Senior Research and Evaluation Adviser

About us:

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world.

Within the Social Mobility & Widening Participation Department we believe all young people should be able to have high expectations for their future. This means equal access to education and career opportunities. We run programmes that aim to empower young people from underrepresented backgrounds to access and succeed at university.

About the role:

The Senior Research and Evaluation Adviser will work to position King’s College London as a sector leader on conducting institutional evaluation and research to understand how we can support students from underrepresented groups to access university and succeed at university. Our team generates causal evidence either through Randomised Controlled Trials or Quasi-experimental designs, as well as correlational and qualitative evidence.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in research and evaluation in an applied context, and who wish to use their skills and expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in generating and applying evidence to practice.

This is a full-time, indefinite post.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead on a range of research & evaluation activities, including synthesis of secondary research; conducting qualitative, quantitative and/or survey designs; developing and delivering randomised controlled trials (and other experimental trials as appropriate)
• Convey research findings, including complex quantitative information, in a clear and actionable way
• Develop and maintain expertise in research and evaluation methodologies
• Work with academics and practitioners to test and trial new approaches to widening participation and student success

About you:

Essential criteria

• Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in any research or evaluation job. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training
• Ability to select appropriate research designs and use qualitative and quantitative methods, including surveying, interviewing and running focus groups
• Ability to establish causal inference using experimental methods (e.g.  quasi-experimental methods, randomised controlled trials)
• Confident in conducting data analysis and statistical testing using relevant software (such as Power BI, R, Stata or SPSS) and presenting findings in various formats
• Ability to manage multiple research projects and deliver work to deadline
• Confident and clear written and verbal communication, including report-writing and presentation skills
• Ability to work with others to deliver project aims and overcome challenges
• Ability to coach or train others on how to undertake specific tasks and give clear direction on desired outcomes
• Ability to decide own pattern of work and manage workload and resources over a long period

Desirable criteria

• Postgraduate degree or qualification in research methods, statistics, analytics or a related field and/or relevant experience.
• Interest in using behavioural insights in a research or policy context to positively influence behaviour
• Interest in the widening participation agenda and the role of higher education in social mobility