Advisor, BIT UK: North Permanent: 39 hours per week Salary range: £27,000 - £41,000 per annum, plus benefits Based in Manchester One year fixed term contract, with the possibility for extension

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is looking for an exceptional candidate to join as an Advisor working in our new office in Manchester. The successful applicant will work on a range of projects in a wide range of policy areas including: health and social care, skills and education, organisation development and waste and recycling. Each of these projects will require the Advisor to develop ways in which behavioural insights can be applied to policy problems.

BIT UK: North’s founding partner is the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, who we are working with to embed behavioural insights across Greater Manchester. BIT North is developing a portfolio of work across the North West and the successful applicant will have a key role to play in developing this work.

The Behavioural Insights Team

The Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of Government policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which their people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn’t worked before; and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

The company today spans three continents but has the same relaxed and non-hierarchical office culture as it did when it was a team of just eight employees. Though our origins are from within the UK government, staff at BIT today come from countries across the world. We regularly eat lunch together; play sport; and socialise outside of work time.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff on the basis of cultural fit: all our staff believe passionately in our company values: always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Manchester office opened in May 2016 with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) as our foundation client. The Manchester team currently has 2 full time members of staff and we work very closely with the London office. This is a great opportunity to help shape the existing programmes of work as well as create and grow a vibrant regional office delivering significant social impact with a focus on the North of England.

As an Advisor you will underpin a wide range of projects providing expert advice and project management. You will likely lead aspects of projects working to a Senior/ Principal Advisor, and will also undertake discrete pieces of work (such as literature reviews or scoping out various aspects on projects).

You will get regular exposure to a range of senior stakeholders and be expected to actively contribute to company development. Most of our Advisors have a Masters degree in a relevant subject (economics, psychology or similar) and prior work experience in either a policy or consultancy role.

Key projects may include:

• Supporting the design and implementation of interventions to: reduce missed appointments for cancer screening; help people with long term conditions manager their own health better; improve staff morale and engagement amongst public servants and/or support adults who are out of work to find work.
• Designing evaluation methods for trials to increase recycling rates
• Designing communication materials

Essential

• An understanding of the behavioural science literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex policy problems;
• Ability to support the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials;
• Good program and project management skills;
• Excellent written and verbal communication (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Government Ministers or senior officials);
• Strategic thinking and creative problem solving;
• Strong teamwork skills ¬ - as a part of a small team you will need to be reliable and willing to take responsibility for the small details of projects, meetings and daily routines; and
• Experience developing or delivering government policy (for example, having worked in government or in public sector consulting).

Desirable

• Masters in a relevant subject area (including, but not limited to behavioural economics, psychology, design thinking, evaluation methods).
• Experience of working in a Local Government context