to work independently with strong attention to detail and a commitment to fact checking own work, as well as the ability to work closely and collaboratively across teams.
• A proactive, flexible, and pragmatic approach to evaluation, with an ability to balance a commitment to rigour with accessibility and impact.
• A degree with substantial research methodological training, or equivalent research experience.
• Strong commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring these principles are upheld in all aspects of their work.

Great if you already have them all, but we will provide training as required for the right candidate:

Desirable Skills

• Experience in delivering or commissioning quasi-experimental evaluations (for the role in the Evaluation team).
• Experience in delivering or commissioning qualitative, mixed-methods and theory-based research and implementation and process evaluations (for the role in the Programme Development and Scale Up team).
• Experience or familiarity with working on programmes as they develop and scale, and an understanding of how evaluation and evidence can inform decisions about programme design, adaptation and readiness for scale-up (for the role in the Programme Development and Scale Up Team).
• A PhD or Masters with training in quantitative methods and/or mixed methods.
• Experience conducting relevant statistical analysis and/or qualitative analysis.