Research Associate (Evaluation Manager)

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The University is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our mission of making the world a better place. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

• Educating the next generation of change-makers
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research
• Giving back to society through meaningful service
• Working with our local communities in London
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective

As part of the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, the Policy Institute at King’s combines the rigour of academia with the agility of a consultancy and the connectedness of a think tank. 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.

Beyond individual projects, EDIT advocates for the use of evidence in policy and practice, and works closely with members of the What Works Network to strengthen the wider evaluation ecosystem and promote the adoption of evidence-based interventions.

About the role: 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. Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development.

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

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

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.