Research Associate (Evaluation Manager) in London

This role sits within the Evidence Development and Incubation Team (EDIT), a dedicated evaluation specialist team within the Policy Institute. EDIT partners with government departments, public bodies, charities and other organisations to understand the impact of their work.

Our activities include:

• Designing and delivering impact evaluations to assess the impacts of interventions on key outcomes, using experimental and quasi-experimental approaches.
• Conducting implementation and process evaluations to explore how interventions operate in practice and how they are experienced by those involved.
• Supporting organisations to develop robust internal evaluation capacity, including the systems, skills and processes needed to embed evaluation in their work.

The Research Associate (Evaluation Manager) will play a key role in delivering EDIT's ongoing and new evaluation and research projects. Current work spans evaluations of programmes across primary, secondary, and further education; interventions aimed at reducing homelessness; and initiatives supporting young people into employment.

The role has a strong focus on quantitative evaluation methods. The ideal candidate will have advanced training in quantitative research methods (for instance statistics, econometrics, or similar subjects) and substantial experience using R. They will have a strong track record of applying these skills across programme evaluations and other research projects, encompassing quantitative data management and analysis, evaluation design, data collection oversight, project workstream management, and contributing to the development of funding proposals.

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience of delivering commissioned research within a research organisation, consultancy, or academic setting. We also welcome candidates who bring subject‑matter expertise from working in relevant policy areas, such as education, employment, youth violence reduction, homelessness, or related fields.

The successful candidate will be highly organised, analytically rigorous, comfortable working collaboratively across multiple projects, with the flexibility and adaptability to thrive in a fast‑paced research environment. This is a full‑time post (35 hours per week), offered on a two‑year fixed‑term contract.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• A PhD in a relevant subject or equivalent professional experience.
• Practical experience developing quantitative analysis plans and/or trial protocols.
• Substantial experience cleaning, managing, and analysing large or complex datasets with a strong command of R, and ability to produce clear, well‑documented code.
• Advanced training in, and applied experience of, quantitative research methods, such as statistics or econometrics, and programme evaluation methods, including experimental and quasi‑experimental approaches (e.g., randomised controlled trials, difference‑in‑differences, regression discontinuity) and matching approaches.
• Practical experience applying quantitative research methods to evaluation or research projects, for instance managing quantitative workstreams within projects, in education, employment, homelessness, or other relevant policy areas.
• Excellent project management, organisational and time‑management skills, with a high level of attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively as part of a project team across multiple projects.

Desirable criteria

• Experience working on commissioned research or consultancy‑style projects, including managing relationships with funders and other project stakeholders and partners.
• Experience of designing survey studies and/or of analysing survey data.
• Experience applying for research and evaluation project funding through applying to tenders.

Further information regarding equality, diversity and inclusion may be found below.

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This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearances.