Behavioural Scientist (A Fairer Start)

This is a full-time role, but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.

About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet. For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation. Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk

The role

Nesta is looking to appoint one Behavioural Scientist into our A Fairer Start mission. Nesta’s Fairer Start Mission is on a 10-year endeavour to close the gap in school readiness between those growing up in poverty and the national average across the UK. To achieve this, we focus our work on strengthening the support that families experiencing disadvantage receive to improve the home learning environment, cope with financial pressures and access high-quality formal childcare. Leveraging Nesta’s multiple capabilities, we use a multi-pronged approach to maximise the chances that change happens. For example, we work with families and frontline partners to design and deliver interventions to support the home learning environment, and evaluate their effectiveness at scale; we study the impacts of existing policies to make policy recommendations; we invest in ventures to create social impact through business; we build coalitions and campaigns to shift attitudes and norms. Whatever the approach we take, we strive to be evidence-led and impact-focused, and to measure the impact of our activities on our mission goal.

The work of the post holder could include working across many stages of the work of our teams, from shaping ongoing strategy developments, to scoping, designing, implementing and evaluating projects that contribute to our impactful portfolios of work. You can expect to leverage your behavioural science knowledge more or less on different projects, depending on the need for a behavioural approach. Most of our projects involve multiple disciplines, so behavioural science may form part of an approach or solution, but rarely will be the entirety of the solution. This is a role with the potential for a lot of variety. We prioritise personal learning related to the mission or to skills development; we work in multidisciplinary teams by default; and run ad hoc projects with other teams in Nesta. Through these you will have the opportunity to grow your skills and experience and learn new ways of working.

As a Behavioural Scientist you will:

• Provide a behavioural science perspective, as part of a multi-disciplinary, on a variety of projects in your mission or policy area;
• Deliver projects, including helping to set up and track project plans, carrying out day-to-day work on a variety of projects and updating team members on progress;
• Conduct mixed methods research and analysis, including qualitative and quantitative research, interpreting research findings, analysing and summarising relevant evidence and carrying out analysis. You may use any of the following techniques in a desk or field setting: interviews, observations, literature reviews, data deep-dives using statistical techniques. You will also work alongside analysts and mission managers, designers and other qualitative and quantitative experts.
• Develop and suggest practical policy solutions or intervention ideas to address social issues, informed by behavioural science;
• Help to plan and organise evaluations including randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs;
• Support development of new work, including scoping, research and writing pitches and proposals;
• Play a key role in partner engagement and project management, including helping sustain partner relationships (e.g. preparing agendas, minuting meetings and coordinating project updates); and
• Prepare project deliverables (e.g., theories of change, interview guides, logic models, evidence summaries, final reports) with a clear understanding of the overall project objectives.

Candidate Criteria

Essential

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.

• An understanding of behavioural science. You can explain the implications of theoretical concepts such as defaults, loss aversion and social norms. A relevant degree is welcome (behavioural economics, social psychology or related fields).
• Practical experience of delivering projects using behavioural science approaches. You have applied theoretical understanding to practical challenges in the past, running projects from start to finish.
• Public policy/service design. You are passionate about public policy and programmes aimed at improving the lives of people at scale. You can see both sides of an argument, and you can think about what makes some policies effective and others impractical.
• A confident understanding of causality and 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. You can interpret research findings of others, understand common statistics (such as standard deviation, confidence intervals, p values, and correlation coefficients), assess the strength of evidence for something, understand good practice for key research activities (e.g. setting a sampling frame, cleaning data, generating power calculations, running regressions and undertaking quasi-experimental evaluations including regression discontinuity and difference-in-difference designs) and analyse data sets to pull key summary statistics and trends into graphs.
• Experience and understanding of mixed methods research, but especially qualitative research. You appreciate the complementary value that quantitative and qualitative research approaches bring. Perhaps you also have experience of taking iterative and human centred design approaches to research projects. You understand that people may experience a problem differently depending on their context. You can identify the types of people to talk to to understand the range of experiences more deeply. You will understand the needs of different types of people, including the most vulnerable, and will adapt your approach accordingly as well as being able to weigh the appropriateness of different research techniques to answer different research questions.
• Ability to manage workloads from multiple projects simultaneously. You can manage a workload of several projects and deliver to a high standard on a tight deadline. You can work across different project teams and are aware of the importance of, and apply, regular, clear and concise communication with your team members.
• 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.

Desirable

• Awareness and experience of wider research competencies including data science approaches and/or quantitative research approaches to understand research contexts deeply.
• Awareness of human centred design approaches to developing solutions to complex problems are also desirable.
• Experience studying or working in a policy‑relevant area, which for this hiring round may include early years or experience closing education gaps.
• Experience designing and delivering a programme of work with partners and/or clients that have generated social impact.
• Strong project management skills and experience.

What we offer

Salary: Circa £38,600, plus array of benefits, including health cash plans, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more.

Location: The role will be based in London, Blackfriars.

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a full‑time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.

Reports to: Lead Behavioural Scientist, A Fairer Start

At Nesta Group, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results. We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop. This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful. We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part‑time hours, job shares and other arrangements. Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.