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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 where the economy works for both people and the planet.

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. Find out more at nesta.org.uk.

Whatever it takes

Everyone works at Nesta because we are driven by a deep commitment to our missions. A guiding principle of our culture is that we do whatever it takes to achieve them, bringing our best to all our work.

The Person

The Applied Research and Methods function is looking for an analytical leader with a strong background delivering applied research and data projects that focus on having real world impact. If you are a leader who has a track record of generating and using evidence and insights through methods like evaluation, trials and data science to fuel decisions and directly impact outcomes, this role is for you. As the Head of Applied Methods for a Healthy Life, you will play a leadership role in a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, researchers, designers and technologists. You will be responsible for shaping and delivering a portfolio of high-impact projects aimed at achieving our goal of halving obesity. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of leading teams to deliver rigorous, impactful research that informs policy or practice, and a passion for using their expertise to create tangible, positive change.

The team This role sits within the Applied Research and Methods leadership group, and will be embedded into the Healthy Life mission team with delivery responsibility for projects and management within the Healthy Life mission, and leadership across the breadth of Nesta’s methods work. Nesta’s Applied Research and Methods (ARM) function supports each mission team to harness the power of a variety of methods for mission impact and supports researchers and methods experts to develop their skills and bring their best to the mission goals. . We are a team of analytical and technical experts from a range of backgrounds bound by the drive to use our expertise to have social impact.

The Healthy Life Mission team research and methods projects have a strong focus on applied data science, and quantitative research including trials and evaluation. The successful candidate must be an expert in one or more of these fields. We strongly encourage you to reach out to us with any questions or to discuss the role in more detail. We will do our best to accommodate queries from interested applicants ahead of the deadline. Please send queries to recruitment@nesta.org.uk.

Key Responsibilities:

The head of applied research method will be expected to:

• Identify, scope, and lead the delivery of high-impact research projects, at pace that help to deliver the organization's missions;
• Take accountability for research quality and ethics, overseeing and improving standards and quality processes within the Healthy Life mission;
• Develop deep domain expertise in Nesta’s Healthy life mission;
• Lead a team of skilled analysts, data scientists, researchers, and designers, to navigate ambiguity and the challenges of multi-disciplinary working to fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning;
• Identify opportunities where a mixed-method approach will improve outcomes and effectively bringing together diverse skillsets and ways of working to deliver mixed methods projects;
• Oversee the development of clear, engaging, robust communications to convey data-driven insights to both technical and non-technical audiences, internally and externally;
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across the organisation and externally, championing the value of great analysis in driving policy and social impact;
• Stay abreast of the latest methods developments in and identify opportunities to apply them to the organization's work,
• Deliver, alongside other Heads of Method, a compelling programme of learning, development, and upskilling for the analytical and data science communities at Nesta;

Essential Skills and Experience:

• Enjoyment of navigating ambiguity and delivering high impact work at pace;
• Deep expertise in one or more priority methods domain and comfort supporting practitioner in the others across: quantitative research methods, evaluation, trials, data science;
• Experience in delivering high-impact data science or data engineering projects, with a proven ability to identify and scope opportunities for data-driven innovation;
• Strong leadership and management skills, with the ability to build, inspire, and develop high-performing team;
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills;
• Comfort reviewing code (the team default is python) and operating in a cloud-based tech stack;
• Experience using GitHub for version control;

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Domain knowledge in a field relevant to Nesta’s Healthy Life mission;
• Experience in shaping and scoping the role of research methods within broader multi-disciplinary projects;
• Understanding of ethical and legal frameworks surrounding data science including QA processes and data protection;
• Demonstrated ability to quickly build contextual competence in new domains and effectively communicate with stakeholders;
• Passion for using data and research to drive positive social change and improve public services.

About Healthy Life

We are seeking a policy professional to work in Nesta’s ‘A Healthy Life’ mission. We want to increase the number of years lived in good health for all and our focus is on tackling one of the biggest drivers of lost years of healthy life: obesity. Our priority is improving our food environments i.e. making healthy food more available, accessible, affordable, appealing and convenient for all. We work across sectors - with businesses, national policymakers, local government, academics and other charities - in order to drive the changes we need to see to improve health.

What we offer

Salary: £77,500 - £87,700(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: This role is based in London, Blackfriars, 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.

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.