Senior Analyst in London

Nesta is looking to appoint a Senior Analyst into our A Fairer Start mission.

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. 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.

Mission: A Fairer Start

We want every child to have the fairest possible start in life, so they can thrive and realise their potential. Nesta’s A Fairer Start Mission is a 10‑year endeavour to ensure that, from 2030, every child has the same chance of developing to their full potential in the early years. We will work towards this goal by:

• Supporting the development of a well‑functioning market of effective parenting interventions
• Designing, testing and scaling ways to improve financial support for families
• Identifying ways to improve the quality of early childhood education and care
• Optimising the delivery of integrated family support
• Advocating for a more impactful, sustained and efficient early years funding system

About the role

As a senior analyst at Nesta your main role in the team will be to support the delivery of projects – applying your analysis, research and policy knowledge to help us make progress on our key strategic focus areas. We expect our senior analysts to take more of a lead role in these tasks. We don’t expect you to be an expert at this stage, but we want you to come to Nesta ready to experiment and learn.

Key tasks

• Reviewing existing research – critically appraising and summarising evidence on a given problem. You should be able to interpret common research statistics and critique research designs.
• Conducting primary research – either quantitative, qualitative or design/user research. You are willing to learn more advanced methods as needed.
• Communication – communicate effectively internally and disseminate the team’s work externally, which may include presenting in meetings, producing reports and slide decks, writing blogs, public speaking, stakeholder engagement, and developing other creative ways to communicate ideas to different audiences.
• Workstream and project management – Managing your tasks within projects from start to finish, using project management tools and proactively communicating project risks, working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Stakeholder management – Working closely with internal and external stakeholders in project delivery, providing clear updates on project progress and actively contributing within meetings.
• Domain knowledge – get to grips with new areas, topics and contexts that the range and variety of your projects take place in. You will need to quickly build contextual competence in unfamiliar topics (e.g. learn what key jargon means and be credible in conversations with stakeholders).

The person

• Project management skills: you can plan work and execute against that plan; identify risks and issues, raising these appropriately within the team.
• Research skills: experience applying one or more of the following disciplines – behavioural science; user or qualitative research; experimental or quasi‑experimental evaluation; quantitative analysis; and/or data science.
• A confident understanding of causality and statistical reasoning: You understand the fundamentals of causal evaluation. 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 and can analyse data sets to pull key summary statistics and trends into graphs.
• Strategic thinking: a track record and demonstrated ability to navigate complexity and uncertainty in a structured and logical way, optimising for impact across multiple options and/or within constrained resources.
• Communication and presentation skills: you can communicate clearly and effectively in a range of internal and external settings, including presentations, slide decks, research reports and blog posts. You are confident in explaining complex ideas in simple terms, ask thoughtful questions to build understanding and alignment, and contribute constructively in group settings.
• Domain knowledge: some knowledge or experience in the practice, policy or research context of the Fairer Start mission. This might include through previous work, research, study, or personal experience working in the early years and/or education sectors.
• Teamwork/leadership: Demonstrated ability to work constructively with others to deliver high quality outputs.
• 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.
• Experience of working in a policy or strategy context for a consultancy, think tank, government or other fast‑paced environment.
• Experience of working as part of a research team and/or in multi‑disciplinary teams, making use of mixed research or innovation methods.
• A Bachelor’s or Master’s qualification in a relevant field.

What we offer

• Salary £50,700 - £67,800 (offers are expected to be made at 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: This role is based in Blackfriars, London, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office.
• 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.

EEO Statement

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 let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.