Evaluation Specialist: Senior Consultant in Manchester

Steer Economic Development is seeking an evaluation specialist to join our team of high-performing economic development consultants. You will work on a range of different projects, for national, regional and local public sector clients, including process and impact evaluations, evaluation plans and evaluation scoping studies. Your skillset will include quantitative and qualitative research techniques, as well as familiarity with a range of evaluation techniques such as theory-based methods and counterfactual design. You will be well versed in HMT Magenta Book and Green Book best practice, and ideally, will have experience working on evaluations of relevant policy interventions such as in the business support, innovation, Net Zero and/or regeneration domains.

As a Principal Consultant at Steer Economic Development, you will:

• Solve important and varied problems – each week can address a diverse set of intellectual challenges: e.g. How can we help traditional manufacturing businesses adopt AI? How successful has a new initiative been in delivering carbon savings? What difference has a public agency made to a local economy?
• Build a work portfolio you are passionate about – working with the rest of the team, you will have the freedom to develop relationships and win work to suit your skills and interests.
• Be recognised and rewarded for your achievements – we are an employee-owned company and we rely on each other for success. We offer a highly competitive remuneration package and flexible benefits.
• Grow your career alongside our growing business – we are ambitious. You should be too.

A typical day will involve:

• Primary research – for example, you could be interviewing business leaders, analysing client-owned or public data, building maps/data visualisations, or designing telephone surveys.
• Winning over clients – you will build rapport with clients, spending time with them discussing project methodologies, sharing findings, and planning next steps.
• Project management – you will co-ordinate project teams, be supported by passionate team members and work alongside leading experts in delivering high profile, influential evaluation outputs.
• Writing first-class reports – our research is frequently published by our clients and you will play a vital role in ensuring our reports are communicated brilliantly, and of the highest quality.
• Winning new work – you will support business development including the preparation of proposals setting out a clear approach and method for how we will successfully deliver new projects.
• Developing staff – you will help to turn our ambitious graduates and consulting team into highly-skilled professionals. You will have line-management responsibilities, and more broadly you will help to develop all of our junior staff through finding opportunities for stretching work, offering advice and giving constructive feedback.
• Developing your own skills – you will fine-tune your consultancy skills through our L&D programmes, internal/external networking and the mentorship of our highly experienced industry experts.

Requirements:

• Experience working on process and impact evaluation, ideally in one or more of our key subject areas (net zero, innovation & enterprise, regeneration & housing, transport, strategic infrastructure or skills).
• 5+ years' experience, ideally in the public sector, consulting industry or relevant private sector experience.
• A degree (2:1 or higher), preferably in Economics or a social science subject.
• Ideally relevant professional membership.

Benefits:

We believe in empowering our people and giving them the opportunities to shine. As an employee-owned company means that our team are dedicated and passionate about what they do, and that's the reason why we are at the forefront of our industry. Steer has 5 offices in the UK: London, Leeds, Hemel Hempstead, Manchester and Birmingham.

Steer is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all candidates regardless of race, colour, ancestry, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, Veteran status, or any other legally protected status. Any other human expressions and experiences not mentioned here are equally welcome. If you require an accommodation, now or throughout your employment, please let us know.

We offer a competitive benefits package including:

• Private medical insurance and health screening
• Life assurance and group income protection
• Company pension scheme
• EAP and mental health first aiders
• 25 days annual leave and ability to buy and sell annual leave days
• Season Ticket Loan/ Cycle to Work
• Group Share Incentive Plan
• Up to 5 days for volunteering activities
• Discretionary bonus scheme based on annual compensation (dependent upon individual and company performance).

Compensation:

Steer is committed to ensuring that all its employees are compensated a fair, liveable wage. All initial compensation, regardless of location, may be subject to change as skills, abilities, internal equity and geographic location are taken into account. In addition to base salary, all employees will be eligible for an annual discretionary performance bonus. Please review the benefits section for more information on total reward. Steer reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional compensation.

Work Environment:

All Steer employees seeking a full-time opportunity are encouraged to spend 60% of their time either in the office or on-site with clients. An employee's typical work week consists of 37.5 hours (Hours, expectations, and exemption status will be adjusted for any applicant seeking a part-time opportunity.) We understand that some may be dissuaded to apply based off their compatibility with the job description. That being said, we understand that not everyone is a perfect match on paper and encourage anyone to apply regardless of how much their work experience directly relates to the job description. Part-time and flexible working applications will be considered.

Ready to apply? Just complete our brief online application form and attach your CV and covering letter.