Evaluation Officer

We are looking for two new Evaluation Officers to join our Evaluation Team at the OfS. In this role, you will be at the forefront of shaping the future of higher education, using evidence to influence policy-makers and senior leaders. You will be supporting evaluation activity with opportunities to lead and take on more responsibility as you progress. You will help drive evaluative thinking across the organisation, to support the OfS to learn and improve the way we regulate.

The Office for Students (OfS) exists to ensure that English higher education offers the best experience and the best value - for students, for taxpayers, for the economy and for the public good. It is the independent regulator of higher education in England – we regulate higher education on behalf of all students. Our vision is that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

The evaluation team is small and friendly, with big ambitions and diverse expertise. We work across the OfS to ensure that the work of the OfS is supported by robust evidence.

The Evaluation Officer will help the OfS work more effectively, by supporting impactful evaluation activity and evaluative thinking across the organisation. In this role you will work with an Evaluation Manager to:

• Scope, run, and commission evaluations of OfS activity.
• Manage commissioned suppliers to conduct evaluations.
• Conduct data collection and qualitative analysis.
• Provide expert support, advice and quality assurance to evaluations led by other teams.
• Support teams and senior decision-makers across the OfS to learn from and improve their regulatory interventions through their evaluations, and through facilitating learning / reflection exercises.
• Engage stakeholders and ensure evaluation findings are translated into actions.
• Drive organisational culture change to celebrate evaluation and embed a learning mindset (for example, delivering internal training sessions and presentations, writing blogs, building evaluation into organisational processes).
• Develop your own knowledge of relevant research and evaluation and share this to build the knowledge of the team and wider colleagues.

As you develop in the role, there will be opportunities for you to take a leading role on smaller areas of activity. We typically conduct impact and/or process evaluations, with a strong focus on theories of change and theory-based approaches and use mixed-methods designs.

This is an exciting time to join us as the team is kicking off new phases of work evaluating core areas of the OfS’s regulation, as the OfS embarks on a new five year strategy. The team also continuously looks for ways to further build evaluation culture and capability in the organisation. Sitting within the Strategy, Delivery and Communications Directorate, the work of the Evaluation Team is a priority for the OfS to make sure our regulatory model is underpinned by rigorous evaluation and a commitment to learning, improvement, and ultimately impact.

Initial projects are subject to change but may include the evaluation of our approach to Access and Participation Plans (part of how we ensure equality of opportunity in English higher education) or our approach to regulating quality at universities and colleges. The role reports to one of two Evaluation Managers, and works closely with one other Evaluation Officer, both Evaluation Managers, and the Head of Evaluation, as well as collaborating with colleagues across the organisation. The Evaluation Team works in a hybrid way, coming together regularly in person in the office as a team.

We are looking for someone who:

• Is pursuing a career in evaluation or social research. We anticipate that you might come from a social sciences, economics, public policy, psychology, or applied research background, but our main criterion is that you have experience with, and can apply, relevant social research and evaluation methods.
• Is committed to using evidence to improve practices and further impact.
• Values working collaboratively.
• Places high importance on learning, development, and sharing knowledge and expertise.

We are looking for someone with the following knowledge, skills and experience:

Essential

• Holds an undergraduate degree in a subject with a relevant research component or has equivalent experience.
• Good knowledge of qualitative and/or quantitative research methods, and familiarity with evaluation concepts and methods.
• Excellent demonstrated project and time management skills, with the ability to work independently and prioritise and balance multiple workstreams.
• Skilled in taking initiative, following instruction, and recognising when a problem should be referred to others.
• Working accurately with attention to detail, producing high quality outputs under pressure and in the face of competing demands.
• Clear and positive written and verbal communication.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences to achieve impact.
• Ability to collaborate, build and manage effective relationships, and support others.
• A passion for evaluation, evidence, and learning.

Desirable

• Holds a postgraduate level qualification in a relevant discipline or has equivalent experience.
• Ability to develop theory of change models for social policy activities.
• Experience of analysing qualitative and quantitative data using appropriate specialist software (e.g. R, SPSS, NVivo, MaxQDA).
• Experience in procuring and managing external contracts, to achieve high quality outputs.
• Expertise with facilitating discussions with people from a range of backgrounds, and delivering training and/or presentations.
• Experience of policy and/or research work relating to regulation, higher education, or within the public sector.
• Understanding of quasi-experimental and theory-based approaches to evaluation, and their limitations and strengths.

We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do. We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

We love working flexibly because we know that it helps us all to do our best work. We’ve created a set of principles to shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week.

We want to attract the best people to work with us, and will consider requests for flexible working, including job share and part-time working.

Our Total Reward Framework offers a range of benefits to suit your way of life:

• 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
• Comprehensive learning and development – we’re invested in your future
• Generous Civil Service pension scheme
• Health benefits

In addition, we take a proactive approach to professional development within the team, and will work with the successful candidate to seek opportunities to develop skills, knowledge and experience in the role.

For your application, you will need to upload a copy of your CV (no more than 2 pages) which should set out your relevant qualifications and experience, with information about how these relate to the requirements of this role. There are two online application questions to complete, which allow you to demonstrate your relevant experience and knowledge against selected key requirements of the role. For those that progress to the next stage, there will be a one hour online task to complete during the week of the 23 June. Interviews will take place during the week of the 30 June.

If you have any queries about the role, please contact recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk

Closing date for applications: Monday 16 June at noon.