The Brilliant Club

Recruitment Pack

Research and Evaluation
Consultancy Lead (Maternity
leave cover)

January 2026

Registered Limited Company: 07986971

Registered Charity: 1147771 (England and Wales), SC048774 (Scotland)

Registered Office: Fivefields, 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0DH

Research and Evaluation Consultancy Lead (Maternity Leave cover)
Start Date: June 2026 (or as soon as possible following this)
Salary: £43,663 - £45,873 (plus £2,000 London weighting for those living in London and
within the M25)

Contract Type:  Fixed-term 12-month contract

About the role
At The Brilliant Club, we mobilise the PhD community to support students from less advantaged
backgrounds to access the most competitive universities and succeed when they get there. We
work with students who, because of their family income, parental history or the postcode they live
in, are at risk of missing out on the life-changing opportunities linked to higher education.

We are delighted to be hiring a Research and Evaluation Consultancy Lead to join The Brilliant
Club. This pivotal role will drive the charity’s research and evaluation consultancy work through
Brilliant Consulting. Through our consultancy work, we have partnered with a range of universities
and education organisations, such as the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes
in Higher Education (TASO) and The Sutton Trust.

The Consultancy Lead will provide research and evaluation services to universities and other
education organisations working in the university access, student success and wider education
space. This role will work alongside a Senior Research and Evaluation Officer to deliver high-quality
consultancy projects and will report to the charity’s Director of Research and Impact. The role will
involve collaborating with different teams from across the organisation and will include
coordinating and managing colleagues on consultancy activities.  The role will also contribute
significantly to business development work to support the charity’s income generation.

The consultancy team is part of the charity’s wider research and impact team, who collectively
have two areas of responsibility: evaluating and reporting the impact of the charity’s programmes
and providing research and evaluation consultancy and strategy support to education
organisations.

The successful candidate will have strong quantitative and qualitative research skills and have a
proven track record of delivering evaluation projects in education or a related field. They will be
highly experienced with managing stakeholder relationships and delivering concurrent projects
and, ideally, will have also contributed to bid writing and/or other income-generation activities.
While this role can be based at any of our offices throughout the UK, some travel will be required
(mainly to London) to attend in-person meetings.

About you
The role will best suit someone who

•  has advanced quantitative and qualitative research skills and knowledge of evaluation

methodologies, with experience of constructing comparison groups and running statistical
models to understand impact.

•  has excellent written and verbal communication skills, ideally with experience of bid writing.
•  has experience managing multiple projects concurrently, including managing and quality

assuring other colleagues’ work.

•  has the ability to manage and analyse datasets using software packages (e.g., Excel, SPSS,

R).

•  has knowledge of the UK education landscape, including higher education.
•  has experience working in an evaluation/research consultancy environment.
•  will adhere to information security policies included in the charity’s ISO 27001 manual and

complete information security training.

•  has a demonstrable passion for furthering The Brilliant Club’s mission.

About The Brilliant Club
What we do
Access to higher education and the life-changing opportunities that come from attending the
most competitive universities is not equal. 28 in 100 of the most advantaged students progress to
the most competitive universities. In contrast, only 2 in 100 of the least advantaged young people
access these universities.

We think this is fundamentally unfair. We work across the UK to support less advantaged students
to access the most competitive universities, and to succeed when they get there.

Between 2021 and 2026, we will work with 100,000 students across the UK to help them to develop
the knowledge, skills and confidence to access the most competitive universities. We will also
support 10,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed once they enter
universities.

We hope that you’ll consider joining us, as we work to create a fairer society where no child’s
education is limited by their background.

Working for us

•  Hours: 37.5 hours per week Monday to Friday, flexible working with 10am – 3pm core hours,

some evenings and weekends required.

•  Benefits include: 36 days’ holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) increasing by 1 day per year
up to a maximum of 41 days, employer contribution to pension, interest-free season ticket
loan, five professional development day allowance, BUPA health cover cash plan.

•  We’re happy to talk flexible working. We have offices in Leeds and London.

•  After your first month in this role, we expect you to be connecting face-to-face with

colleagues on at least one day per week. In your first month, we’ll ask you to be in offices a
little more regularly than this to make sure you’re getting to know your key colleagues and
feeling connected to the organisation.

Our values
The Brilliant Club has three core values that underpin how we work. We look for people who share
these values:

•  We get to a solution
•  We seek and act on the best data available
•  We understand that little things go a long way

“As the first in my family to go to university and having worked as a teacher in a

state school, I applied to join The Brilliant Club with a real passion for the
charity’s mission. I am grateful every day that I work at a charity that is
supportive of both professional development and flexible working, as well as
being full of kind and passionate colleagues.”

   Leanne, Chief Operating Officer

Diversity at The Brilliant Club
We mobilise the PhD community to support students who are less advantaged to access the most
competitive universities and succeed when they get there. We think it is important that our charity
reflects the lived experience of the communities we work with, and we want to be an
organisation where employees from any background can thrive. We particularly welcome
applications from disabled, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Non-binary
(LGBTQ+) candidates, and candidates from low-income families.

 “I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Engagement Lead at The
Brilliant Club. My role is to help make the charity an inclusive working
environment for all of our colleagues.  I work with our amazing Staff Networks
and colleagues in HR to ensure everyone at the charity has a sense of
belonging.”

Emily - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Engagement Lead

Safeguarding
The Brilliant Club is committed to proactively safeguarding children, beneficiaries and staff and to
taking reasonable steps to protect all those who come into contact with the charity from harm.
The safety and welfare of everyone affected by the charity’s activities, especially children, is a key
governance priority.

As part of our recruitment and selection process and commitment to safeguarding, we will
undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check of all individuals in this role. Any offer of
employment will be subject to a satisfactory disclosure report.

Responsibilities

Research and Evaluation

•  Lead the design and delivery of evaluations for consultancy projects (e.g., pre-post-test
designs, quasi-experimental designs, randomised controlled trials, focus groups and
participatory research methods).

•  Produce high-quality reports and other project outputs that are tailored to specific

stakeholder needs.

•  Deliver workshops and project presentations to project stakeholders and non-specialist

audiences.

•  Keep up to date with relevant academic research relating to education outcomes and

evaluation methodologies.

Business Development

•

Identify upcoming consultancy opportunities and work with the Director of Research and
Impact to assess their suitability.

•  Contribute to and manage the proposal writing process, including quality assuring inputs

from other colleagues.

•  Work with the charity’s External Affairs team to promote our consultancy services, including

presenting at relevant professional conferences and events to promote the work.

Stakeholder and Project Management

•  Steward positive relationships with clients and senior stakeholders, ensuring high levels of

client satisfaction.

•  Project manage the consultancy projects, ensuring that the projects are delivered to a

high quality, on time and within budget.

•  Coordinate and project manage team members who are working on consultancy projects,

ensuring that projects are delivered to a high quality.

Wider Work

•  Across the charity, we all pitch in to help different teams and areas of work. This may mean
you attend and support with the delivery of other teams’ activities and events. From time to
time, you may also work with another team for a fixed period of time or collaborate on a
project to ensure we deliver for the young people we serve. We think this is a good way to
gain experiences in different areas of the organisation and enhance your professional skills.

Person specification

Research and Evaluation

•  Advanced quantitative research skills and experience of a range of evaluation

methodologies.

•  Experience of qualitative research methodologies.

Time and Project Management:

•  Excellent organisational skills, with an ability to prioritise and manage your own time

effectively as well as managing other colleagues’ work.

•  Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent

projects.

•  Ability to work as an enthusiastic and collaborative team member, with the ability to lead

cross-team project delivery.

Business Development and Stakeholder Management:

•  Ability to identify consultancy opportunities and produce compelling bid proposals.
•  Ability to scope out and understand the evaluation needs of different stakeholders (e.g.,

Universities and other education organisations).

•  Excellent ability to steward external partnerships, ensuring their needs are supported and

opportunities to grow our impact are found.

Communication:

•  Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. The ability to explain complex

research and evaluation concepts to audiences with different levels of prior knowledge.

Initiative and Problem-solving:

•  High level of attention to detail and commitment to ensuring research is conducted to the

highest standards.

•  Ability to identify risks and solve problems especially in relation to stakeholder

management.

What comes next
To apply: Please submit your application by clicking here. As part of your application, you will be
asked to submit your CV and complete the answers to some application questions.
Deadline: Sunday 15th February 2026, 5:00pm
Interviews: First round interviews: Thursday 19th February 2026, Second round interviews: Thursday
26th February 2026.  Interviews will take place virtually on Microsoft Teams.
For more information: Visit our website or email recruitment@thebrilliantclub.org.