Senior Analyst (Food Retail Sector, Commercial) - A Healthy Life in London

This role will support the delivery of projects across the mission, with a key focus on a programme of work around implementing a Healthy food standard for large food businesses. This policy was announced by the UK Government and is based on a Nesta policy proposal for health targets for supermarkets. It has the potential to reduce national obesity rates by up to 20%.

This role will suit someone with a strategic, quantitative and business savvy mindset, who has experience of the food retail sector. You might be a consultant within this sector or have worked within a food retailer. You will be curious, proactive and eager to work on a wide range of activities. One day you might be providing advice on policy design based on your experience of how food retailers operate; another you could be modelling the financial impact of different scenarios; or another drawing critical insights from senior expert advisors.

Required experience

• Food retail expertise: Experience working within the food retail sector, either as a business/strategy consultant or a commercial/business role within a food retailer.
• Commercial acumen: Strong understanding of business drivers, commercial models, and financial performance within the context of a food retailer.
• Strategically minded: Extremely good at identifying the 'so what' and can translate information, data and research into policy-relevant insights.
• Quantitative skills: High level of proficiency in working with data, including analysis, interpretation, and high-level modelling. Demonstrated ability to extract meaningful insights from complex quantitative information and communicate findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Research skills: Experienced in conducting academic and industry research, including literature reviews, qualitative and quantitative synthesis, and the interpretation of evidence. Skilled in identifying relevant data sources and distilling key insights to inform decision-making.
• Project management skills: Proven capability to plan work and execute against that plan; identify and act on risks and issues; ensure that key stakeholders are engaged throughout.
• Verbal communication skills: Strong verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate confidently and clearly e.g. to present to audiences, engage with external stakeholders and communicate effectively within the team.
• Writing skills: Excellent written skills, with the ability to communicate insights in a digestible way tailored to a range of different audiences.

The core activities include

• Domain knowledge: Being the 'go to' person for various mission projects on the food retail sector, based on experience of the sector; as well as getting to grips with new areas quickly.
• Project management: Lead on the scoping, design and delivery of a workstream or project, ensuring it's delivered effectively.
• Research, analysis and modelling: Conduct primary research, secondary research, data analysis and data modelling, including interpreting research findings and translating this into actionable next steps.
• Stakeholder management: Own relationships, understand how to get the best out of others and ensure they love working with Nesta.
• Communication: Have the ability to communicate in both written and verbal form clearly and concisely, and to make complex or technical issues and ideas easy to understand, adapting your communication to suit different audiences.

What we offer

• Salary: £49,200 - £65,800 (offers are expected to be made towards the bottom of the band) plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more.
• Location: London, Blackfriars, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office.
• Term: 2 year fixed term contract.
• Hours: Full-time with flexible arrangements.

Making an application

Please submit your CV and answer the following question: tell us about a time when you delivered a project within the food retail sector that drove measurable impact e.g. improvements in sales, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency or behavioural outcomes. In your answer, you may want to cover your role, the research and analysis you used, and how you communicated the findings.

To apply for this role, please submit your application before Monday 27th October at 8am. The next stage of the application process will be a task to be completed and interview in early/mid November. Exact dates to be confirmed.

At Nesta, 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.