Senior Policy & Research Manager

Full time (flexible working options available)

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 3rd August

Ref 6995

Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a strategic and collaborative individual with extensive research, policy and advocacy experience to join us as our Senior Policy & Research Manager where you will work in the Northern Ireland team with colleagues across Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK, and Europe.

The home office for this role is located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but this post can be based anywhere in Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Please note: Salary will be offered in GBP or Euro equivalent, depending on the candidate's location.

About Us

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.  When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave.  We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

In Northern Ireland and Ireland, we work alongside children, families, and partners to influence policy, practice, and systems so they better reflect local needs and priorities. Together with colleagues and partners across Northern Ireland, Ireland, the UK, and Europe, we aim to shift resources closer to national and local partners, ensure the meaningful participation of children and families in decision-making, and strengthen collective impact through strategic partnerships, networks, and coalitions.

About the role

As Senior Policy & Research Manager, you will play a leading role in shaping and delivering our strategy in Northern Ireland and Ireland, turning insight into action, and making sure that the voices and experiences of children and families directly inform policies and practice.

This role is about more than writing reports — it's about influencing decision-makers, leading collaborative strategies, and driving progress with and through others. You will play a key role in helping us to build on our well established position in Northern Ireland, and develop our approach in Ireland, shaping our strategies, partnerships, and our approach to bring about policy change.  You will understand research approaches, how to develop policy proposals, be comfortable building external networks and relationships, and persuading stakeholders of your thinking and arguments — all while staying grounded in the voices and needs of children and families.

In this role, you will: 

• Leading and delivering impactful policy and research strategies focused on tackling child poverty.

• Building strong relationships with community partners, government stakeholders, and peer organisations.

• Turning complex research and evidence into clear, persuasive insights that shape policy and practice.

• Leading working groups and project teams on specific policy agendas.

• Managing high-quality research and evaluation (including participatory methods), commissioning external experts, and conducting your own analysis.

• Representing Save the Children externally and contributing to strategic influencing efforts with politicians, civil servants, funders, and partners.

About you

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Strong foundations in policy, research, and advocacy, with a track record of turning insight into action.

• Experience working with or within civil society, academia, or public sector settings to influence change.

• Excellent relationship-building skills and the ability to collaborate across diverse teams and communities.

• Ability to understand and interpret complex data, and communicate it clearly to different audiences.

• Understanding of the policy environment in Northern Ireland and/or Ireland — or the curiosity and ability to learn quickly.

• Willingness to travel across Northern Ireland and Ireland.

• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.

What we offer you:

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.

• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. 

Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 3rd August

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter).  This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building. 

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. 

Flexible Working – We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. 

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences – of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability – help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.